Lately I feel like I should retitle this blog "Montana Succulents and Coleus." In many ways the two are not similar. Succulents generally grow slowly, need gritty soil, and can be neglected for weeks. Coleus grow quickly, take "regular" soil (whatever that means), and need to be kept watered. But I haven't potted many succulents lately and have been potting coleus. One way they are similar is they are both easy to propagate. And with Coleus cuttings, you see the results much quicker than with succulents.
Here is a generic Coleus I planted on the north side of the house in the ground to see (a) how much it will grow before it freezes in September and (b) whether the deer will eat it. These are two major factors in whether I will plant Coleus in the ground next year. This plant was raised from seed and is expendable because it doesn't have any color besides green.
The downside with Coleus is they are tender perennials and there are no hardy varieties. I do want to plant some more hardy perennials in the ground, and need to conduct some experiments succulents such as Sempervivums, Sedums and Delosperma to see if they can survive in our new tree-covered berm. The surface is covered with a couple inches of rock, then there is landscape fabric, and some generic dirt under that. I'm not sure how to go about it, but what I should do is SOMETHING and see if it works. The slope and the rocks suggest to me that it should drain well enough for succulents to survive and someday thrive. The 'Berry Blues' and 'Appletini' Sempervivums in the big grow bag in the greenhouse have quite a few offsets, and a couple of them might be ready to explore on their own.
We have rock "mulch" in the border around the house, the berm, and the border around the shed, although the Amish who prepared the gravel bed for the shed did such a good job that it is almost impossible to dig a hole in it. It is like concrete. I have 15-gallon grow bags (currently with sunflowers) behind the shed, and that might be the best I can do there. A large percentage of what goes outside has to be caged because of the deer. I have become expert in building cages out of wire fencing material. We could plow up some of our south lawn for a garden BUT whatever we do needs to be deer-proofed. In other words, an 8-foot fence. And we have a short growing season, June to early September. Now I remember why I bought a greenhouse last year. It is off site so isn't entirely convenient, but it extends the growing season and keeps the deer out of the tomatoes.
As a result, I have all this stuff that I have grown in pots in the greenhouse (and the house/garage). I do want to see how much of it can escape to the outside and perhaps escape the pots. In addition my 20 varieties of hardy succulents, I am trying perennials such as Shasta daisies, Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan), Monarda (Bee Balm), Echinacea (Coneflower), strawberries, Oregano and other hard herbs, and others.
The Coleus and other tender perennials/annuals such as Supertunias, tomatoes and other vegetables are part of the process, of course, but the more that can be put into hardy perennials is less work that has to be done in the future. At least that is the theory. There always seems to be something that needs to be done, whether annual or perennial.