It’s time to savor the warm weather and glorious sunsets of summertime on the East End. After the seemingly endless bitter cold and snow we endured here this past winter, it’s time to unleash our inner beach bum. One way to make the most of summer this year, even when you’re not at the beach, is to create your own little tropical paradise at home.

In summer on the East End we revel in color, from the sea and sand, of course, and from the flowers that fill gardens everywhere. A big flower garden can be a lot of work, but you can get a lot of dazzle for not a lot of work with two classic summer flowers that you can plant in spring and enjoy in summer.

Peonies. Maybe you’ve never heard of them. Maybe your grandmother grew them. But if you don’t have them in your landscape or flower garden, take another look. They bloom for just a few weeks in spring, but oh, what flowers! Big, round, sumptuous balls of wide petals in so many shades of red, rose, pink and white, with a beguiling sweet fragrance. They rule the garden, and they make wonderful cut flowers, too.

Winter is the perfect time to assess your home landscape to see if you are happy with the way it looks and functions, or if there is room for improvement. Planning now for changes or additions you want to make in spring puts you ahead of the game. You can consult with landscape and design professionals to zero in on changes you want to make, then get your project into their schedule before the spring rush hits

Evergreens bring color and form to the winter landscape when flowers are gone and other trees are bare and gray. Evergreens, as their name implies, stay green all year around. And they’re not just green. They come in vivid bright greens, deep forest greens, soft blue-greens, even bright gold.

The glorious days of autumn are upon us; summer heat and crowds are giving way to soft golden light and the celebration of the harvest season in farms and vineyards. For those of us lucky enough to be here in fall, there’s still plenty of color to be had in the landscape. Here are some great sources of color for fall landscapes.