A key consideration when creating a flower garden is choosing flowers that thrive in your climate and soil conditions. Carefully observe where you plan to plant for several days so you know exactly how much sun hits that area.
Plants should be placed with height in mind; taller varieties should go at the back while shorter plants and ground cover are arranged in front. When choosing plant combinations rather than individual species, consider your options carefully before making your selections.
Design a Layout
Flower gardens add color and drama to any landscape, adding vibrant blooms of hue. While traditional gardens may have featured separate spaces dedicated solely to cultivating food plants for harvest, modern landscapes typically incorporate flowers into larger, more expansive spaces.
An effective flower garden design begins with a solid plan. No matter whether your goal is a traditional garden with neatly-edged beds, cottage-style gardens with meandering pathways, or perennial cutting gardens designed for bouquets – it is vitally important that your plantings are planned out carefully prior to purchasing plants to avoid overcrowding and moving the established plants once established.
Experienced gardeners take several factors into account when designing their gardens, including flower sizes and year-round interest, staggered bloom times (you don’t want your garden looking bare in summertime), foliage variation to add dimension and texture, and incorporating different hues for visual interest; although many gardeners choose one color scheme to maintain harmony in their design.
Determine Sun Exposure
Attracting sun exposure in your garden is key. Some parts may receive shade from trees or buildings while other parts receive full sunshine all day long – understanding this will enable you to select appropriate plants for your space. There are various apps available (Sun Surveyor and Sun Locator Lite are good examples) or you can hand sketch your area and record sun’s patterns throughout the day – repeat this exercise at different points during the year to better comprehend how sun’s position changes across a season.
Full sun plants require six or more hours of direct sun daily, while partial sun plants need less direct sun but prefer morning rather than intense afternoon sunshine. Finally, part shade plants still need sunlight but prefer cooler temperatures and less intense light sources than full and partial sun plants.
Pick Your Plants
Choose plants carefully when it comes to selecting flowers for your garden. Take into account factors like flower size at maturity, year-round interest and bloom time when making decisions.
Experts advise incorporating perennials and annuals together for continuous blooms of color from spring through fall. Incorporating some shrubs can add structure as well as four-season interest.
Be sure to include plants that thrive in your growing zone, as those which aren’t hardy could struggle in your garden and even die due to too much sun or cold temperatures.
Piet Oudolf, an internationally acclaimed Dutch garden designer, believes that arranging flowers by shape rather than color creates more balance and harmony in a garden design. He advises grouping similar flower shapes such as spires, plumes, buttons and daisies in groups of three to five. This helps tie together the entire design while making it easier for bees searching for nectar during foraging trips.
Create a Clean Edge
Marking the boundaries between lawn and flower beds helps your yard remain more organized and reduce maintenance time. Whether using garden hose or an edging material such as bricks or field stones, make sure this aspect of flower bed design is kept in mind when creating its layout.
Experienced garden designers also consider staggered bloom times and varied heights when planning flower gardens to provide year-round color and interest. This may involve including shrubs, tall perennials and lower-growing ground cover plants such as alliums, salvias, coral bells (heucheras) or veronica in their designs.
Before digging your flowerbed, sketch your garden design on graph paper for easy upkeep and maintenance. Stationery and art supply stores often sell graph paper with one-quarter inch squares; use two squares per foot of flower bed as your layout; just be sure to use a ruler to make sure all lines are straight!