Flower gardens can bring color and joy into any home. The first step should be determining what types of flowers you wish to add.
Be sure to select flowers that suit the USDA growing zone where you reside, either online or through local nurseries.
Choose Your Plants
When planting a flower garden, it’s essential to know your plants inside out. “You must establish what thrives best in your climate and space,” according to Cowan. Once this is accomplished, consider what purpose the flowers serve: bouquets, cuttings or drying. If cutting them fresh for bouquets is your intention, select varieties with long vase lives that require minimal upkeep once in bloom.
Consider what color palette and texture you would like your garden to reflect, according to Cowan. “Creating an effective color mix” means combining sword-like gladioli with delicate lacy leaves of bleeding heart; or perhaps adding purple iris plants with variegated foliage into your mix.
Consider a plant’s maturity height when choosing its location. Make sure tall flowers don’t block windows or doors, while shorter maturation height species can fill in spaces between these taller species.
Prepare the Area
Selecting the proper plants is key to successful flower gardening, but more than just their colors and height are required for success. Each variety has unique growing requirements based on factors like sunlight exposure, soil type and water availability – for instance if space against your house is limited you may only have room for two brightly-colored zinnia clumps rather than four. Consider your entire garden’s mature overall size when making selections – including hardscape elements like trellises, pergolas or arbors as ways of framing and adding height.
Experts advise covering future flower beds with multiple sheets of newspaper before digging to kill existing grass and improve soil conditions, adding nutrients while killing existing ones at the same time. Experienced garden designers use strategic repetition of plant shapes or colors across their garden design for greater visual coherence.
Plant the Plants
As soon as you start designing your garden, there’s an almost unending variety of flowering plants to select. A great way to save money while getting access to an impressive selection is shopping seed catalogs in late winter.
Consider what your goal for the flower garden is; cutting flowers for bouquets or inviting pollinators such as butterflies and bees to pollinate it are both viable options. It is also crucial that you are aware of the soil conditions and climate zone of where you reside – not all flowers thrive equally well in each location.
Once you’ve selected your plants, prepare the soil by clearing away any grassy layers with a shovel or tiller and using recommended spacing on their labels or instructions from your garden supplier. Add mulch to prevent weed growth while helping flowers retain moisture. Deadheading (removing dead flowers from plants) helps redirect energy back towards producing more blooms while simultaneously keeping foliage healthy.
Care for the Plants
Maintaining an attractive flower garden requires some regular care to maintain its aesthetic appeal. Start by making sure the soil drains well, with plenty of organic material, avoiding digging when wet and using a drip system for consistent watering; mulch your garden beds as a final step to inhibit weed growth while also retaining moisture in the soil.
Maintain a regular deadheading schedule. Not only does this keep the garden looking neater and fresher, but it allows the plant’s energy to be directed toward producing new blooms.
Add foliage plants to the flower garden for year-round color and texture, including perennials, annuals and shrubs for four-season interest even in cooler climates. Be sure to plant bulbs in fall for spring flowering before perennials emerge fully bloomed; consider including climbers like sweet peas or dahlias for height.