Flowers bring life and color into any space – from beds lining your front walkway to loosely planted perennial cutting gardens. When designing a flower garden, take into account color, movement, fragrance and foliage for four-season interest.
Step one in creating a flower garden is selecting an optimal location and size. After clearing away grass, outline it with landscape edging.
Choose Your Site
As with landscaping trees or patios, flower gardens need to be placed strategically to be successful. A poorly planned flowerbed thrown into random corners looks unfinished at best and chaotic at worst.
Professional flower garden designers use soil as their canvas, selecting plants that adapt well to the conditions in their garden site – for instance if it will receive direct sunlight it is important to include flowers that thrive under this type of sunlight in their design plan.
Soil quality should also be taken into account; flowers thrive best when planted in slightly acidic soil with sufficient levels of essential nutrients. A soil test is an invaluable way to understand your garden’s composition before you plant, and determine any amendments needed to keep the flowers happy and healthy.
Prepare the Soil
At the core of every successful flower garden lies excellent soil preparation. To do this right, beginning well before any digging or planting takes place is sheet mulching (aka “sheeting”) of your chosen area with several layers of newspaper; allow this process to decompose into nutrients for your soil as part of its transformation – this step should be carried out at least a year in advance for optimal results.
Flowers thrive best when planted in full sun conditions in well-draining soil with ample drainage, in an environment protected from wind. A sheltered location also helps.
Choose a combination of colors and shapes for a dynamic flower garden design. Grouping flowers with similar water and sunlight requirements together makes caring for them simpler, as you can give each the exact conditions they require without overwatering or underwatering them. Flowers offering added features, such as fragrance or attractive foliage, should also be taken into account; adding shrubs as structure adds four-season appeal.
Plant the Flowers
After you have determined the size and style of your garden, dig holes for each plant according to its recommended spacing in its flower bed. This will ensure they grow healthy and large with proper form.
Fill your flower beds with perennial and annual varieties that you prefer, selecting perennials for long-term blooms and annuals for quick color and ease of maintenance. Combining both options will ensure an abundance of beautiful blooms throughout the summer and fall seasons.
Remind yourself to keep your flower beds clear of weeds and grass after planting, especially after you remove wilted or dead blooms and regularly trim flower plants to encourage their energy into producing new blossoms and keeping the garden looking neat and tidy. Also make sure that paths between flower beds are wide so as to not accidentally run into plants while walking through.
Care for the Flowers
An attractive flower garden takes more than just planting beautiful blooms at strategic spots – you must also ensure the soil is healthy enough for their roots to flourish, meaning preparing and amending the bed with compost or organic matter to provide ample nutrition for plants.
Experienced flower garden designers typically utilize both perennials and annuals in their designs for year-round color. Perennials often bloom for shorter durations than annuals but provide long-term beauty; annuals can fill any voids caused by perennial wilting during the summer or fall seasons.
A successful garden design incorporates both height and color elements, including shrubs for structure and foliage and flowering trees for height. Remember to plant fragrant flowers that last longer, with breezes helping spread their scent into the home, notes Hinkley. Furthermore, regular pruning and deadheading will keep the garden looking neat and tidy.