Flower gardens add color and vibrance to any yard, and can quickly become full-season blooming displays with perennial flowers.
No matter whether it is propagated cuttings, seedlings or bulbs that you’re planting, flowers need rich loam soil in order to thrive and direct sunlight of at least six hours each day for best results.
Location
As part of your garden design process, the first step should be identifying an appropriate site for planting your flower garden. Most blooms require full sunlight for optimal development so look for somewhere with at least six hours of daily sunshine exposure.
Consider also how easily you will be able to maneuver around the flower bed. If it will be difficult for you to walk through or access the garden, adding a walkway may make things simpler and make the garden more accessible.
Flowers come in all kinds of hues and shades, making it easy to craft an eye-catching landscape by mixing and matching blooms. Experiment with texture by planting coarse foliage like marigolds near more delicate blossoms such as groupings of marigolds. Also consider including blooming plants at various intervals so as one fades, another takes its place and blooms with gusto!
Soil
Soil is an intricate network of mineral and organic material, water and air molecules which interact in amazing ways. To thrive, soil needs the care it deserves in order to achieve maximum productivity.
One of the first steps in creating a flower garden is preparing its site. This involves clearing away any existing grass and amending the soil with organic matter such as compost, leaves or manure to enhance structure and fertility of your soil.
Knowing your local climate zone is also key, as this will affect which flowers thrive best in your yard. For instance, in regions prone to frost-driven freezing temperatures such as those found in Alaska and Canada, plants like hydrangeas may not do well and need special consideration.
Sunlight
Most flowers require sunlight to flourish. Spend a few days monitoring the spot where you intend to create your flower garden and observe how much light it receives throughout the day – full-sun areas are preferred, though some species of flower also thrive in part-shade or shaded locations. If your choice of location has little direct sun exposure, perennials or shrubs could provide excellent solutions.
Ideally, if you are planting a flower garden on an area covered by grass, first clear away all sod and prepare the bed for gardening. Add compost to the soil along with ingredients like mulch, sand and volcanic rock (perlite or vermiculite) in order to avoid clumping and promote drainage. Experienced gardeners frequently incorporate flowers with staggered bloom times into the design to provide blooming all season long while adding plants that grow more slowly over time gives the garden a more cohesive appearance.
Water
Flowers gardens require more than soil and sunlight in order to thrive; they also need water. While the amount of water required depends on weather and soil type, gardeners generally should aim to keep the top 6 inches moist at all times – which may require frequent watering during hot, dry weather but less so during cool, wet periods.
Once you’ve created an area to plant flowers in, determine how much sunlight or shade the bed receives throughout the day and select appropriate perennials and annuals accordingly. Shade-loving perennials like hosta and heuchera thrive best under filtered light while plants with longer blooming periods like gladiolus or iris benefit greatly from full sun.
Experienced flower garden designers aim to design gardens with year-round interest and staggered bloom times. To achieve this goal, they employ the thriller, filler and spiller formula–placing taller plants in the back while filling in with smaller flowering plants balanced by small flowering annuals and providing color through annuals. In addition, shape and texture considerations such as using shrubs such as Ligustrum, Nandina or Loropetalum provide structure as well as evergreen foliage.