Flower gardens can add color, texture and fragrance to your landscape. By including an assortment of annuals, perennials and shrubs in your planting plan you will create four-season interest and provide four seasons worth of beauty!
Choose plants with similar care requirements to make maintenance simpler. Shade-loving flowers make an ideal companion, while drought-resistant varieties go well with those requiring additional watering.
Layout
Once you’ve decided where your flower garden will go, create a layout to visualize its size and shape. This also ensures that all of the plants chosen will fit seamlessly in their designated space without competing for sunlight exposure or crowding each other out.
Remarks: Set out garden edging or stones around flowerbed boundaries to create defined areas and keep grass and weeds from overshadowing blooms. Also consider adding hardscape elements like trellises or arbors draped with flowering vines as focal points that draw people in and add visual interest to the landscape.
Experienced flower garden designers know to incorporate plants with staggered bloom times into their gardens to extend the beauty of their designs through all seasons. By mixing up plant heights, colors, textures and forms they also add depth. And to provide year-round color if your flowers don’t bloom all at once add showy foliage plants for year-round color when your blooming flowers don’t.
Soil
Your soil may need amending depending on the plants you want to cultivate; most flower plants prefer well-draining loamy soil with plenty of drainage holes and organic material that improves drainage while increasing soil nutrients. A soil test will help identify its pH level and any amendments necessary.
Once you have your garden design in mind, it’s time to begin prepping the site. Remove existing grass with either a shovel or spade; forks and long-handled stirrup hoes also provide useful digging tools.
Next, loosen the soil to prepare it for planting by loosening it. This will make planting flowers easier, and they’ll flourish better during their growing season. Loosened soil also encourages deeper root penetration by giving roots access to more oxygen – ideal timing is early spring before ground temperatures warm up!
Planting
As soon as it’s time to plant your flower garden, the real fun begins! First step should be determining its location and making sure it receives sufficient sun. Some plants such as lush hydrangeas and stunning sunflowers prefer shade in the morning and afternoon hours; others, such as hollyhocks, climbing nasturtiums, and sweet alyssum bloom best under constant sunshine all day long.
Once your site and soil are clear, use garden edging materials like landscape stones, bricks, wood or even plastic bottles and large seashells to define its borders and make for easy weeding and water drainage.
Assuming you’re planting either an island or border garden, start with tall plants in the center before gradually transitioning outward towards shorter twigs and flowers along the edges. Each perennial needs plenty of room to grow; make sure there is sufficient room so weeds don’t take over your blooms!
Care
Make sure your flowers are well-fed by adding compost and organic materials regularly, such as an annual soil test to assess whether their flower beds need specific amendments with nutrients for their chosen species. Furthermore, keep them clear of weeds which compete for resources and harbour pests that can harm growth.
As most flowers require at least six hours of direct sunlight daily, ensure your garden receives this amount. If your flower garden is situated in an area with lower lighting conditions such as part-sun or shade, consider planting low light-tolerant species.
Plan your flower garden before beginning, making the task easier and more rewarding. Take into account factors like bed size and shape, underground utility lines nearby and access to water; climate-specific plants thrive while needing less maintenance; using landscape edging can add the finishing touch while keeping things neat and tidy.