Like an artist’s blank canvas, a flower garden provides you with the chance to craft your own masterpiece. Explore color combinations and sunlight levels before finding suitable plants for your yard.
Select an area that gets plenty of sun and has access to irrigation systems. Clear away grass and weeds before adding compost for soil enrichment.
Design
An attractive flower garden adds vibrancy and curb appeal, yet even veteran gardeners may need guidance when growing blooms for maximum impact. There are certain steps you should follow to guarantee blooms you grow make a positive statement about you and your environment.
Make a decision as to the purpose of your garden before choosing plants for it. From creating an expansive foundation garden with vibrant hues to filling walkways with flower explosions or creating an island flower bed, choose plants to achieve that objective.
Add interest and variety to your garden by mixing plant heights, colors and textures. Landscape designer Matt James asserts: “Variety keeps gardens engaging; additionally it can prevent flat, boring looks.”
Consider including shrubs for structure and four-season interest that will fill in gaps where other flowers might fade, such as flowering shrubs with easy repeat blooming or those offering foliage and fruit production. Trellises or arbors can add focal points that draw the eye throughout your garden space.
Soil
Flower garden plantings thrive best in fertile soil. Sunlight and water are essential elements for success; aim for your flower bed to receive 6 or more hours of direct sunlight per day for optimal success. You could also select an easily accessible location so you can access it using your garden hose when watering your flowers.
When choosing your flowers for planting, always choose those native to your growing zone as these will be hardy and won’t require as much care than exotic varieties. Also choose blooms that attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds as this will encourage their pollinators populations.
Make the most of the season in your flower garden with an eclectic mix of annuals and perennials to keep it blooming all season long. Foliage flowers such as nasturtium and clovers act as green manure to improve soil quality, and adding some buckets of bokashi compost before starting digging will loosen soil while helping roots absorb more nutrients more easily.
Planting
Planting a flower garden can be an enjoyable and fulfilling hobby. Start small and expand it gradually as you gain experience. Before digging, make sure the label of plants or seeds suit the climate zone and soil conditions in which you reside; additionally, know the dates of any potential frost events so as to plant accordingly – otherwise flowers planted after frost has occurred may perish!
When planting, pay close attention to both color and texture. Gardens that combine similar hues like purple and yellow work particularly well together; similarly paired colors such as purple and red also look nice when placed side-by-side. Foliage adds structure as well as visual interest even after flowers have faded from view.
Experienced garden designers know the key to successful flower gardens is including both annuals and perennials with staggered blooming times, providing year-round color. When planning for winter structure and spring blooms, shrubs can help add winter structure; perennials add summer color; while flowering annuals take over in fall.
Care
Flower gardens are ongoing projects that need to be watered and fertilized regularly in order to promote plant health and survival. Remove spent blooms to keep things looking neat; doing this also encourages plants to put energy towards producing foliage that can sustain winter survival.
Your garden’s size and layout depend on personal taste, the landscaping around your home, and what kind of flowers you wish to grow. Common shapes for gardens include rectangular beds placed beneath windows; long beds along front walkways; or free-form beds with meandering pathways.
As you select a location for your garden, pay attention to how much sunlight the area receives daily. Annual flowers require at least six or more hours of direct sunlight each day; but even in partially shaded areas perennials and shrubs provide four-season color. When preparing the site for planting, remove rocks or debris, break up large clumps of soil, amend with compost as necessary and ensure healthy plant growth.