An outdoor flower garden provides the ideal canvas for colorful creativity. Start by researching plants that thrive in your climate zone, and plan out an attractive design plan tailored specifically to your space.
Flower gardeners know the value of creating staggered bloom times to add interest throughout the seasons. Consider perennials for summer blooms and low-growing annuals for fall blossoms.
Choose Your Plants
Flowers add vibrant color to any landscape, while complementing other plants beautifully. However, there are several factors you should keep in mind before planting a flower garden.
Step one in creating your flower garden should be selecting which varieties of blooms you will grow. Variety is key to keeping things interesting while creating an extended blooming season.
An important consideration when planting flowers in any environment is climate and sunlight requirements of that area. Do your research on climate zones within your region, and select flowers which thrive under these circumstances.
Piet Oudolf, renowned garden designer, suggests when creating your flowerbed that it is important to consider shape. Different flowers create visual interest when placed alongside each other and should play off against each other, providing visual interest for viewers. A flower color wheel can help guide you in selecting appropriate shapes; focal flowers typically take the form of disc-shaped roses while filler blooms are more open and airy in appearance.
Prep Your Bed
Flower gardens add color and beauty to your landscape while also serving as habitats for pollinators species. To get the most out of your flower beds, ensure they are maintained properly by regularly removing dead blooms, pruning where necessary and regularly monitoring for pests. It is also beneficial to mulch them so as to suppress weeds while keeping soil-dwelling insects at bay from your blooms.
Additionally, make sure your flower bed receives enough sun. Most flowering plants prefer six to eight hours of direct sunlight each day; if this cannot be met in your yard, consider creating a shade garden instead or opting for plants that thrive in part shade conditions.
If your garden bed is brand new, start by clearing away any noxious weeds or larger sticks or debris, before layering on compost – adding it when soil moisture levels are ideal so as to add the optimal benefits.
Prepare the Soil
Your choice of soil will have an enormous effect on how well flowers flourish, with most preferring loamy, well-draining conditions. Conducting a soil test is essential to providing your flowers with adequate nutrition; mix extra organic matter and coarse sand into clay soils that compact quickly to lighten their texture; amend sandy soils that tend to be low in nutrients with compost and/or manure amendment.
For gardening with sandy or clay soil, creating raised beds may make the task easier. Cover each bed with two to three inches of compost or shredded leaves and then rake the surface neatly to maintain moisture and suppress new weed growth. Renew this compost layer annually while layering on thick mulch helps retain moisture and suppress additional weeds that might otherwise thrive.
Plant Your Flowers
If planting into an established flower garden or bed currently covered with grass, or digging holes to be filled by transplanted flowers (check with specific plant for recommendations), dig holes that are at least as deep as their root ball before placing plants into soil and watering as necessary.
Strive for a mix of annuals and perennials with different flower sizes, colors and fragrances – repeat key shapes or colors so as to provide visual continuity in the garden design.
Once your garden is planted, take steps to maintain it by regularly pruning dead stems to promote new growth and controlling weeds. Make sure the flower bed is within easy reach of your garden hose so you can water on a regular basis without uprooting or damage delicate flowers and foliage. Consider installing hardscape elements like pergolas or trellises as focal points that help define and distinguish each flower bed for easier gardening and reduce overwatering issues.