Establishing a flower garden can be both exciting and satisfying. But to be successful at it requires proper planning.
Consider five elements when planning the layout for your flower garden: Location, Soil, Light, Water and Foliage. Doing this will help ensure its success throughout its season-long beauty!
Location
As with any garden, location is key. A flower garden tacked onto an unplanned landscape looks unintentional at best and disconcerting at worst.
Flower garden plants require rich, loamy soil with plenty of organic matter for healthy development and blooming. Most blooming flowers require full sunlight (six or more hours daily) so consider choosing a site which provides enough direct sun light.
Experts advise avoiding shaded gardens, as even showy plants tend to wither quickly in such an environment. Planting around tree bases also poses unique challenges for gardening as shade limits sunlight available to flowers.
Soil
Soil composition plays an integral part in determining what and how many flowers can grow in your garden. Many flowers require slightly acidic soil conditions; therefore it would be wise to amend your garden dirt with compost or manure for maximum success.
Test your soil to see if it is suitable for planting. Look out for spots with adequate drainage that drain well while remaining loose and full of organic material.
Before digging begins, be sure to carefully survey your area for buried utility lines. This step is especially essential if you intend on creating an expansive or permanent flower garden, since a bed that lines up with utility lines will make maintenance difficult. Mark off this line using a shovel, spade or half-moon edger before commencing digging activities.
Light
Flowers that thrive in gardens typically need six or more hours of direct sunlight each day in order to bloom at their full potential, though partial shade exposure will have less of an impact on blooming potential. Where possible, however, full sunlight should always be chosen as it provides optimal conditions.
Strive for a balance of foreground and background flowers to add both structure and visual interest in your garden. “You want something eye-catching like an explosion of color or something to catch the eye, while still providing tranquil areas that don’t yell out at you,” notes Wiley.
Consider how your flower beds will appear from both inside and outside your house, as well as from public areas like porches and patios. Consider terracing steep slopes to protect soil erosion and make suitable locations for growing a flower garden.
Water
Just as important as location is soil as the foundation for any successful garden. Avoid planting flowers where the soil drains poorly as this could lead to root rot and other issues in your flowers.
McConnell recommends watering garden beds about one inch each week to work with plants’ natural growth cycles and ensure they’re adequately hydrated when the sun returns in the afternoon to bring warmth back into their lives.
Try repeating colors, shapes and flowering seasons across your landscape to achieve a visually engaging garden that remains captivating throughout its blooming period. Also add flowers that bloom at different times so as plants fade, new splashes of color will emerge to fill their place.
Foliage
Foliage plays an equally essential role in creating the overall effect of a flower garden as its color, according to world-renowned garden designer Piet Oudolf. According to him, foliage “can be the star of any combination and help keep a garden interesting long after blooms have died away”.
As part of your flower bed design, keep the colors of the leaves and stems of each flower in mind when creating an arrangement. Flowers with complimentary hues such as pink and purple work well together for example.
Once you’ve drawn your sketch and selected the ideal soil, lighting, and edging for your flower garden, get to work! Remember to regularly remove weeds as they can spread quickly and outshout flowers for space. Additionally, adding mulch or manure for additional nutrition might also help.