Assuring the soil is prepared is first step toward successful gardening. Dig up and discard any weeds or grasses; add garden compost for further enrichment of soil quality.
Design with color in mind. Shades adjacent on the color wheel look good together, and including both perennial and annual flowers ensures there are always blooms in your garden.
Plan the Layout
Once you have decided upon which flowers will comprise your flower garden, it’s time to get down to designing it. Step one should be deciding the size and shape of your bed.
Draw out your layout on grid paper or use a garden planner (like this one). When considering dimensions and shading conditions in your area, take note of fixed items like trees or buildings as well as existing plants you wish to retain.
Experienced flower garden designers select plants that offer year-round color and structure in their design, such as shrubs with spring flowers that bloom into winter interest, perennials that flower all season long, as well as fall-blooming annuals. Additionally, foliage variety and texture add dimension and keep the space visually interesting even when plants aren’t blooming at full force.
Select Your Plants
Your choice of flowers for your flower garden is ultimately up to you; however, experienced garden designers usually prioritize showy plants as focal points and year-round color that staggers bloom times. When selecting plants for your garden’s soil type, size, sun exposure requirements or specific color preferences.
Planting height is also important. Taller plants should be planted near the back or center of a flower bed, with medium-height plants situated between and short plants at either of its edges or front edges – this creates depth, visual interest and ensures all plants receive sunlight.
Piet Oudolf, a world-renowned Dutch garden designer, advises gardeners to pay attention to the shape of each plant in relation to other shapes in the garden. He suggests planting flowers with similar silhouettes together such as spires and plumes, buttons and daisies, globes and umbels, screens and spires or screens and spires. Also pay attention to foliage that often remains even after blooms have faded.
Prepare the Soil
If your flower garden project will be an extensive one, take the time to remove existing grass before beginning work on any new beds or adding additional ones. Check with local authorities regarding potential underground utility lines before digging.
For optimal flower blooming, they should be placed where they will receive maximum sunlight. Too little light could result in sparse blooms with no visual appeal while too much could lead to leggy woody growth that doesn’t bloom well.
Know the full mature size of each plant you select so that they will fill their designated space without overtaking neighbors or blocking sightlines from your home. Color also plays an integral part in design – flowers next to each other on the color wheel (e.g. pink and red flowers) tend to complement one another well; try including at least three similar plants per variety in your flower garden design to achieve a pleasing, cohesive appearance.
Planting
Created a flower garden requires some planning. Familiarize yourself with your local USDA growing zone to ensure that any plants chosen will flourish in your yard.
Knowing how much sunlight a planting site typically receives daily can also be useful, since it’s easy to underestimate how much exposure an area receives and ultimately decrease its performance as a garden.
Choose plants that complement one another in terms of color, height and foliage texture. Also take into account any desired scents as well as whether or not pollinators attractants are present.
Make sure that when planting your flowers, you have ample mulch available. Mulch can keep soil moist while cutting water usage by as much as 15% when added weekly. Avoid working wet soil as this can damage its structure and make it less conducive for flower roots; at the same time, don’t plant when soil conditions are too dry as this makes absorbing moisture more difficult for roots.