When designing your flower garden, be mindful of its colors, bloom time, foliage and additional attributes like pollinator appeal. Also ensure the flowers you select thrive in both climate and soil conditions.
An attractive flower garden offers year-round enjoyment. Arrange the plants according to their water and sun requirements for easy maintenance.
Location
Success of any flower garden depends on its soil, so be sure to conduct tests and prepare it before beginning planting. Next, map out your area and estimate how much room there is and how many plants fit within.
Consider bloom times when choosing your garden plants, too. Perennials like peonies and irises usually bloom late spring while annuals such as zinnias, cleome and impatiens flower year-round for extended bloom times in your garden. A garden featuring blooming plants of various seasons adds dimension and beauty.
Repetition is as essential to flower garden design as location is to real estate agents; repeating colors, shapes, and plant species across your bed gives it continuity and cohesion. Also consider including evergreen shrubs and foliage that provide winter interest as part of your plans.
Plants
Care of a flower garden depends heavily upon its composition. Choose plants that thrive in terms of both sunlight and soil conditions of their planting sites – full-sun perennials will quickly die when planted in shaded beds, while those preferring moist, slightly acidic soil may struggle in drier spots or sandy ones.
Consider including shrubs in your plantings for four-season interest and structure. Grouping them behind perennials or annuals with flowering stems adds visual texture that softens the overall look of your garden, according to master gardener Piet Oudolf.
Wiley advises selecting perennials with long blooming periods or repeat-blooming annuals to provide color throughout summer and fall, or repeat-blooming annuals that provide year-round color, for optimal effect. Native species will help support bee, butterfly, and hummingbird populations in your area.
Foliage
Before selecting plants for your garden, take time to consider their foliage as well. According to Shea, “Leaf color adds interest and texture even when no flowers are blooming; additionally it helps tie together a garden.”
Before planting flowers in any given space, decide the height you would like their mature height to reach and plan the placement accordingly. When planning placement of mature-size plants in relation to other plantings in that space.
Retired flower garden designer Donna Hackman advises keeping paths between flower beds wide to protect the delicate blooms beneathfoot and add layers of mulch, which inhibit weed growth while improving soil health – 6-8 inches is optimal.
Containers
Size, type of soil and your planting goals all factor into flower garden layout ideas; however, some design principles remain universal. One such principle involves clearly outlining boundaries using garden edging so as to prevent grass or other plants from intruding on your flower beds.
Experienced flower garden designers take into account the year-round beauty of a garden by adding shrubs for winter interest as well as perennials and annuals that bloom all season long. Furthermore, they take into account flower sizes at maturity, staggered bloom times and color combinations when designing the space.
Attaining lushness with flowering plants requires regular watering. Soak the base of each plant with water so they receive enough nourishment without over-watering; avoid spraying. Deadheading faded flowers regularly can also promote continuous blooms.
Lighting
Garden edging and hardscaping used to define borders will prevent grass and weeds from invading flower beds, providing structure for their display and adding interest to any design scheme. A backdrop such as your home wall or fence provides additional support while adding visual interest and adding structure for their display.
Consider the mature height of each plant when selecting flowers for your flower garden. Alternating taller and medium-height plants throughout a garden with shorter and medium-height ones adds depth and creates visual interest in any outdoor space.
Repeated colors, shapes and textures provide consistency across the space when designing a flower garden. A combination of blooming flowers will add seasonal interest, while evergreen shrubs add year-round interest. Finally, adding low maintenance trees and shrubs can further define and structure the landscape.