Flower gardens provide an outlet to express yourself creatively and show off your personality. Before beginning one, however, it’s essential that you consider all aspects of the environment, particularly sunlight levels in your garden bed.
Expert flower garden designers understand that creating an eye-catching garden depends on incorporating perennials, annuals and shrubs that bloom from spring through fall – with color being another consideration.
Choose a Location
Start by selecting an area in your yard where you would like your flower garden to go; locations might include rectangular beds beneath home windows, long beds lining walkways or entranceways or rows of flowers surrounding vegetable and herb gardens.
Your garden’s location will have a major effect on what type and amount of care it requires. Sunny spots are great for blooms that prefer full sunlight while shaded areas provide shelter from morning and afternoon sunshine.
Another key consideration in selecting your location should be soil drainage. Too wet of soil could limit how much water your flowering plants receive and cause their premature demise. Testing soil can reveal its drainage speed so you can make any needed improvements if required.
Think About Bloom Times
Flower garden designers with experience incorporate plants with staggered bloom times into the design, keeping their landscape looking vibrant from early spring until frost in autumn.
Add long-blooming perennials and annuals as workhorses in your garden, along with showy trees, shrubs and vines that provide year-round color, flowering trees/shrubs as focal points in the landscape, winter interest via hedging/evergreens/ornamental grasses with colorful bark or twisty limbs can extend your flower display well into winter months.
Consider which colors you want to incorporate in your garden and their relationship on a color wheel. Shades of the same hue, adjacent colors on the wheel and even those across (such as purple and yellow) tend to work well together.
Choose the Right Plants
Flowers add colour and life to any garden, so choosing the appropriate mix is vital to its success. There is an almost limitless array of options, so take time when selecting them, including researching flower sizes at maturity, bloom times and any additional benefits such as fragrance or pollinator attraction.
Once you’ve narrowed down your options, think carefully about how your floral landscape will complement its surroundings. If your yard has lots of green grass, a flower garden with predominantly shade-lovers may look out of place.
Before choosing any flower varieties for your garden, review their recommended spacing recommendations in order to ensure their optimal growth. Most perennials require 12-15 inches between plants in order to thrive; taller varieties should be planted at the back and shorter varieties at the front for visual interest and reduced competition for visibility between them.
Take Care of Your Flowers
Flowers reflect our caretaking practices directly. Remember that most blooms prefer loose, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter for optimal conditions. Remove grass and weeds from flowerbeds before adding compost as an amendment for maximum growth potential.
Take note of each plant’s sun and water requirements before grouping flowers that share similar needs together. This will prevent overwatering, shading or shading as well as reduce fertilizer requirements.
Perennials provide your flower garden with stability and ease the task of replanting every spring, but annuals can add vibrant hues. Consider mixing plants that grow tall with those that stay short. Also experiment with texture and shape by pairing fine and coarse foliages together, round and spear shaped leaves as well as solid and variegated colors. When completed, your beautiful garden will captivate everyone’s gaze!