Flower gardens add color and life to any home, whether or not you’re an experienced gardener. No matter your level of experience or if this is your first attempt at gardening, it is essential that you know how to plan a successful flower garden.
Experienced garden designers prioritize providing year-round visual interest and staggered bloom times, to provide show-stopping focal points throughout each season. In addition, they consider the shapes of flowers when crafting an elegant arrangement.
Plan Your Layout
Flower gardens have the power to transform outdoor spaces into peaceful retreats. Whether gardening alone or entertaining guests, creating beautiful flower gardens is an effective way to create an environment ideal for relaxing and entertaining alike.
Planning is essential to the success of any garden. To avoid becoming overwhelmed by all of the options at a nursery or garden center, write a list of plants you would like to include before making purchases.
Planning a flower garden requires taking into account plant color and foliage texture. Some flowers feature cool hues like blues and purples while others can feature warm tones like yellows and oranges; to maximize visual appeal in your garden include both types of hues. Be sure to incorporate plants with various foliage textures like gladioli’s sword-shaped leaves or bleeding heart fern’s delicate, lacy texture into the mix.
Choose Your Plants
Flower gardens bring vibrant color into any landscape. Choose flowers that complement or contrast with the foliage of trees, shrubs and the surrounding yard. Perennial blooms may provide more long-term enjoyment compared to annual ones.
Are You Thinking About Plants That Attract Butterflies, Hummingbirds and Bees? Native species offer the greatest food source for local pollinators populations, which could make a garden that supports pollinators species more sustainable and beautiful.
Establish the bloom times of all of the plants you intend to include in your flower garden, so as to have blooming time spread throughout the season and ensure constant color.
At the beginning of every growing season, visit your local garden center and select plants that best meet your goals for color and form. Make a list before visiting, as it can be easy to get carried away when faced with stunning nursery pots! Once at home, clear your bed by clearing away grass, weeds and debris. When planting is complete, dig holes using either a spade or gardening hoe for each new plant you purchase.
Set Up Your Bed
Make sure your new garden bed, or expanding existing beds with flowers, offers full seasons of color by selecting flowers with multiple blooms throughout the season and foliage that provides color when not blooming.
Before planting, take a walk around your yard and determine the ideal spot for a new flower garden. Think about factors like sunlight levels and what species of plants would thrive there; perhaps having a map with marks for each kind of plant would also help.
Make sure your flowers fall within their USDA growing zone when selecting flowers, as plants outside this range could easily perish due to harsh weather. Be familiar with your area’s first and last frost dates so there are no surprises come springtime. Furthermore, ensure your garden hose can easily access it to save on maintenance time.
Take Care of Your Flowers
Once you have a clear plan for your flower garden, it’s time to put it into action. If starting from bare soil, this means preparing the garden by clearing away grassy areas and loosening soil layers before beginning planting.
After choosing your desired flowers for planting, consider factors like color combinations, show-stopping focal points and bloom times when making your selections. It is also essential to be familiar with your climate zone so as to select plants that thrive there.
Once your plants are planted in the ground, ensure their continued success by giving them proper care. Water your garden regularly to maintain soil moisture levels and fertilize as necessary to foster strong growth. In addition, remove dead foliage and weeds to make your flowers look their best! Finally, don’t forget hardscape elements like pergolas draped with climbing roses or trellises for vines as these will provide much-needed structure in your flower garden while complementing its blooms beautifully.