Addition of bird baths, trellises or seating areas can enhance any flower garden design. Also consider creating paths and access aisles to facilitate maintenance tasks more easily.
Reducing weeds and clearing away unwanted plants should be your top priority, while choosing perennial bloomers that bloom during both spring and summer can add lasting color.
Winter bloomers such as hellebores can fill any gaps that exist in your garden design, while still adding visual interest and filling any voids that remain.
Determine Your Soil Conditions
As the foundation for any flower garden, soil preparation is of utmost importance. Success begins long before planting even one seed – something you can accomplish easily within your own yard.
Most flower varieties require well-draining soil. If yours is sandy or clay-like, amend it with organic material to improve drainage. A soil test can help you determine the most beneficial amendments for your garden.
Mix perennials and bulbs with shrubs and climbers for an all-season garden that blooms beautifully from spring through fall, ornamental grasses can add height, texture and visual interest. Even smaller gardens can support ornamental grasses for extra height, texture and visual interest. Consider including plants like rowan or crab apple trees that attract birds as well as shrubs like Hebe and Hawthorn that provide fruitful shelter to insects.
Determine Your Garden’s Shape and Size
Flower garden design styles vary significantly and it’s essential that you select one that works for you and fits in with the overall size and aesthetics of your garden. Along with considering this aspect of it all, take into consideration any special considerations, like considering its maturity when matured.
Full-sun flower gardens should include an array of colors, sizes, textures and focal points such as trellises, bird baths or benches to add visual interest all year long.
If your flower garden is brand new, begin by clearing away grass and preparing the soil. Next, create a drawing of your site that shows its approximate shape – be sure to include house and other structures for reference! Finally, choose an area for planting using a tape measure for precise measurements.
Identify Your Planting Needs
Your chosen location for growing a garden will play a big role in deciding the types of flowers that will thrive there, including marigolds and nasturtium which thrive well under full-sun conditions while simultaneously growing cool-season vegetables such as cabbage or broccoli.
Make sure the location you choose is within easy access of your garden hose for simple watering of plants, since having to walk far into flowerbeds just to water them may prove challenging.
If space permits, succession planting is an effective strategy to extend your crop season and harvest favorite flowers throughout the growing season. Simply plant successive crops at regular intervals so as to harvest your flowers regularly throughout the growing season.
Create a Planting List
As you start planning out your flower garden layout, create a list of plants you intend to include. This can serve as a useful reference point when shopping for flowers; just be mindful not to get sidetracked into buying things that don’t belong in your plan!
Garden planting lists can be as straightforward or elaborate as desired, with beginners starting off by selecting perennials and annuals that are easy to grow and thrive in their local climate. Shasta daisies and black-eyed susans bloom all summer long to fill out your garden in full color throughout its bloom period.
At world-renowned garden designer Piet Oudolf advises taking shape as the starting point when planting your flower garden. By selecting perennials with unique shapes, an engaging contrast and depth will result.
Choose Your Plants
Start planting by choosing some show-stopping focal flowers as well as filler plants, such as roses or tulips that make an eye-catching statement in your flower bed, then surround them with smaller, airier blooms like snapdragon or feverfew to complete your design.
Experienced flower garden designers use an assortment of flower colors in their gardens. Additionally, they group plants based on bloom time so no area of the garden will lack color once one flower finishes blooming for the year. Another way of adding contrast is using combination plants with different foliage that creates an organic and less-curated aesthetic in your garden.