Flower gardening has long been a passion and can become an enjoyable pastime, yet there are several factors that should be taken into consideration before beginning your first garden.
Make sure the area where you choose receives adequate sunlight. Most flowers thrive best in full sunlight; however, some can survive under partial shade as well.
For full season blooms, combine perennials with annuals. Annuals are easier to grow and offer quick color!
Choose the Right Flowers
Step one in creating your garden is selecting which flowers you’ll plant. According to Shea, “it is important that you are familiar with your growing zone and the types of flowers which thrive there”. This helps ensure your flowers will survive and flourish well within your garden environment.
Next, choose whether annuals or perennials will make the best addition to your garden. Perennials can return year after year; while annuals typically bloom once and produce seeds before passing away all at once. “Perennials tend to be easier to maintain as you can simply trim away faded flower heads to keep them tidy,” according to Wiley.
No matter if it be annuals or perennials, consider color combinations that appeal to you when selecting annuals and perennials for your garden. Flowers in shades of the same hue, like pink and yellow, make for striking combinations in any garden. Flowers planted at opposite corners create visual tension and balance as do tall hollyhocks or low-growing alyssum whose height complement each other nicely. Colorful foliage such as kale or columbine also brings an interesting dimension even when not blooming.
Choose the Right Site
Flower gardens can add beauty and joy to any landscape, and are an easy and rewarding way to start gardening. Before beginning digging, it is crucial that you select an ideal location and prepare the soil in advance.
Search for an area in full sunlight that remains free from shade throughout the day, then remove any grass from that location and till to loosen and disperse clumps of roots in that space.
Once your site is prepared, add compost and balanced fertilizer to provide your flowers with all of the nutrition they require for healthy blooms. Be careful only to work your soil when dry; wet conditions could compromise its structure and decrease its capacity to support plant growth.
Finally, plan out your garden layout and think carefully about how you will utilize its flowers. For instance, if your goal is a cutting garden, select flowers with long vase life that also do well as cuttings.
Know the Plant’s Needs
Many flowering plants need full sun to thrive, meaning six or more hours of direct sunlight daily. If the area you have chosen doesn’t receive that amount of light, only certain kinds of blooms will thrive there.
Flowering plants tend to thrive in soil that has been amended with plenty of compost. Remove grass, weeds and debris from your chosen site before digging in compost for your flower garden.
If you opt to start your flower garden from seed, read carefully through seed packages or nursery descriptions regarding its needs for planting and watering dates, sowing indoors before transplanting outdoors at an ideal time in your region. When purchasing plants from garden centers instead, be on the lookout for signs of health such as any signs of damage, sap build-up or roots clinging onto their containers that look wilted, damaged or sticky with sap; avoid these plants altogether as these could be potentially diseased and should be discarded immediately.
Water
Behold the beauty of bees relaxing on your blooms is one of gardening’s greatest joys! To encourage their visit, grow bee-loving plants such as agastache, columbine, bee balm and asters in groups so that bees don’t need to visit all individual flower plants on each foraging trip. And plant in drifts so bees don’t have to visit each individual one individually while foraging for pollen!
Your garden should be watered regularly enough so that its soil remains moist, but not saturated. Soaking wet soil encourages evaporation which dries out your flowers more quickly than necessary. Furthermore, avoid working the soil when too wet as this compromises its structure and could harm its ecosystem.
At planting time, add organic matter into the top 6-8 inches of soil to improve its texture and increase moisture retention. Compost, shredded leaves or coconut coir and well-rotted manure all help the soil retain moisture more effectively than other methods; watering at least an inch every week should help you achieve maximum success – marking down its bottom level on a can makes this easy to manage!