Flower gardens can add vibrant accents to your home. Consider adding some annuals that bloom, seed and die within one growing season for continuous color throughout your yard.
Donna Hackman, an award-winning garden designer retired, recommends selecting flowers with repetitive forms for rhythm and simple care requirements. To ensure your flowers flourish properly, pay attention to:
Location
Location for a flower garden depends heavily on how much sunlight it gets; many varieties require full sun while others can tolerate partial or even shade. Give yourself time to observe any prospective areas before planting so you know it has enough sun.
Color plays an essential part in creating the overall aesthetic of your garden, so using a color wheel as a reference point to select complementary hues for flowers and foliage is important.
Be mindful that maintaining a flower garden includes tasks such as weeding, pruning and spraying for pests. Placing flower beds closer to the house will save time by cutting down on trips back and forth with the hose. Consider creating a pathway through your flower beds so you can move around without accidentally trampling plants; adding even something as simple as gravel can add beauty and personal flair.
Soil
Every flower garden requires the ideal soil type and condition in order to thrive. When planting in waterlogged or clay soil, your flowers may be more vulnerable to diseases and fail to reach their full potential. One easy way to test soil quality is to squeeze a handful of dirt between two fingers – if it doesn’t crumble easily it means the density and compacted nature is too great for healthy root development.
Shea advises amending soil with sand, compost and volcanic rock to prevent clumping and promote drainage. He further advises avoiding peat-based soil due to it being limited resource and harvesting it may damage natural habitats.
Design a flower garden using perennials, annuals and shrubs to provide year-round interest and color. Be mindful of their individual sun/water requirements as well as bloom time and fragrance preferences when choosing perennials, annuals and shrubs for your design. Choose flowers that attract pollinators species like bees, butterflies and hummingbirds to turn your garden into a pollinator-friendly habitat; repetition of shapes/colors/sizes creates a more cohesive design aesthetic.
Sun/Shade
Flowers don’t thrive everywhere, and the amount of sun or shade in your environment will dictate which varieties can grow successfully. Research your USDA growing zone to make sure you choose perennials suitable to your climate as well as annuals that work alongside them.
Create a map of your garden, noting the spots where the sun rises and sets throughout the day. Spend some time watching how it moves so that you have an understanding of where to plant full-sun perennials such as roses or petunias; shade loving flowers like impatiens and cleome will do best.
Once you understand your site conditions, assess the maintenance needs of each plant in a flower bed. Group those that share similar requirements together; for example drought-tolerant varieties with water-wise ones. Finally, to keep weeds under control install a layer of mulch before beginning planting; this not only keeps weeds away but helps retain moisture levels as well as protecting from frost damage.
Water
Flowers need healthy soil to flourish in your garden. Most flowering plants prefer deep, loose, well-drained loam. Dig a garden bed at least one spade deep and add compost or organic material such as mulch to improve it further.
Once your flower garden has been established, its maintenance requires regular watering and removal of weeds as they arise. Furthermore, deadheading faded blooms will need to be done often while perennials will need cutting back at the end of each growing season.
Implement a variety of colors, heights and textures into your landscape design for visual interest throughout the growing season. Include shrubs that offer structure and four-season interest – evergreens with twisty forms and colorful bark are an example – as evergreens with twisty bark will do well in your climate zone and produce vibrant flower gardens you’ll enjoy all year long – not to mention that they may attract beneficial insects such as bees and butterflies that pollinate nearby!