Flower gardens add beauty and life to any yard or neighborhood, yet require effort and proper maintenance in order to thrive. However, maintaining them requires dedication from both you and the proper team.
Before planting your garden, always read and follow the planting instructions on seed packets or plant tags. In addition, avoid working the soil when it’s overly wet as this can damage its structure and harm its long-term stability.
Choose Your Plants
Choose flowers carefully when selecting perennial and annual blooms to add year-round color and interest in your garden. Consider their color schemes, sizes and year-round appeal as well as whether their bloom colors blend well with nearby shrubs and trees’ foliage. When making decisions for perennial and annual planting, keep color constant with perennials and annuals of differing blooming times, giving an array of bloom colors complementing each other and surrounding shrubs or trees foliage.
Establish your USDA growing zone to select plants suitable for your climate. Otherwise, selecting flowers which do not suit your region could result in their absence the following season.
Your target location for planting your flower garden should receive plenty of sunshine throughout the day; full-sun perennials and sunflowers tend to thrive in sunny spots while shade-loving irises and tulips thrive best in shaded locations. Aligning maintenance requirements of flowers with their planting sites is also key; for example, water-wise flowers thrive alongside others that prefer moisture while drought tolerant flowers fit best when placed among succulents or cacti.
Prepare the Ground
Before planting flowers or growing gardens in general, the ground must first be prepared. For most flower gardens this means removing existing sod or grass using a flat shovel and cutting horizontally through it from 3-4 inches below the surface ensuring you cut through as much of its root system as possible.
Once you’ve selected a site for your flower garden, monitor its sun exposure throughout a typical day to assess how much light is getting to it. Most plants require full or partial sun for proper blooming; without enough light exposure, their blooms won’t be as vibrant.
Next, loosen the soil using a shovel or garden rake before mixing in some well-rotted manure or compost to enrich its nutrients and improve drainage, both of which are key factors for keeping plant roots healthy and preventing root rot that could quickly kill individual flowers and spoil an entire bed.
Lay Out the Bed
Mark the boundaries of your new flower bed before beginning to dig. Be sure that it receives enough sunlight, without being shaded by existing trees or structures in your yard, for optimal blooming conditions. It may be helpful to observe its progress over several days and note how much sun each hour receives.
When creating a bee and butterfly garden, look for native perennials which provide food to pollinators. Fancy hybrids may look nicer but do not produce sufficient pollen and nectar production needed to sustain local populations of beneficial insects.
If your flower beds will be within easy reach of your garden hose, installing some form of edging like a flat spade or half-moon edger would make maintaining the boundary between lawn and flowerbed easier; and you could choose from various materials when creating these borders.
Plant the Flowers
Once your garden has been planted, it will require regular care. This depends on which flowers you select as well as their specific growing requirements – including sun and water availability – though most flowers typically only require basic upkeep such as regular watering and weeding.
Planting the right flowers will ensure your flower garden looks its best, whether you opt for formal beds with neatly edged beds or natural ones with sprawling, irregular clumps of plants. Annuals provide instant color while perennials will continue to return year after year.
Before digging, carefully read the planting instructions on the label of seeds or plants you have purchased. This will give you a general idea of how many of each kind to plant as well as necessary spacing between each kind. After planting, gently pat soil down around each plant until settled before watering thoroughly – avoid overwatering as too much will flood their roots or cause them to rot!