Flower gardens can add color and beauty to your landscaping, but before beginning planting it is vitally important that the soil be prepared appropriately.
Garden designer Dan Hinkley suggests paying careful attention to sun and water requirements when designing a garden. Incorporating plants with similar shapes for an even look without “clown pants.” Don’t forget that foliage plays an integral role!
Choose Your Site
No matter if it’s for curb appeal, fragrant herb gardens or pollinator habitat gardens; the first step should always be deciding where your garden will go and thinking through its purpose and goals.
Flower gardens add beauty and structure to a landscape, as well as providing shade from trees and shrubs in small spaces of your yard. From single flowerbeds wrapped around mailboxes to full front or backyard flowerbeds, flower gardens bring life and color into any yard landscape.
Keep this in mind as you plan your site: to ensure its success, a flower garden requires regular care and maintenance. At minimum, this includes watering regularly and regularly pulling weeds. For optimal growth of your flowers, irrigating occasionally and applying fertilizer according to product labels are also helpful in keeping fungal diseases at bay; preventive fungicides such as Daconil Fungicide Ready-to-Use or Daconil Concentrate may be effective options here.
Select Your Flowers
Flower gardens add beauty and vibrancy to any yard, making the experience memorable and enriching. For your garden to thrive, choose flowers which thrive in its particular conditions – for instance perennial blooms require full sunlight; those prone to drought should water between rainstorms to keep plants from drying out too rapidly.
Color should also be taken into account when choosing flowers. When making selections, consider color schemes that complement existing plants in your landscape or the colors of surrounding trees; adjacent colors on the color wheel such as pink and red work well together; foliage provides texture and visual interest even after the blooms have faded away.
Be mindful when selecting plants – particularly large-flowered varieties – of their mature size when selecting your selections, to ensure that the plants don’t overrun each other or obscure windows or doors.
Prepare the Soil
Flower gardens add elegance and depth to any landscape, and creating one is easier than you may think. With proper planning, even novice gardeners can craft stunning gardens.
An essential factor for the success of your flower garden is the soil. Plants require moist yet draining soil that offers sufficient nutrition. If your soil falls short of these criteria, amending with organic material such as compost can improve its quality significantly.
Make sure that the area receives sufficient sunlight for your flowers to flourish. Placing them under an oak tree might seem like an appealing idea, but most of their day will be shaded by its shaded branches preventing enough light reaching them for them to flourish and the tree roots competing with yours for water and nutrients. Measure how much sun an area receives by taking measurements during various hours each morning and afternoon of direct sunlight directly hitting them.
Plant Your Flowers
When planting your flower garden, be sure to select seeds, plants or transplants suitable to the climate zone and soil type in which you live. Certain flowers such as succulents and hydrangeas thrive best in dry, warm locations while others like annual tulips and dahlias require full sunlight all day long – seed packets or plant tags offer helpful information regarding maintenance needs.
Plant flowers that share similar requirements together to minimize maintenance. Staggered-bloom perennials like peonies and lilies provide continuous color, while brightly-hued annuals like impatiens and zinnias can fill in between perennial blooms.
Trimming spent flower heads encourages plants to use energy from its leaves in preparation for winter survival, and pulling out dead foliage helps the garden look neat and tidy. Debris and dead leaves should also be removed so as to maintain moisture in the soil; additionally, beds should be regularly watered so as to promote flower health and keep weeds at bay.