Flowers gardens can add beauty and color to your yard, while increasing property values by as much as 12.7%! Studies show the power of flower gardens!
Before beginning to cultivate a flower garden, there are a few key considerations you must keep in mind. First and foremost is making sure the appropriate growing zones exist for your flowers.
Choose Your Plants
Flowers bring color, fragrance and beauty to any landscape. Not only can they attract pollinators, but their dramatic presence makes an instant impactful statement about its presence. However, curating an ideal garden requires taking into account key considerations like location, flower sizes, bloom time and year-round interest – and this can be challenging! To be successful when curating the perfect flower garden!
Once you know where your new flower garden will go, the next step should be selecting your plants. Sean Hogan of Cistus Nursery near Portland suggests “thinking in terms of plant combinations rather than individual species,” for an organic meadow effect in your garden. Mixing plant heights and textures adds interest while helping create a relaxed meadow atmosphere; low-growing annuals such as sweet alyssum, lobelia and impatiens can work beautifully front-of-the-border plantings while tall perennials like hollyhocks, sunflowers and cosmos work wonderfully alongside houses or along fence lines.
Make sure to include plants that provide winter interest, like hydrangeas and heathers. This will give your garden added beauty even in the off season when other flowers may not be in bloom.
Prepare the Ground
An ideal foundation for any successful flower garden begins with selecting the appropriate location and soil conditions, choosing flowers which thrive in your climate and environment, paying particular attention to how much sunlight reaches each area, and selecting loamy soil which drains well. Most blooms require full sun with loamy surfaces for best results.
If your soil is poor or sandy, improve it by mixing in an abundance of compost and rotted manure to enrich it. Before digging or planting anything new, loosen and till your soil before rake and tilling to loosen up and add additional material as necessary.
Beginners should plant after all risk of frost has passed for optimal success. When starting from seed, follow all instructions on the packet for care and timing to achieve stunning blooms in time for summertime blooming! For fast results try mixing perennials like petunias and geraniums into the mix along with annuals that provide quick color bursts.
Dig the Bed
Once your soil is ready, you can begin creating your DIY flower garden sketch. When shopping for plants, stick to your list in order to avoid becoming overwhelmed with choices. In order to maximize your purchases and ensure they work best within their proposed garden bed layout, arrange your purchases first on top of proposed garden bed before digging them in – this gives an idea of their final arrangement and how well it will function.
Mark the outline of your garden with spray paint or white flour and walk around the area, inspecting flower beds from all sides. This will enable you to assess whether paths or other features should be added that connect them to other parts of the landscape.
Understanding your location’s sun, wind and watering conditions will allow you to identify which flowers can thrive there. For instance, lush hydrangeas prefer morning sun with afternoon shade, while sunflowers and drought-tolerant succulents thrive best with full, direct sunlight all day long.
Plant the Flowers
Flower garden basics focus on cultivating flowers that combine colors, shapes and textures into an aesthetic landscape. When selecting bloom times and color schemes for each individual flower grouping, remember that annuals and perennials can create an ever-evolving floral display throughout the seasons.
Look for plants that will thrive in your climate, such as rhododendrons. A soil test will give an idea of whether your soil contains enough nutrient-rich soil for them to flourish and grow well.
When planting flowers, always follow the specific instructions of each seed packet. In general, seeds should be planted after all risk of frost has passed and after improving soil with organic material such as compost or well-rotted manure. When working the ground too wet can damage its structure and hinder germination – always plant at the appropriate depth and spacing as instructed for that particular variety of flower.