Flowers add beauty and interest to any landscape, but cultivating one takes careful planning – starting from choosing a site and prepping.
Familiarize yourself with your USDA growing zone and select plants that thrive there, including different heights, colors and textures to add visual interest throughout all four seasons. Add shrubs for structure.
Location
Picking an ideal location for your flower garden is key. It should accommodate the plants you select while providing ample sunlight exposure.
Ideal gardens should have areas that are well-draining; drainage rates can differ depending on soil type; poorly draining dirt can quickly become waterlogged and unsightly, which requires testing with a soil test kit in order to assess its pH levels (ideal flowers thrive best in slightly acidic soil, with pH levels between 6.5 and 7.2).
Once you’ve located an ideal spot for your flower garden, the next step should be planning. As a beginner, keep it easy and manageable if this is your first attempt at gardening; common layouts include rectangular beds under home front windows; long rows of perennial flowers lining walkways; or curving garden beds that add an organic element to landscape design. To maximize space usage and maximize growing potential, place taller plants nearer the center while shorter plants around its edges.
Soil
Flowers thrive in loose, well-draining soil that’s rich with nutrients. Garden centers and hardware stores commonly carry nutrient-dense sandy loam soil mixes for this purpose, or you can mix your own by mixing in compost and well rotted animal manure to enrich its texture and nutrient profile.
Unroll your sleeves, and get digging! A shovel, garden rake and trowel are essential tools for loosening soil, making holes for planting and smoothing hard patches in the garden bed.
Start with transplants or seeds – when selecting annuals and perennials that bloom throughout the season, choose annuals that bloom throughout the season when starting from seeds; sow sunflower seeds every two-three weeks until frost date and sow zinnias, cosmos basil gomphrena gomphrena every six-eight weeks until last frost date for continuous color. They should self-seed themselves into your garden year after year! For an attractive manicured appearance trim spent blooms so your plants focus their energy on developing new foliage and buds instead.
Water
Flower beds can add beauty and life to any landscape while drawing pollinators into your area, but new gardeners may find them daunting. Selecting an appropriate location, planting the appropriate soil mix and watering regularly are essential components of their success.
As part of your planning, keep climate and sunlight exposure in mind when designing a flower garden. Hydrangeas require full sun to thrive; those that do best in areas that get at least six to eight hours daily of direct sun should place these blooms.
Make sure your flower bed is within easy reach of your hose to make watering simpler, and avoid areas with standing or pooled water that could potentially harm the flowers’ stems.
Keep the distance between flower beds and structures such as your house, utility poles and other structures such as utility poles as small as possible in order to prevent accidental tripping and stepping on them. It is also a good idea to group together flowers that have similar care requirements–drought-tolerant ones should go with similar drought-tolerant flowers, while perennials that do well in shade should go together with similar perennials that thrive under shade conditions.
Pruning
Flower gardens bring color, beauty and pollinators to any landscape while adding a sense of security and serenity to the home. However, selecting and planting appropriate blooms may seem intimidating at first.
Prior to selecting plants for your garden, carefully consider its purpose. Is it an area for cutting flowers for bouquets, or should it be low maintenance? Do you require blooming season from early spring through frost, or do you prefer an informal mix of colors and shapes in an informal garden setting?
Being familiar with your growing zone helps ensure you select flowers suitable for the climate where you live, and also gaining knowledge of your area’s first and last frost dates helps create an easy planting schedule. Furthermore, possessing knowledge of pruning techniques guarantees you use only effective measures to keep your garden thriving and healthy.