A flower garden adds a great deal of variety and beauty to the landscape.
Many people find that laying out flower gardens is a very rewarding task.
And, while it is possible to create a very attractive flower garden without
planning it out first, it is much more efficient, in the way of saving time
and money, to make a plan for what you would like in your flower garden,
and to have an idea of where you might like some of the different flowers.
Then when you are ready to lay the garden out, you have a pretty good idea
of what to do, and you are not bothered with having to re-arrange things
to account for something that you may not have realized before.
The first order of business to determine when planning out your flower
garden is how many annuals and how many perennials you want. Annuals
last only one growing season, and therefore have to be replanted each
year. Perennials appear yearly on their own. If you have all annuals,
you can change your garden layout as you wish every year, and with perennials
you have the same layout (unless you wish to transplant all of your flowers).
However, it is possible to have a combination of the two, keeping the
perennials where they are each year and varying the charm of the flower
garden with a few different annuals in different placement.
Next, you should determine where you will likely place your flowers,
taking into consideration the comparative heights of the plants, what
time of the year they bloom, and what colors you will use. These things
all contribute to an aesthetically pleasing look to your flower garden — one
that implies order and beauty rather than looking ill-planned with some
plants looking wildly out of place. Also to take into consideration when
planning your flower garden: climate and sun exposure. Make sure that
all of the plant you choose for your garden will flourish in your region,
and that your garden is placed in a location that will allow the flowers
to receive a proper amount of light.
After you have determined what will go in your garden, it is time to
prepare the flowerbed. You should mark of the dimensions of your proposed
garden carefully. Using a garden hose to mark the boundaries is advisable,
as it is heavy and will stay in place, but it also provides the flexibility
needed to tweak the proposed shape of your garden. After you have determined
on your boundaries, you need to strip the enclosed area down to the topsoil.
This can be done using a shovel for smaller gardens and a sod cutter
for the larger sections.
After getting down to the topsoil, you should loosen the dirt by prying
up a section with a shovel and then turning over the dirt. This loosens
the soil and provides a good place for flower roots to establish themselves.
You can make improvements to the soil but adding organic materials such
as peat moss, mulch, compost, or manure. You should probably also roto-till
the area to better mix the soil amendments in with the original soil.
Next, use a rake to smooth out the soil without packing it down. Create
your border with plastic edging, concrete, stones, or by digging around
the edges, angling the soil down and creating a gap between flower garden
and lawn.
After you have prepared the bed for the garden, acquire the flowers
you would like to use. Seeds are less expensive, but you will not be
able to see the final result until they spring up. If you purchase flowers
in containers, set the containers, with their plants, in the places in
the garden that they will inhabit. Then you can get an idea of what the
garden will look like. If you need to move the flowers around for greater
attractiveness, it is simply a matter of moving the pot around until
the garden looks as you wish it to. After you have settled that everything
is in place, begin removing the flowers from their containers and placing
them in the ground, beginning from the back and working up toward the
front.
