Flower Gardening Basics

Flower Gardening Basics

A flower garden is a place of creative beauty, relaxation, contemplation, rest and play. No matter how constrained you are about space, money or time, designing a flower garden can be done effectively and beautifully. This simple overview of flower garden basics will help you to start on this enriching endeavour, express your creativity, get closer to nature and enjoy a truly flowering experience.

Here are some practical tips on how to start your fascinating and exciting adventure of setting up a colourful and lively flower garden; from selecting a spot, preparing the soil, selecting your flowers, designing your garden, and planting your flowers.

To begin planting your flower garden, choose a sunny spot that gets direct sunlight the whole day or at least for half a day till noontime. A slight slop is okay too, but avoid a steep hill for your first time planting a flower garden, as it can be cumbersome and challenging.

Soil Preparation

The next step would be preparing the soil. Loosen the soil and mix organic matter into it. Organic matter consists of decomposed materials such as compost, old rotten leaves, well-aged stable manure, spent mushroom soil, or whatever materials you have available locally at reasonable cost or in your daily trash. Additional an abundance of soil organisms, from earthworms to fungi, provide needed nutrients to plant roots and keep your flowers healthy.

Garden Size

While deciding the size of the flower garden, it's not always how big it is that matters. If it is your first time planting a flower garden, start small so that it is more contained and manageable. The choice of expanding is always there once you have succeeded in building a healthy and colourful flower garden.

Once all the preparations are done, you can start thinking about how you want your flower garden to look; what kind of garden design and style you prefer, how colourful you want it to look, the mood it should emanate and the backdrop your flower garden should have.

The big question that arises then is selecting the flowers to grow in your flower garden. This will not only depend on the gardener's own personal tastes but more importantly on growing conditions, style of the flower garden and other similar practical conditions. Try to pick as many native flowers as possible for best results. It is fun to plant flowers, watch them grow and see your efforts come to fruition. But it is critical to quantify how much time you have to spend on maintaining your flowers, and your flower garden, as even low maintenance plantings require regular care. Ensure that you keep some time off every week to take care of your flower garden.

Growing flowers is pleasurable and a flower garden is a like a dream. The whole process of flower gardening can be addictive and exciting. Keeping your flowering plants and flowerbeds well cared for can ensure colourful as well as beautiful results and lead to a truly enjoyable experience.

This season is therefore a boon for garden lovers, since there are any number of plants which are created just for fall flower gardening!

Some features of fall flower gardening are listed below--

(1) Why fall flower gardening at all? The (annual) flowers can be planted during autumn itself. Those dwelling in places with colder climates will have to plant the flowers before fall, and wait to enjoy their color and fragrance during the autumn.

Every year, there could be a different time period that seems appropriate for fall flower gardening. This then would be an ideal time for growing flowers. (4) There is another choice available--an entirely new flower garden can be started just before autumn.

When the summer season comes to an end, local garden centers offer those plants which could not be sold during the spring season, at discounted rates. Once the weather turns cooler, the same plants can be transplanted into the outdoor garden.

(5) Fall flower gardening can include annual plants as well as perennials. Annual flowers are tender and may survive for a briefer period than perennial flowers. Perennial plants are sturdier and able to tolerate early frost--so their flowers can be enjoyed for a lengthier period of time.

(7) Fall flowering garden can include plants that grow vegetables too. As a matter of fact, ornamental peppers exhibit wonderfully colored flowers and fruits. (8) Some popular flowering plants are--perennial asters that blossom every fall, year after year, and pansies; pansies bloom during the fall, winter and spring seasons.

(9) Some exotic and colorful additions to the garden can be attempted if the gardener so desires. Nasturtiums (give out orange and yellow flowers). 
Marigold (give out yellow, gold and orange flowers).

(11) Perennial plants come in a vast range. There should be no mistaken belief that creating a garden full of flowers is an easy task. Any outdoor activity should be acceptable to the surrounding ecosystem; so also flower gardening. The suggestions listed below should help you to grow healthy plants--

This division will allow you to note which plants can survive in which zones (seed packets or flower guides carry this information), and you can purchase the appropriate flowers for your garden.

(3) If you are unsure about the type of plants you need to pick for your flower gardening, take the help of garden guides and catalogs. (4) Some of the tips given concern having a mix-and-match garden that displays flowers and plenty of colors all year round! The "early" ones and "late" ones can grow in side-by-side rows, to exhibit alternate blooming times. (5) Though most plants have green leaves, there are some with silvery-colored leaves. (6) Before actually starting on your flower gardening project, keep aside a book as a gardening journal. Fill in all the details like--the location of your garden, its proposed shape, the flowering plants that you wish to have, a rough arrangement of the plants, and so on. Over a period of time, this journal becomes a "chronicle" of your flower gardening efforts!

(7) Are you planning to have a container garden or a purely outdoor garden? Again, all plants cannot be grown inside containers.

(8) If it is going to be an outdoor garden, the soil has to be tested first with the help of a soil testing kit. Loam soil (equal amounts of clay and sand) is the best for flower gardening.

(9) Now that you chosen the spot for your garden, start digging. Grass cuttings or peat moss help to increase water retention capacity if the soil has too much of sand in it. For acidic type of soil, add lime.

Compost goes into the top soil (about 6 inches), along with a general-purpose fertilizer (10-20-10). 
(12) Do not start planting your flowers as soon as you have finished adding ammendments. Give them time to enter the soil and spread all across the plot designated for your garden. Ensure a distance of 3 feet between the plants and any buildings/fences. Large bushes should maintain a distance of 5 feet from your plants. A layer of 2 to 3 inches of mulch should remain around the plants all the time, especially during the growing seasons.

Weeds can prove detrimental to your garden. All that you need to do to make a success of your flower gardening project is to keep the soil quality in top condition. For example, plants like rose and garlic are beneficial to their companions in the garden.

Put in potting soil or starting mix. Sow the seeds. The pots rot away and the plants get "attached" to the natural soil by their roots.

The soil therefore gets enriched with vitamins and other nutrients. Its fertility is enhanced, enabling plants to grow healthy.

If your garden soil contains too much of sand, compost will help to retain water. If there is too much of clay, the compost enhances the soil's capacity to drain well. And of course, plenty of nutrients get into the soil with the help of this organic manure.

(18) Finally, how do you prepare your own compost for your flower gardening project? Fill it with whatever organic wastes that you can get--lettuce leaves, tea leaves, coffee grounds, banana peels, grass clippings, shredded branches, hay, chopped leaves, garden plants that are free of disease and have finished their season, straw, weeds, shredded papers and newspaper. Once the pile has attained 6 inches in height, use finished compost or soil or manure to cover it. Repeat the process of alternate layers of organic materials and finished compost/soil/manure. This compost has to be mixed with soil before planting flowers. It can actually be used in any way possible--as mulch, soil amendment or potting soil.

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