Whether it is beautiful blooms, lush greenery, etc, flowers will brighten up any garden throughout the seasons. There are also infinity of colors, sizes and shapes!
No matter what type of flowers you are into, and what kind of climate – miniature annuals such as sweet alyssum or lobelia, spectacular delights such as peonies and colossal zinnias along your front steps, or perennials for your mailbox – a flower garden can be built for you!
Climate
A flower garden has many benefits: not only does it beautify your garden, but you will be able to benefit from a place of mental relaxation through the medium of meditation. Furthermore, gardening preserves the world around us since plants photosynthesize to provide oxygen which reduces carbon dioxide in the air.
Flowers were worth the time and effort in the 18th century, as Caroline Bell (1831) proved, when she spent so much of her time and energies painting her little patch of greenery. Flower gardens were unlike vegetable or fruit gardens in that their major role was functional; flower gardens could be situated close to houses, so that their pretty flowers could be enjoyed by window or door.
Think about the location of your flower garden: some shrubs and perennials such as vigorous hydrangeas like best in shade, while flashing sunflowers and drought-tolerant succulents need full daytime sunlight. For the hardscape elements in your garden design such as pergolas and trellises as the centrepieces and structures beds.
Soil
Soil must be very rich and fertile for flower gardens to promote healthy growth and flowers of all hues. When it’s time to plant, apply a multi-purpose balanced fertiliser such as Pennington UltraGreen All Purpose Plant Food 10-10-10 and mix a compost mixture into the top 6-8 inches of soil for best results.
Look for annuals and perennials to get the most out of the season. Perennials do not flower quickly whereas an annual flower should be replanted on a regular basis to keep their appearance.
Flowers that adapt also thrive around garden ponds and streams, with jets and fountains to decorate and draw the eye. You will need to refill the water and clean it on a regular basis and pull up any weeds that do get too large in the garden – weeding hoes and spades work fine for this. Don’t work the soil if it is too wet, as this will weaken the soil and be a disaster for roots.
Light
The need for sunlight to produce lovely gardens: low or shade species require just a couple of hours of direct sunlight each day while others require at least eight.
A plant with poor sunlight needs to be stress-tested by smaller blooms, reduced longevity and yellowing foliage – and clumsy stems. Once this happens it might have to be moved somewhere else. In that case it should be shifted before any further damage is done to it.
If you’re on a budget, you can invest in landscape lights that will create visual interest and dimension in your flower garden. Use coloured LED lights to bring certain parts of the garden into view; strings are lovely draped around palm trees, water gardens, or yard statues such as gnomes and frogs. Even single flowerbeds can be highlighted.
Water
Flower gardens need regular maintenance from its gardeners: watering, weeding and deadheading. Remember to keep your soil types in mind as well as the moisture levels of the plant; annual flowers such as cosmos and Zinnia will require frequent watering while Achillea or Hydrangea are perennials.
Flower gardens are also very different to vegetable gardens because the primary purpose of a flower garden is aesthetic, not functional. Several nineteenth-century treatise authors suggested to homeowners an aesthetic style of flower-growing that was appropriate to the house’s form and location, and that had associative meanings.
If constructing a bed, apply all-purpose mixed fertilizer with a top layer of organic matter. Don’t till too wet because this destabilizes the soil and leaves it less hospitable for roots.
