Whenever planting a flower garden, try to get as much advice and information as possible, to get an insight on different gardening ideas. Seek advice from gardeners, get advice from different nursery owners about the best plants that should be planted in a garden, consult other flower garden owners on layout, and visit different flower gardens to pick on the dos and don'ts. One common mistake people tend to do while gardening, is not providing ample space for the plants. This leads to cramped space for surrounding plants, and can also hamper the natural growth of the plants. It is important that you not only consider the surface ground area, but also the underground plant area that will be used by the plants and tree roots. Many plants propagate very fast, and hence can destroy other plants. Such plants should be avoided, or planted in a certain specific areas of the garden and should be regularly pruned. Here are the basic stages of creating a flower garden.
Ideas for Creating a Flower Garden
Deciding the Layout of the Garden
This is the most important step when making a flower garden. Draw a top angle layout of the space you will be using for the flower garden, on the layout mark out the space for lawn, your residence, and unmovable trees and other objects. This way you will know how much area you need to work on. If you wish to be precise in your flower garden landscaping ideas, you can measure the free area in square feet, and write it down on the layout.
Make few photocopies of this layout, to try out different combinations of the flower garden. On different copies workout the placement of different flower bushes, bushes for fencing, stand alone flower or trees, and hardscape elements like fencing, walkways, benches, etc. This way you can decide a well planted design for large or small flower garden. Show the copies to experienced gardeners to get a second opinion and then decide on a final copy.
Adding Fencing & Other Elements
Before you start with any softscape elements to your flower garden design like flowering shrubs or bushes, plant the hardscape material. This includes structural material like fences, walls, pavings, walkways, benches, an outdoor sitting area, etc.
Stick to the above layout plan to install the hardscape elements. There are variety of choices of the hardscape materials, like you can go for a brick wall, stone or a concrete wall for a sidewalk, and metal black colored fencing or traditional white wooden fencing. You can also add some decorative hardscape materials like a water fountain or a garden pond.
Choosing the Flowering Plants
Always try to go for most number of native flowering plants, as they have already adapted to the soil and weather conditions and are easier to grow. Avoid too many colors of plants, as this might spoil the look. Select flowering plants which look good and inviting, and have flower colors which are not very vibrant. Choose plants which you can plant in sunny sites, and plants which require shade or partial sun.
Select half the plants which bloom with flowers in summer, and the rest that bloom with flowers during fall. This way you can enjoy having flowers in your flower garden year round. For ground cover, consider a lawn or plant small plants which grow evenly for a height of 1 foot. Consider the individual soil, watering, space, pruning, mulching, fertilizer requirements of the plants well, to plant and care for your flowering plants.
So, remember to seek advice on gardening, and form a layouting plan of the flower garden, for a well-planned garden. And, select the right and beautiful looking flowering plants, and enjoy blooms during both seasons!
