Whether you have 50 or 500 square feet, the prospect of cultivating a beautiful flower garden should be both enjoyable and fulfilling. A flower garden is a canvas teeming with creative opportunities. Personally, I wouldn't consider myself particularly "artistic," but I always tell people that the garden serves as my canvas, a space where I coax the artist within me to emerge. It's a therapeutic escape (even though a bed of withered roses might throw me into a whirlwind), and an excellent form of exercise!
So, if you're ready to turn that bare spot in your yard into the next masterpiece, join me as I guide you through the steps...
Define Your Flower Garden Theme
There are numerous ways to approach your canvas, and it entirely depends on you. There's no right or wrong here. I particularly enjoy grabbing a chair in the gardening aisle of the local library or bookstore.
Immerse yourself in images of English gardens; their timeless beauty is always a delightful sight. Alternatively, delve into the dreamy world of intricate Japanese gardens that inspire serenity. Or use my next suggestion to create your flower garden theme.
Plan Your Flower Garden Layout
Once you know the direction you want to take your masterpiece, grab a sheet of graph paper and some colored pencils to sketch it out. Many of you might want to try a handy tool; I found one called "Plan-a-Garden" on the Better Homes and Gardens website. You can outline your house and other structures on the site and then draw the layout of your flower garden around them. Pay attention to whether the areas you want to use receive full or partial sunlight, or if they are mostly shaded, as this will drastically alter the types of flowers and foliage you can plant in beds.
Be specific on the chart. If you have a 4-foot (1 meter) bed space next to your garden shed, you might only have room for four clumps of giant pink cosmos. After all, even Michelangelo had only so much ceiling to paint in the Sistine Chapel.
Plant Flower Seeds or Purchase Flower Plants
There are two ways to bring actual flowers to your flower garden, and they don't have to be mutually exclusive. If it's still winter and you have ample time to bring vivid colors to your canvas, you might want to save some money and start with seeds. The diversity of colors, textures, heights, and habits of flowers in seed catalogs today is absolutely incredible. Buying seeds is one of my favorite things to do at the end of winter, and watching tiny seeds grow into something magnificent is an experience everyone shouldn't miss.
Construct Your Flower Garden
Roll up your sleeves and those of any helpers you can find! This is where the magic truly happens. You've planned, you've shopped, and you've waited for that first warm day of spring. It's time to get dirty! Shovels, soil rakes, and trowels are essential for loosening the soil and poking holes for each plant.
Adding some well-rotted manure and compost to the soil is almost always a good idea, but be sure to do this a week before planting to avoid shocking the plants.
Determine what type of soil, sunlight, and water each plant likes, and then consign the fate of sunflowers to a shady spot behind the garage. If you have a wet, slow-draining area in your yard, like I do, check that any plants you choose don't love a swamp. Note the quirks on the canvas before planting, so you can save yourself trouble later!
Enjoy Your Flower Garden Design
What makes a flower garden so astonishing is that it's always changing. Its colors and patterns never seem to be the same as yesterday. On a chilly spring morning, you might decide to start this painting afresh. Goodbye yellow cauliflower! Or maybe you just want to add some alyssum here, some yarrow there. It's a continuous creation, and you really can't go wrong.
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