Flower Gardens
Grow something beautiful
The poet Keats wrote, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” There’s not much in the world to compare with nature’s beauty, especially flowers. A single flower is worthy of admiration, but flowers in mass plantings are spectacular. They’ve provided inspiration for artists and gardeners forever. If you have always wanted to grow flowers, now is the time to do it; you will be rewarded in the spring. Flower gardens are rewarding projects for novices, but while flower gardening provides visual delight, you can combine vegetable plantings with flowers, putting food on the table while creating a “thing of beauty.”
Fall is a good time to begin because it is the planting season for a spring flower garden. If you are adding to an existing garden, this is the time when established plants and bushes start to lose their leaves, making it easier to imagine the flower bed designs taking shape in the spaces opening up. Try to picture the entirety and sketch a design. When you are ready to start digging, use a length of hosepipe to mark the edge of the proposed flowerbed. You can snake it around until it makes the shape that you like most and use it as a guide.
A flower garden needs to have good soil to succeed. This is the time to amend the soil by adding compost and planting mix. If you decide to make raised flowerbeds, which are easier to tend, you will find supplies either at a building supply store or a garden shop. You can find composite interlocking pieces for a raised flowerbed, or you can choose to use bricks or stone to achieve the look you want with your flowerbed designs.
Gardens do not need to be raised however; flowerbeds look attractive when they are simply dug in the ground and amended with compost. Chicken manure is also a good additive but needs to be left for a couple of weeks before planting; otherwise, it will be too strong for the tender flower plants, whether seeds or seedlings. Seedlings are a good option because they are easier, although certain flowers like nasturtiums and sweet peas are easily grown from seed.
It’s important to note where the sun and shade falls in your garden, as each flower plant has different needs. The garden shop will give you ideas about what grows easily in your area, so this is a good starting point. You can choose between annuals, which will only flower in the year ahead, or perennials, which will die back at the end of their flowering season but return and flower again the following year. You will also find that a flower plant like the foxglove is a biennial. It will flower every second year.
Bulbs offer a varied choice and are easy to grow. Daffodils are an especially rewarding spring garden flower; they come back year after year, multiply and are deer resistant. It’s a good idea to plant a mixture of annuals, perennials and bulbs. Annuals grow quickly and fill up the space while the slower growing perennials get established. Both annuals and perennials can be planted over bulbs, which will make their way through to the surface in time.
Think about color as you plan your design. A monochromatic area is attractive, and white flowers gleam in the evening. A palette of two or three colors is restful, while an abundance of color is like a cottage garden. The choice is yours, depending on your taste. Let your creative juices flow as you make your flower garden designs and then stand back, apply water and watch them grow.
by Glynnis Hayward
