Planning and Laying Out a Flower Garden

A flower garden adds a great deal of variety and beauty to the landscape. Many people find that laying out flower gardens is a very rewarding task. And, while it is possible to create a very attractive flower garden without planning it out first, it is much more efficient, in the way of saving time and money, to make a plan for what you would like in your flower garden, and to have an idea of where you might like some of the different flowers. Then when you are ready to lay the garden out, you have a pretty good idea of what to do, and you are not bothered with having to re-arrange things to account for something that you may not have realized before.

The first order of business to determine when planning out your flower garden is how many annuals and how many perennials you want. Annuals last only one growing season, and therefore have to be replanted each year. Perennials appear yearly on their own. If you have all annuals, you can change your garden layout as you wish every year, and with perennials you have the same layout (unless you wish to transplant all of your flowers). However, it is possible to have a combination of the two, keeping the perennials where they are each year and varying the charm of the flower garden with a few different annuals in different placement.

Next, you should determine where you will likely place your flowers, taking into consideration the comparative heights of the plants, what time of the year they bloom, and what colors you will use. These things all contribute to an aesthetically pleasing look to your flower garden — one that implies order and beauty rather than looking ill-planned with some plants looking wildly out of place. Also to take into consideration when planning your flower garden: climate and sun exposure. Make sure that all of the plant you choose for your garden will flourish in your region, and that your garden is placed in a location that will allow the flowers to receive a proper amount of light.

After you have determined what will go in your garden, it is time to prepare the flowerbed. You should mark of the dimensions of your proposed garden carefully. Using a garden hose to mark the boundaries is advisable, as it is heavy and will stay in place, but it also provides the flexibility needed to tweak the proposed shape of your garden. After you have determined on your boundaries, you need to strip the enclosed area down to the topsoil. This can be done using a shovel for smaller gardens and a sod cutter for the larger sections.

After getting down to the topsoil, you should loosen the dirt by prying up a section with a shovel and then turning over the dirt. This loosens the soil and provides a good place for flower roots to establish themselves. You can make improvements to the soil but adding organic materials such as peat moss, mulch, compost, or manure. You should probably also roto-till the area to better mix the soil amendments in with the original soil. Next, use a rake to smooth out the soil without packing it down. Create your border with plastic edging, concrete, stones, or by digging around the edges, angling the soil down and creating a gap between flower garden and lawn.

After you have prepared the bed for the garden, acquire the flowers you would like to use. Seeds are less expensive, but you will not be able to see the final result until they spring up. If you purchase flowers in containers, set the containers, with their plants, in the places in the garden that they will inhabit. Then you can get an idea of what the garden will look like. If you need to move the flowers around for greater attractiveness, it is simply a matter of moving the pot around until the garden looks as you wish it to. After you have settled that everything is in place, begin removing the flowers from their containers and placing them in the ground, beginning from the back and working up toward the front.