Planting a flower garden can be very rewarding and can really bring colour to a dull garden. However, if you have never planted your own flower garden, you may not know where to start.
Here are the first steps to preparing a flower garden
Choose which flowers you are planting.
Decide if you want to grow annual flowers (which live for a year then die), Biennial flowers (live for two years) or perennials (that live for around 3 years plus). Whatever, type of plant you choose, you need to take into account what type of soil each plant grows best in and how much sunlight they need each day.
Choose where you would like the flower garden
This may seem like an easy step. Although, if you plant in the wrong area, your garden may not grow as well as they should.
Therefore, when picking an area for your flower garden, ensure there is enough sunlight hitting the area, check if there is enough air flow and what type of soil you are working with. It is best to decide which plants you are planting and then catering the section to the plants.
Getting started
Line the area off with a hose or string to determine where you would like your flower garden to be and what shape you are aiming for.
Pull out any weeds or vegetation growing in the area and then lay black and white newspaper or thin cardboard down on the area. Then lay compost over the newspaper and cardboard. This kills all the existing weeds and prevent any other random vegetation growing in the area.
Next lay 8cm of compost over the cardboard or newspaper and leave over several months. The newspaper /cardboard will slowly and naturally decompose and leave the area weed free. If you don’t have a few months to wait, use natural weed spray on the area or dig up all the grass.
After waiting the few months, digging up the grass or spraying the area, you will want to turn the soil over using a shovel when the soil is damp. You will want to dig as deep as 20-30 cm. Add compost to the overturned soil, then over turn the soil again, mixing the soil with the compost.
Once this is done, you can plant your flowers in the mixed soil and compost and then lay mulch, bark or stones around your flowers to prevent weeds sprouting up next to your flowers.
Water your plants and now your flower bed is complete! (an option step is to edge your flower bed.)
Now all you have to do is water your flowers everyday in the morning, so the roots don’t stay damp during the night and prune your plants in late spring.
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