Tips for Gardening & Designing a Flower Garden

Check Soil Type & Climate

• Before you break ground on your own home flower garden, you must first consider which species of flowers are best suited for the particular climate you live in. The easiest way to do this is to consult the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) hardiness zone ratings. These ratings are published by the USDA and feature a number corresponding to each climate zone in the United States, so plants that will thrive in your climate can be easily identified by home gardeners and agriculturists. Home soil pH tests are also available at many home improvement or gardening centers for the purpose of determining how acidic or basic the soil is so you can choose the right flowers for your soil chemistry.

Choosing Your Colors

• After you have determined which flowers are best suited to your particular area, you should then consider what specific colors you want to represent in your garden. This is an instrumental choice for any home gardener, as a flower garden is specifically intended to put on a visual show, as opposed to the functionality of a vegetable garden. While some gardeners may choose to showcase a single color, or structured rows of opposing colors, others may wish to create a hodgepodge of many different colors intermixed. This element depends heavily on the personal preference of the gardener, as well as what audience the garden is geared toward.

Providing a Backdrop

• Another step in designing your own flower garden that many first-time gardeners overlook is creating a backdrop to make the flowers in the foreground pop out at the viewer. First consider every angle from which you intend the garden to be viewed, whether it can be seen from each side, or if it backs up to a fence or landscape element that keeps viewers on one side. After this, plant your flowers with the shortest varieties in the front, working backward to the tallest. Planting flowers at staggered heights will allow your visitors to see more of the blooms and also creates the illusion of a fuller, more robust garden.

Perennials vs. Annuals

• Selecting between perennial and annual flowers is a personal choice that for many people depends on how much time they have to invest in a garden. Perennial flowers are those that die off in the winter and return in subsequent years. Annual flowers are those that bloom for a single year and never return, requiring them to be replaced each spring. Planting an annual garden allows the gardener to have a more dynamic garden, with constantly changing colors and flower varieties. This option is for those who can commit to replanting their garden every year. People with less time to invest should plant perennial species, which can be staggered with regard to the time of year they bloom, so you can enjoy a vibrant garden from early spring into autumn with minimal input.