We all love flowers, The vibrant colors and the aroma have a magical impact on our brain. Different colors and scents stimulate various emotions. That’s why Red Roses create a sense of love and deep affection while the whites indicate peace and harmony. Similarly, the sweet flower smell soothes our thoughts and makes us calm.
Whether it is Red, White or Blue, everyone has his personal favorite. No matter what your favorite color is, you will find a flower to suit your style. It is a fact that more or less we all love some kind of flower and most of the time we want to grow some on our own.
So, today I will share 5 easy steps to start your own flower garden. Trust me the size of the garden doesn’t matter, you can just start with a single flower plant. If you like flowers then you should definitely try to grow some. I’ll wait for your responses to check out how many of you have tried this.
Ok, let’s Start…
How to Plant Flowers?
Select a Flower plant, dig a hole in the garden, put the plant in the hole, fill it then water it, and add some mulch. This is all you need to do.
I know growing a flower can be a difficult task especially if you don’t know the basics. Even professional gardeners face difficulties with certain flowers. I must admit, even after 7 years of dedicated attempts, I’m still facing difficulties with Roses. This is common with every gardener.
It doesn’t mean that you can’t do it, just give some time to research the plants you choose. If you really wanna plant a beautiful flower then you should follow these simple steps.
Check out my previous post How to grow Okra in containers?-Kitchen Garden
Buy some flower seeds to give it a try
- Select a flowering plant that is suitable for your local environment. Also, choose the flower plants that require minimum care.
- Prepare your garden or container for the flowering plant. Dig up some holes and prepare the soil mix. Different flowers require different soil mixes. Most of them prefer soil Ph below 7, but you should verify it before planting the flower.
- Always place the plant in the center of the pot, container, or inside the hole in your garden. Try to keep the root ball undisturbed. You can remove extra soil from the sides but do it gently.
- Water the new plant abundantly. You should be generous with the first watering. The entire rootball should be soaked so that the moisture remains for a couple of days. This will prevent any transplant shock and helps the root to thrive quickly.
- Once you have placed the new flower plant in the desired location. The next important tasks include adding some mulch, regular deadheading, and fertilizing. Regular care should become a part of your daily gardening schedule.
Always remember every plant need some care. If you simply follow the given steps then you can have lots of blooms without any garden disaster. All you need to do is keep learning and keep gardening.
Next, we will discuss the 5 easy steps to prepare a flower Garden. If you have a garden and you want to start a flower bed then this topic is especially for you.
#1. Select Perfect Flower Plants for Perfect Place
The first task is to select the best compatible flower plant in your locality. It is a very important task, if the selection is good then your garden will look like colorful heaven. But if it doesn’t then all you have left is some plants and an empty garden.
So how to select a flower for your garden?– If you want to grow a flowering plant and having difficulties in selecting one. Then you should start with checking these criteria. This will definitely help you find the ideal flower plant.
- The average temperature of your locality.
- Rate of precipitation (Rain)
- The ph of your garden soil
- Availability of the Plant and other resources
- The amount of time you can dedicate to your garden
- Whether you want to do this every year? if not choose a Perineal flower. Annuals can have lots of colors and variants while perennials are easy to maintain.
Some flowers like tulips can grow in cool temperatures while flowers like dahlia, sunflower, and zinnia need a warm and humid climate. If you face any extreme temperature then choose the plant that can survive throughout.
The amount of rain is also very important for plants. Though you can easily adjust watering accordingly to fulfill the plants’ needs. Still, I would suggest choosing Aquaphilic or water-loving flowering plants if your locality gets a lot of rain.
The Ph of soil can determine the success rate of your flower garden. Understand the needs of the plant you choose and adjust if required. Plants like Roses love low ph while dahlias can survive a little more. Interestingly, some flowering plants have wide ph compatibility. so it should not be a big problem.
The requirement of resources is an essential part of gardening. These days all you need can be bought online still plants should be collected from nearby stores or nurseries. It will give you optimum change for success in flower gardening.
Finally, it is you who have to decide how much time you can dedicate to your garden. Accordingly, you should choose the plant. I would recommend starting your flower garden with some easy grow low maintenance flower plants like Dahlias, Marigold, Lavenders, Daisies, and many more. Learn about local perineal and annual flowering plants.
#2. Prepare Your Flower Beds (Soil Preparation steps)
Once you have selected the flowering plant, It is time for soil preparation. The ideal soil mix for any flower must be soft and well-drained. For 100% success, You have to do some-
- Cleaning
- Raking
- Digging
- Soil Mixing
Start with cleaning the garden area or container whichever you are dealing with. Remove any weed, dirt, and leftovers of last season.
Then Rake the soil, level it, and make it even. It will kill insects and help in the aeration of the soil. The soil will become a little warm which helps in faster root growth.
Dig up some holes to put the plants. This is a little tricky. If the plant you choose has taproot the make the hole deep else a flatbed is enough.
Take out the soil from the containers. Dry it thoroughly in full sun and then refill the pot. You should only fill half of the container and leave another half for the root ball.
The final task of this step is soil mixing. This step should be adapted for both garden beds and containers. Add 3 to 5 inches of well-aged complete dry organic compost on the top of the flower bed. Mix the soil evenly and rake it to level the soil.
You can also mix NPK8:32:16 to the soil mix before placing the plant in it. Avoid any chemical fertilizer especially if the plant is still a very small seedling.
You should read Everything to know about raised garden beds
#3. Plant Your New Flowers Carefully
Now I believe you have selected your plant and prepared the garden for it. The next important task is to place the plants in the perfect spot carefully.
Start with digging some holes. If the plant has soil and developed root ball then make a hole to fit it completely. Else the hole should be at least 1/2 the size of the seedling.
Place the plants in the exact center of the holes. Keep straight and fill the hole evenly from every side. You should maintain a proper distance between each plant. Proper spacing will prevent the roots and the branches from stuck and bind with one another. It will allow proper aeration and increase flowering.
#4. Water the new Flower plants and Add mulch
After placing the flowering plant in the desired spot you have to water it thoroughly. You should water abundantly for the first time.
The entire root ball and the spot should become wet. This mixture will keep the roots hydrated and prevent any transplant shock. Watering should be regulated once the plant is adapted to its new location.
Never overwater any plant. Overwatering is the main reason for root rot. 8 out of 10 times a plant dies due to overwatering. So always be careful.
Next, add some mulch to prevent water loss due to evaporation. Proper mulching can also prevent weed growth. It is an effective way to ease out the watering cycle.
Organic mulch like wood chips, straw, peat moss, or cocopeat can easily decompose and feed the plants. In this way, mulching can reduce the requirement for extra fertilizers.
Read this- 60 Beautiful White Flowers to grow this Summer
#5. Your plants need some love and care
Once your plant is ready to grow and bloom. It is now your turn to give it some care. Trust me you will not be disappointed with your efforts.
Do the following jobs to get maximum blooms-
- Clean your plants regularly. A clean plant is a healthy plant. The best way to clean your flower plant is just by spraying it with water. Just spray once every week. Water will wash off dirt from leaves and clean the stomata. It will enhance respiration and increase photosynthesis.
- Add Support to the needy plants. Some plants may need additional support like sticks or ropes to grow and climb. It should be done carefully.
- Fertilize the plants once in 15 days. Regular fertilization will help the plant to develop more buds. More buds mean more flowers.
- Deadheading dead and spent flowers. You should always remove any dead or mature flower from the branches. It is important not only to keep the plant clean but also to increase flowering. It is a well-known fact that flower is intended to produce seeds. Once the seeds get mature the need for flowers is over. So once the seeds are produced, the plant will reduce flowering.
- Include some companions for your plants. Some plants do great in companion with others. Mostly if you plant legumes near a flower bed. Then it will fulfill the need for nitrogen. It is a way of interdependent gardening. This should be done with care. Coz if the companion plant needs the same nutrition as your flowering plant then it could become worse for you.
Extra Tips for lots of Blooms
After 100 of hit and miss trials, I have come up with some interesting tips. These tips can definitely help you in getting bigger healthier and lots of blooms this season. It is not just researched, this is the outcome of my decade-long gardening experience.
- Prepare your own soil mix for Flower beds as well as containers. Use 30% Gaden soil, 40% Compost, 20% Cocopeat and 10% Fertilizer mix.
- The fertilizer mix is very important. Try to collect as many items as you can from this list. you will need-
- Dry Mustard Cake or Groundnut cake
- Bone meal especially if the plant has bulbs or corms.
- NPK 8:32:16 or anything similar. You use NPK 19:19:19 as an alternative.
- Super Phosphate for bigger bloom
- Urea or NPK 40:0:0. It is required for green foliage before flowering.
- Now Mix 50 grams of Mustard cake powder or groundnut cake powder with 25 grams of bone meal. Add 5 spoons of NPK with 1 spoon of Urea and 1 spoon of Supper phosphate to the mixture.
- Add few drops of water to bind all these together with the soil mix. Leave the mixture in shade for 4-6 days.
- After 5-7 days, mix the soil again and fill the container or cover the garden bed with it.
- Don’t forget to water the plants after applying this soil mix.
This is a Commercial soil mixing technique. If you don’t find anything in the list then check it out here on Amazon.
I hope you are ready to start your own flower garden now. At least give it a try and share your experience with our reader. You should read this before leaving- 15 Traditional Italian Flowers: You can easily Grow
Ask your questions or suggestion in the comment section. I would love to answer all your queries.
