Flower Gardening Tips
It’s that time of the year. Clean up the yard after a long winter, get all of your lawn and garden tools in order and begin planning your garden for the coming year. If you are like most families this usually means turning over last year’s flower beds and getting them ready for the new year of flower gardening along with plotting some new beds and getting them ready as well.
Most homes have a number of flower beds/flower gardens surrounding them, but they may not be in the right areas, or they may be too small for your gardening needs, or maybe there just aren’t enough of them to suit your tastes. Not to worry, building a flower bed is an easy project and depending on the size of the bed can be accomplished in an afternoon. Follow the steps below to get started.
Flower Gardening – Step One:
Start by digging a small hole to determine what type of soil conditions you are going to be facing. Soil that is too sandy or maybe has a high clay content will cause problems for new plants. This is the time to make that determination and plan to treat the soil with an amendment that will help you achieve a higher quality soil in the bed. Your local nursery flower garden have some suggestions for your particular flower garden problem.
Flower Gardening – Step Two:
Most new flower beds start as grass covered areas of your lawn making it difficult to eliminate future weed growth. You can either treat the area with a non-selective herbicide and then wait a few days before digging or you can mow the grass short, dig it up and then wait a few days for the annual seeds to germinate and then turn it over again. Both of these processes will eliminate most future problems from the grass, giving your flower garden an opportunity to thrive.
Flower Gardening – Step Three:
It is necessary to turn the soil over to a depth of at least 18 inches so many gardeners elect to rent or buy a tiller for this back breaking work. As you work keep an eye out for any large pieces of sod that turn up and throw them out. After you are done turning over the ground rake and hoe it until it is smooth.
Flower Gardening – Step Four:
With the bed nearly complete except for the plantings it is a good time to add the edging. It isn’t a necessity but it does present a neater appearance and can help keep grass and weeds form invading your flower bed.
These basic steps will provide you with quality soil for planting and a great new flower garden to enhance the quality of your landscape.