Garden planning is an avocation that can be carried to extremes. I have heard rumors that there are actually places that pay people to plan gardens for them. No one would be that silly. Imagine being paid to do something that is well, an obsession.
Personally I have perfected garden planning. It is considered high art when I undertake flower garden design!
I post do not disturb “genius at work” signs in preparation.
Pictures of flower garden ideas drift like colors in your mind.
Formal gardens, whimsical gardens, oriental gardens, rock gardens.All the garden types you can dream of are at your fingertips, if not actually in your yard!
Somehow the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew come to my mind as a attainable garden goal.
Better homes and gardens has a wonderful tool to help you plan layouts and colors.
better homes and gardens flower garden planner. It’s a fun way to spend a blustery afternoon.
Planning the layout and textures of gardens is very diverting.
I can spend hours making lists from the garden catalogs.
These usually arrive just in time to take my mind off of winter.
Winter is relative after all. In Florida the land of sunshine, just a few grey windy overcast days,Can precipitate severe gardening withdrawal, fits or even swoons may follow.
I think it is probably akin to those heavy snow days in the north.The kind that cause cabin fever.
Give me a cup of coca and a couple garden catalogs, and I am happy. Burpees catalog another favorite of mine is the white flower farms catalog.
I won’t even mention what awaking to a frost with a temperature of 20 degrees will do to you if you garden in Florida. Living in paradise I consol myself with knowing that in a few weeks summer will arrive.
Then I will of course be nattering about heat and sweating in the summer.
I actually plan flower gardens on paper; I draw them out, several hundred dozen times. Of course I always find a reason to change this or that, depending on catalog advice, which direction the wind is blowing and whether or not it’s a full moon. Great bargains can be found if your patient. Then I throw the flower garden layout ideas in the trash and start buying what’s on sale at the flea markets. Gardening is always good.
Pet Campbell is a gardener, photography and artist, transplanted from the cowboy kingdon of Montana, to gardening in Paradise Florida.
Flower gardens occur in different styles and assortments, their charm can be dependent to any flower gardener. As someone who takes care of a garden, knowing how to enhance your flower garden can make a big difference in the dealing with beauty and taste and over-all condition of your garden.
Here are 4 easy ways to make your flower garden blossom more:
1. The necessities must always be given major deliberation.
Exactly like with any gardening undertaking, a flower garden must have its sufficient supply of water, light, and rich soil. To be lacking one of these gardening necessities is almost developing the death bed of your flower garden. Irrigate the flower garden more often during dry spells. In addition, make sure that you set the flower bulbs deep enough to allow sufficient room for the rooting.
2. Mix perennials with annuals.
Perennial flower bulbs don’t have to be replanted because they grow and bloom for several years while annuals spring up and bloom for only one season. Mixing a few perennials with annuals guarantees that the display goes on with your flower garden.
3. Deadhead to promote more blossoms.
Deadheading is simply clipping off the flower head after it droops. This will cause the plant to grow more and develop more flowers. Just make sure that you don’t throw away the deadhead on the garden or mold and other plant disease will assault your plants.
4. Know the beneficial from the bad bugs.
Do you know that nearly all garden bugs do more good than harm? Butterflies, beetles and bees are famous as pollinators. They feed plants through unplanned transport of pollen from one plant to another. And 75% of flowering plants count on them for survival. Why do you believe flowers are that brilliant and beautiful? I’ll bet you thought it was to make mankind more affection of them? It’s really to entice more bugs.
Sowbugs and dung beetles both with fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms make the soil more favorable to plants. This is on account they exist on dead materials, breaking down into simpler molecules that feed the soil. These insects are known as decomposers.
Now you don’t just chase away insects whenever you see them.
With this info in mind and applied, your flower garden will surely reward you with a breath taking view when it’s comes for them to bloom once more.
|
Jim’s articles are from extensive research on each of his topics. You can learn more of flower garden perennials by visiting: |
One of the backbone plants in the perennial garden is the mid to late summer tall Phlox paniculata or tall garden Phlox. One of the newest varieties to get to your local garden centre is ‘Goldmine’. Aptly named because it will bring a rush of visitors to your garden with its bright magenta purple flowers held firmly above green and gold variegated leaves. Two older variegated forms, ‘Harlequin’ with its magenta blooms and cream yellow variegated leaves should be easily available while ‘Becky Towe’ with rose pink flowers over yellow and green leaves is equally desirable. The older variegated ‘Norah Leigh’ with its green and cream splashed leaves is an excellent foliage plant but those pale pink blooms wash out against the dramatic foliage.
If you are looking for a shorter phlox, you might want to search out ‘Little Laura’. The stunning rich violet purple blooms with white eyes are wonderful accents to any brighter colour in your perennial garden. At twenty-four inches tall, this plant will also serve as the focal centerpiece in any large perennial container. Keeping with our female names and short plants, let me suggest ‘Juliet’ for your new plant list. Again, she’s twenty-four inches tall with compact growth but with the softest pink flowers you can imagine. With some mildew resistance built into the breeding, this is an excellent mid-summer bloomer for both garden and large container.
And speaking of mildew resistant phlox, let me suggest you look for these three mildew-resistant stunning ladies of the midnight garden: ‘Miss Pepper’ is a soft-pink with rose eye growing to three feet tall while ‘Miss Elie’ is taller at forty inches and sports soft pink blossoms with a deep rose eye. Rounding out the misses is ‘Miss Kelly’ and her soft lilac blooms are edged in dainty white.
Install these plants in the full sun in well-drained soils. They will take some late afternoon shade but you’ll get better disease control if they receive full early morning sun in a well-ventilated location to dry the leaves off early in the morning. Feed early in the fall with a shovel of compost.
Doug Green, award-winning garden author, answers questions in his free newsletter at http://www.gardening-tips-perennials.com