Apr 08 2010
How to Improve Your Flower Garden
Learning to understand your flower garden and how to care for it can make a big difference. With a little effort, you can improve the look and over-all health of your plants. Here are some simple hints to get you started on your way in making your garden bloom with health:
1. Always remember the essentials
Water, sunlight, and fertile soil are the three major considerations of any garden. If the plants are lacking any of these you will quickly notice it in the health of the plants. Be sure that you water your flower gardens more frequently during dry spells.
Planting
When planting, make sure that you follow the recommendations for the plants or bulbs that you are working with. Check the depth and the spacing.
If you are putting in shrubs or perennials, be careful not to pile soil or mulch up around the stem. This will cause water to drain off quickly rather that to sink into the ground. It may even cause the stem to overheat and rot.
2. Perennials vs. Annuals
Perennial are flowers that will come back year after year while annuals tend not to come back.
Perennials that are from seed rather than a bulb tend to produce an over-abundant number of seeds. Place these carefully in your beds and monitor the seed pods closely to keep them from overtaking your garden.
Pay attention to the stated bloom times for your area. These tend to be fairly accurate. If you use only plants that bloom at a particular time, your garden will feel like a “quick flash”. There are a large supply of flowers that bloom early spring, mid-summer, early fall, or even all season.
Select your plants not only by the time that they bloom, but by the height. You can plant an early summer bloomer next to a mid-summer bloomer and an all season or fall bloomer next to them. If you keep this a grouping of about the same height, you will have a different assortment of flowers without changing the look of your garden drastically.
Another method to keep blooms coming on is to mix the perennials with annuals. Again, you need to pay attention to the expected bloom times.
3. Deadhead to encourage more blossoms
Snipping off the flower head after they wilt is known as deadheading. This will encourage the plant produce more flowers by refocusing the energy away from the dead blossom to the plant. Never discard fresh clippings on the garden, even clippings from the garden. This can cause mildew and other diseases in your garden.
4. Know which bugs are good
Most of the insects that you will find in your garden do more good than harm. These bugs are called pollinators and include butterflies, beetles and bees. They fertilize plants by transferring pollen from one plant to another. The majority of flowering plants rely on insects to survive.
There are bugs (sowbugs and dung beetles), fungi and that work with microorganisms to help in the decomposition of dead plant material. These bugs help to enrich the soil, making more nutrients available to the growing plants.
Then there are the natural predators of the damaging insects. These predators include lacewings and dragonflies.
Be sure to occasionally apply liquid fertilizer to your plants when they are flowering. This will help them keep blooming for longer.
Always keep your flowers and shrubs pruned. Take off any dead or damaged branches. This will not only help keep the plants stronger but it will also make it much easier to enjoy the view of your garden.
