Knowing how to care for your flower garden can make a big difference in the look and over-all health of your plants. Here are some simple hints to make your garden bloom with health.
1. The essentials must always be given major consideration
Your flower garden must have an adequate supply of water, sunlight, and fertile soil. Any lack of these basic necessities will greatly affect the health of plants. Water the flower garden more frequently during dry spells.
When planting bulbs, make sure they go at the correct depth. When planting shrubs and perennials, make sure that you don’t heap soil or mulch up around the base of the plant, 2 to 3 inches is sufficient.
Water well, but avoid standing water as this could damage the shrub or perennial. Standing water around the base of trees and shrubs will rot the trunk.
2. Mix and match perennials with annuals
Perennial flower bulbs need not to be replanted since they grow and bloom for several years while annuals grow and bloom for only one season. Mixing a few perennials with annuals ensures that you will always have blooming flowers in your garden.
3. Deadhead to encourage more blossoms
Deadheading is simply snipping off the flower head after it wilts. This will help the plant produce more flowers. Leaving the wilted flowers on the plant will cause the plant to produce seeds over more flowers.
Don’t discard dead debris on the garden floor during growing season or mildew and other plant disease will attack your plants.
4. Know the good from the bad bugs
Most garden insects do more good than harm. Butterflies, beetles and bees are known pollinators. They fertilize plants through unintentional transfer of pollen from one plant to another. 80% of flowering plants rely on insects for survival.
Sow bugs and dung beetles together with fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms are necessary to help in the decomposition of dead plant material, thus enriching the soil and making more nutrients available to growing plants.
Other insects like lacewings and dragonflies are natural predators of those insects that do the real damage, like aphis.
An occasional application of liquid fertilizer when plants are flowering will keep them blooming for longer. Organic fertilizers are the best to use, and better for the environment.
5. Some Pruning Tips
Always prune any dead or damaged branches. Fuchsias are particularly prone to snapping when you brush against them. The broken branch can be potted to give you a new plant, so it won’t be wasted.
Prune Lilacs and Forsythias after the flowers bloom and fade. Flowers bloom from new growth, and pruning in early Spring will only remove the growth that is prepared to produce buds for flowering.
All the images in this article are just a few from the authors garden from over the past flowering seasons from 2008 till 2013. If you have any questions about flower gardening, leave it in the comment section and I will respond as soon as be possible.
What Others Are saying About Flower Gardening:
Wonderful post! I’ve planted a few herbs indoors. Now I’m waiting. Hope I have a green thumb. 😀
You have such a bright and lovely site here! Thank you for the link to my piece on Edgeworthia. Best wishes, wG