Have you ever wanted to add a flower garden to your yard, but just never knew where to start? Today we are tackling how to start a flower garden and sharing our best tips and tricks to do it like a pro. Flower gardens are a wonderful way to create a beautiful focal point in your yard and can make your home feel more welcoming overall.
If you’ve ever been on our Instagram or seen our yard tour, you know we love flowers. Over the years we’ve added tons of flower beds to our yard and filled them to the brim with all kinds of flowers, bushes and flowering trees. The goal was to create an almost park-like feel.
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How To Start A Flower Garden
Starting a flower garden isn’t all that difficult, however, it does require some time, energy and upkeep. But it is entirely worth it! The first step in how to start a flower garden is to decide how much time you want to invest in gardening. Do you have plenty of time to work outdoors, or do you just want to do something quick easy? This will help you determine the size of your future flower garden, and even what to plant in it.
How To Start A Flower Garden: What You Need To Start
To start a flower garden, there are a couple of things you are going to need:
- A shovel
or tiller
- Rake
- Hand shovel
- Bulb planter (only if you plan on planting bulbs in your new flowerbed)
- Soil amendments (if you have clay soil you’ll need to amend your soil before planting)
- Watering can
or hose nozzle
- Shade cloth
- Mulch
- Scissors
- Fertilizer (we grow strictly organic, so we use manure, fish emulsion, and occasionally organic box fertilizers like Jobe’s Organics)
- Flower Seeds or pre-started plants
Some other great things to have on hand:
- Gloves
- Something to kneel or sit
on while working in the soil
- Large brimmed hat
to keep the sun out of your eyes
- Clothes you don’t mind getting dirty (I like to wear a pair of overalls when working in the garden)
- Garden soap
/scrub
- Garden journal
How To Start A Flower Garden: Planning A Flower Bed
The next step when it comes to how to start a flower garden is planning. Decide where you want your flowerbeds, everything else hinges on this decision. Once you have selected a spot, think about the shape you want to create. There is no right or wrong shape when it comes to how to create a flower garden. Keep in mind if you’ll need a walkway, or if you plan to add some decorative feature like a fountain or gazebo. It can be helpful to sketch the flowerbed on a piece of paper before you actually begin removing grass and preparing the soil.
The next step is to decide on what you want to plant in your new flowerbed. Some things to keep in mind while you are planning your new flower garden:
- How much light will it get
- Taller plants should go to the back of the bed, followed by shorter in the middle, and in the very front the shortest things you plan to plant.
- How is your soil? Is it clay? Rocky? This will play a part in what you end planting.
- Are animals or children going to have access to this flower bed? If so consider planting flowers and shrubs that are not toxic.
How To Prepare Soil For Planting Flowers
The next step in how to start a flower garden is preparing the soil for planting flowers. Begin by removing all of the grass in your new flowerbed. If you have pour soil now is a great time to amend the soil (don’t know if you have pour soil? Do a soil test
You can read more about soil preparation method’s here.
Where To Buy Seeds For Your Garden
While your local stores will carry a selection of seeds chances are if you are looking for really unique vegetable seeds they aren’t going to have what you are looking for. When that happens we turn to the online vegetable seed companies to find what we are looking for.
Where to buy vegetable seeds online:
Seeds For Generations is a family business that sells organic heirloom vegetable seeds and related gardening products.
Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. offers nearly 2,000 varieties of vegetables, flowers, and herbs—the largest selection of heirloom varieties in the USA. Baker Creek carries one of the largest selections of seeds from the 19th century, including many Asian and European varieties. The company has become a tool to promote and preserve our agricultural and culinary heritage.
Through good times and bad, the great depression and world wars, Burpee has been a beacon of hope for Americans for over a century. Despite the invention of the radio, television, cell phones, and iPods, nothing is more amazing and powerful than the enchantment of planting a seed in soil and watching it grow. We, at Burpee, certainly did not invent it, but we have been dedicated to enabling you to share, in a very small but significant way, the astonishing magic of nature.
Seed Saver Exchange
As a nonprofit, Seed Savers Exchange aims to conserve and promote America’s culturally diverse but endangered garden and food crop heritage for future generations by collecting, growing, and sharing heirloom seeds and plants.
Amazon is another great resource for buying seeds online.
Seeds of Change was founded in 1989 to make organically grown seeds available to gardens and farmers. They’re dedicated to preserving the heirloom seed varieties in danger of being lost to the “advances” of industrial agriculture. Their seeds are certified organic, sourced from trusted growers in the United States, and certified to be free of GMOs.
Seeds Now is an online seed company with tons of options to pick from.
Since 1995 they have been supplying gardeners with the highest quality seed in the most beautiful and informative seed packets on the market. Curtis and Judy started Botanical Interests because they believed that gardeners were not getting the information they needed from their seed packets. Their desire for more information along with their passion for spreading gardening wisdom led them to create a unique seed packet that is not only beautiful but filled with facts, tips, recipes, and quality seed.
At Ferry-Morse, we passionately believe gardening should be fulfilling and fruitful. It is a passion we want to share with you. We hope to not only inspire your home gardening but to give you the tools you need to be successful at it. That’s why we take great care to ensure a quality selection of seeds that will enrich your garden with beautiful and fruitful plants. All of Ferry-Morse’s seeds are Non-GMO and many of their seed selections include organic and Heirloom varieties.
Growing A Flower Garden
Growing a flower garden is a wonderful past time and a great way to add beauty to your yard. Where ever you plan to put your new flower bed the most important thing to remember is to have fun and enjoy it!
Have we answered all of your how to start flower garden questions? If not drop yours in the comments!
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