A Beginners Guide To Planting Flowers

For many, gardening is one of life’s great pleasures. Not only is the activity a relaxing pastime that simultaneously serves as an excellent form of exercise; it also offers great rewards – there are few things better than enjoying long days and warm evenings in a beautiful and well-kept garden.

One of the key aspects to cultivating a stunning outdoor space to rival all your neighbours is the nurture of flowers.Our earth has given us an endless array of flowers. From the small and simple through to vast, spectacular blossoms – however you envision your garden to look, there will be a flower to conform to and complement it.

Ideally when planting bulbs, budding gardeners should plan the positioning of them very carefully. Flowers that are clustered together in groups will make much more of an impact than single flowers dotted around the beds. Those who are really ambitious may wish to make patterns using different types and colours of plants to differentiate between the lines of the arrangement.

However, before you plant the bulbs you need to tend to the condition of your topsoil. Topsoil refers to the first few inches of soil that lies on the earth’s surface (and therefore your garden) and it is this soil that contains most of the nutrients that plants require in order to grow. If your topsoil is in bad condition, any plants (including flowers), will not be able to thrive as they should.

The first step to nurturing your topsoil will be to clear it of any weeds and dead plants. It is then advisable to look into purchasing some high quality and PH balanced topsoil.

In order to prevent the topsoil from becoming ridden with weeds (and increasing your workload!) it’s advisable to plant annual flowers in the soil during the summer months. As autumn begins all that needs to be done is to remove the flowers from the earth and plant your new bulbs.

A great tip to deter pets or wild animals from digging up your blubs is to wrap them in a small, steel wool ‘cage’. Just ensure to leave the bulbs tip free or the flowers will be unable to grow. An alternative option is to plant the bulbs and then place a coating of plastic fencing or chicken wire over the topsoil until the flowers start blooming.

After the flowers have bloomed, you need to prepare to care for them as they start withering. It’s highly advisable to clip off the flowers bloom in order to prevent them from producing seeds. A seed producing flower will be using most of its energy for this process so it will be unable to store food properly in advance of its resting period.

As winter beckons your focus will tend to move from flowers to the evergreens and other plants that can survive the cold weather. While there are some flowering plants that will blossom in winter, they are few and far between. Because of this, many gardeners choose to let things lie as the weather turns for the worst, and simply begin planning for the next year to ensure their garden looks more stunning and spectacular than the years before.