Flower gardening is the stuff of dreams and creations. With imagination, planning, and work you can create a place of exquisite beauty and tranquility. Flowers are divided into two basic varieties: annuals and perennials. Annuals grow only for a given time and they are gone. Perennials grow, bloom and then live to come back the next year and do the same. Since the perennials are going to be around for a while they are the basis or foundation of your garden. The annuals last only one season so they are more like the blaze of color and glory you add each season.

Do You Love Flowers? Design a Cutting Garden and Grow Your Own

By Larry Gildea

If you love flowers and enjoy having them in your home but can’t afford buying cut flowers, flower gardening is for you. Grow your own flower cutting garden. Too much work? Don’t have time? Hate the weeding, watering and fertilizing? Well, take heart, cutting gardens are easy to establish and fun to care for. Think of all that beauty around you every time you set foot into that fantastic garden. Cutting gardens can be traced back to the sixteenth century. If you don’t have space for a full sized cutting garden, grow a perennial or annual flower border around you vegetable garden or lawn.

There is nothing magic or complicated about planting a cutting garden. The same steps apply to a flower garden as apply to a vegetable garden. Just follow these simple steps:

Location

Design

Soil selection and preparation

Maintenance

What to plant

A flower bed for a cutting garden should place in a spot that gets plenty of sunshine. Find an out of the way spot where you will be free to work without worrying about getting in the way of other plants. After all, this garden is for producing flowers that will be harvested for use in indoor spaces.

Since this garden is for production, don’t worry too much about how it looks. Layout depends on how much space you have. Long rows are the easiest to plant and maintain. If the space limits you from planting in rows consider, planting in square plots or beds. Make sure you layout the beds with space around them for maintaining and cutting the flowers.

Flower gardens are no different that any other garden. The soil is a primary key to your success. The soil should be loose but not fall apart when you squeeze some in your hand. It should not form a solid ball either. The soil should hold moisture but also allow the moisture to drain away.

Once you have tested the soil you can go about bringing it up to your specifications by working in organic material such as compost and peat moss. Once this is accomplished, work in a slow release fertilizer. Apply enough fertilizer to last through the growing season. Always contact a specialist at your garden supply store or nursery for answers to questions about composting and fertilizing the soil.

Now the decision as to what to plant. Simple, plant the flowers you like and enjoy. Don’t settle on annuals alone. Plant perennials, also. Bulbs and some foliage plants should also be considered. Combinations of these flowers make exciting colorful flower arrangements. Bulbs and perennials come back year after year.

Your flower garden will require watering. Don’t sprinkle the surface of the soil. Sprinkling only penetrates the soil and inch or two and will encourage shallow root systems on your plants. Plants should be watered weekly down to 5 to 6 inches to assure deep root systems and plenty of moisture.

Consider a drip irrigation system. Drip irrigation systems assure an optimum supply of water is available. Most importantly, a drip irrigation system will allow for air to be available constantly. Heavy watering saturates the soil and causes extreme fluctuations in moisture and aeration. Drip irrigation systems are easy to install and relatively inexpensive for a small garden. These systems don’t require the amount of time on site with a hose watering system would. Also, if you wish you can set them up with a timing system.

Cutting flower gardens have been grown specifically for making flower arrangements for several centuries. Growing a cutting flower garden is as simple as following a few simple steps: location, design, soil preparation. If flowers help brighten your life, don’t spend another growing season looking around your local supermarket or floral shop for some nice flowers to buy to brighten up your home. Grow your own and have whatever you want. It’s just a matter of starting.

Dr. Larry Gildea has authored many articles on gardening. Dr. Gildea also created the Gardening Bonanza website, www.gardeningbonanza.com. Gardening Bonanza.com covers many types of gardening, including, bonsai design and cultivation, container gardening, flower gardening, rose gardening, hydroponics gardening and several others.

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