However, if you’re short on time (and who isn’t?) or you prefer to buy certain flowers from the nursery and grow others from seed, then get ready to shop ’til you drop! A warm greenhouse nursery on a cold spring day is so tempting and really quite handy when your poppy seeds have once again failed to sprout. Shopping for the seeds is one of my favorite things to do in late winter and watching the tiny seeds grow is something no person should miss out on. The variety of colors, textures, heights, and habits of the flowers in seed catalogs today is absolutely mind-boggling. If it’s still winter and you have plenty of time before actually applying the glorious colors to your canvas, you may want to save some money and grow the flowers from seed. There are two ways to go about actually getting the flowers for your garden, and they don’t have to exclude one another. Growing Flower Seeds or Buying Flower Plants Michelangelo only had so much ceiling to paint in the Sistine Chapel, after all. If you have 4 feet (1 m.) of flower bed space against the garden shed, you probably only have room for four clumps of giant pink zinnias there. Be sure to observe if the site you want to use gets full or partial sun or mostly shade, as that will drastically change the types of flowers and foliage you can plant in your beds.īe specific in your diagram, too. You many want to try a handy tool that I found at the Better Homes and Gardens website called the “Plan-a-Garden.” You can sketch out your home and other structures on the site and then draw the layout of your flower garden around them. Once you have an idea of which direction you want to take your masterpiece, grab a piece of graph paper and some colored pencils and map it out. Or, make up your own gardening theme using my next suggestion. Pouring over pictures of English gardens, their classic beauty is always a welcome sight, or delving into dreams of sophisticated Japanese gardens that inspire zen. I particularly enjoy heading over to the local library or bookstore and pulling up a chair in the gardening aisle.

There are many ways to approach your canvas, and it’s really quite up to you. So if you’re ready to turn that bare spot in your yard into the next Mona Lisa, just follow my brushstrokes… Determine Your Flower Garden Theme It relieves my stress (although a dead rose bush can send me into a whirlwind), and it’s a great workout too! I’m not an “artsy” person per se, but I always tell people that the garden is my canvas because it truly is my way of letting the artist out. A flower garden overflows with opportunities for the creative spirit to come alive. m.) of area that you would like to plant with flowers, the process should be fun and enjoyable. Whether you have 50 or 500 square feet (4.7 or 47 sq.

Better homes and gardens garden planner