We all dream about having a flower garden that will be the envy of friends and neighbors. But there are many factors involved in creating a garden so hang on to your gardening tools for a while. The first thing to do is decide what type of garden you want. You need to choose the location of the garden wisely because it involves caring and maintaining it. Keep in mind that how much sun, shade and water your flowers will need determines whether your garden lives or dies. So spend some time choosing the location carefully before doing anything else.

Some gardeners just start planting flowers all over the place without realizing that choosing a garden’s location in the yard is one of the most important things to do. You want to choose a location that will provide ideal climate conditions for the plants in your garden. If you have a specific flower that you want to plant, go online and do a search to find out about the perfect conditions for that plant to thrive and grow healthy. If the research you do indicates that the location you had in mind is not good for your favorite flowering plant, keep looking for another location in the yard.

How you plan to water your garden is another very important factor to keep in mind. Some friends of mine decided to create a flower garden in the middle of their yard because they already have a sprinkler system installed and the garden would get watered at the same time saving them some work. What they didn’t realize is that here in Florida grass usually requires more water than any garden and the plants began to die. This was a big mistake that could have been avoided if they had done some research ahead of time.

Once you have the ideal location for your garden, taking into consideration enough sun or shade, then you are a step closer to actually starting your garden. Keep in mind that getting enough sun or shade in your garden depends on the types of flowers you will plant. In other words, you can have a garden that is completely in the shade and here you can buy shade loving plants or buy plants that require full sun. The choice is yours so head over to your local nurseries or gardening stores and buy soil, fertilizer and your favorite plants. Go ahead, start gardening!

Here are some other flower gardening sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Best Flower Gardening!

Gardening | Define Gardening at Dictionary.com
Making Flowers Into Perfume - NYTimes.com
Off Topic Flower Gardening - Groups - Yahoo
Flower Gardening - Topic - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com
Book Review - The Paper Garden - By Molly Peacock - NYTimes.com
Flower Power: Keeping Them Alive Longer - CBS News

Technorati Tags: full sun garden, garden flowers, garden location, shade garden

Perennial flowers are the backbone of any garden. These wonderful plants are strong and hardy and once you plant them, they faithfully come back every year. While most gardeners, including me, love the bright robust colors of annual plants, we all agree that perennials do save us money and lots of work in the garden.

As I stated before, perennials are strong and even survive in inclement weather conditions or in areas where you have cold regions. During their off season, the flowers and stems will die back and you can hardly tell the plant is event there. This is actually a good thing because your garden will not look like it has hideous brown clumps of dead plants. And when time comes for perennials to bloom, new leaves and flowers shoot up where the old ones were.

Like all other plants in your garden, before planting perennials make sure that your soil has good drainage. If the water stays saturated for long periods of time, you should consider building a raised bed. You can do a quick test to check the drainage by digging a hole and filling it with water. Wait a day or so and then fill it with water again. In about eight hours, all traces of water should be gone and if the hole is not completely dry, you will need to build a raised bed.

When buying your perennial flowers, be sure to get them so that they flower as much as possible during the year. Do some research on the types of flowers you want and create a timeline of flowering so that you can have a different type of flower blooming at any point of the blooming season. Getting the right mixture of plants can give your yard or existing garden a constantly changing array of colors and look.

One tip to keep in mind is to use mulch when planting perennials. This will save you some time by reducing the amount of weeds and increasing the water retention for your plants. Lucky for me that I have lots of pine trees and I use pine needles as mulch in my gardens but you can also use any other type of mulch like bark. Use fertilizer sparingly on perennials because these are hardy and don’t need much of it.

When you start planting your perennials, follow the instructions given carefully as some perennials grow tall while others do not. Plan your design so that you plant taller ones in the back and shorter ones in the front. Also keep in mind that perennials tend to spread out so don’t plant them too close to each other. Give them plenty of space for them to branch out in your garden. If you plant them too close to each other, they will end up choking each other. When you plant them, use a bit of fertilizer and add some compost to the soil to promote proper drainage.

Here are some other flower gardening sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Best Flower Gardening!

BBC - Chelsea Flower Show 2011 - M & G Garden - Bunny Guinness
Garden design - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
Flower Gardening - Salt Lake County Extension - extension.usu.edu
Flower Gardening and The Spring Season
My Flower Garden Pictures
Embrace the Chill: Plant Bulbs - WSJ.com

Technorati Tags: perennial gardening

Most people would agree that having a well designed flower garden can add value to any home. I personally believe that a home with gardens and lots of colorful flowers does entice viewers when the property is for sale. But one thing to keep in mind is that not all home buyers are into gardening and may view them as requiring lots of maintenance and work.

If you own your home now and plan to stay there for years to come, then go ahead and design as many gardens as you want with many different flowers that are pleasing to you and your family. But if you plan to sell your home, do look around and make sure that your flower garden does not become an obstacle in selling your home because it may require lots of work to maintain it.

Flower gardens can add value and beauty to a home but don’t overdo it because a negative perception of having to do lots of work to maintain the flower garden, or hire someone to do the work, can kill the sale of a home. Another thing to remember is that families with children looking to buy a home want to make sure that there is enough space for the children to play outdoors.

If the landscaping in your backyard is designed in a series of small enclosed areas with colorful flowers, this is very attractive but not good for children who want to have a basketball court put up in the yard. The bottom line here is that if you plan to stay in your home for many years then having gorgeous flower gardens is okay. But if you plan to sell, then go easy on having too many gardens and make them simple.

Whether or not you plan to stay in your home or sell it, there are things you should do to keep your gardens and landscaping looking beautiful at all times.

•    Look around and make your outside space more appealing by pruning your plants regularly. Perennials come to mind here because they grow very tall.

•    If you see climbing plants that are growing wild, trim them.

•    Cut all dead flowers from other plants in your garden.

•    If you have container plants in a porch or patio, be sure to clean them up by cutting all dead leaves and flowers.

•    If you have small trees and shrubs as part of your flower garden, make sure these are trimmed regularly to enhance the look of your garden.

•    Mow your lawns regularly and be sure to trim the edges so that your lawns look neat.

•    Put away all your gardening tools, lawn mower, tiller and hedge trimmer when you are done using them.

Here are some other flower gardening sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Best Flower Gardening!

Flower Gardening: News & Videos about Flower Gardening - CNN ...
Jasmine the fragrant harbinger of spring - latimes.com
Riverside Flower Show & Garden Tours - latimes.com
AOL.com Video - San Francisco Flower and Garden Show 2010
Flower Gardening - Yahoo
Restored gardens bloom on Alcatraz Island - USATODAY.com

Technorati Tags: container flowers, landscaping

Rich nutrient garden soil is the most important ingredient to your flower garden. Without good soil your plants will not look healthy and may lead to eventually killing your plants completely. Consider good garden soil as the lifeblood of your flower garden because that is exactly what it is. And a good soil structure for your flower garden should be crumbly. This type of soil allows the plant roots to get air and water to drain properly. The best way to determine if you have good or bad garden soil is to have it tested. To do this, go to your local nurseries and get a soil testing kit or have them test the soil for you.

You should also find out the texture of your garden soil. Healthy flower garden soil usually consists of organic matter, pH level, structure and texture. Soil texture refers to the type of soil particles like clay, sand, silt and sandy loam. Soil structure is basically the way soil clumps together and a good soil structure should be crumbly. You can easily test to see if your soil is crumbly by squeezing a handful of damp soil into a ball. Poke the ball of soil lightly and if it breaks, it is an indication that you have sand. If you apply more pressure and it breaks, then you most likely have silt. If you notice that the ball of soil in your hand just sits there after several pokes, then your soil is mostly clay.

To improve any kind of soil, mix your soil with organic matter. I swear by compost because it is rich in minerals which most plants need and it will enhance your soil no matter how bad it is. First use a tiller and go over the soil in your flower garden. Next, mix the soil with some compost. When compost is added to the soil in your flower garden, the overall structure of the soil will improve allowing it to hold more water and letting air circulate within the soil. But if you still have doubts about having good soil, the best way to know is to have the soil tested.

If you have your soil tested and find out that the pH level is low, the person that did the testing should tell you what to do. The pH level indicates how much alkaline or acidity your soil has. It is measured on a scale of 1 to 14 with a range of about 7 as neutral. This is important because some nutrients can only be accessed by plants when the soil pH level is normal. Again, your local nursery will know what to do and may recommend adding lime to your soil. In most cases, just adding nutrients to your soil is enough but do get some professional advice.

The bottom line to all of this is that in order for your flower garden to thrive and produce healthy plants and flowers, you do need good nutrient rich soil. If you already have a garden, take a look around and see if your plants look healthy. If not, this could be an indication that your soil is bad and you can use the tips outlined here to fix the bad soil problem. I find that just adding organic matter like compost to my flower garden soil is sufficient to have healthy looking plants that produce gorgeous flowers.

Here are some other flower gardening sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Best Flower Gardening!

Horticulture encyclopedia topics | Reference.com
Wild Flower Gardening Video Showcase
Q&A: Expert guide to gardening bad weather or not - USATODAY.com
Flickr: Discussing Welcome New Members in My Garden
Flower Gardening Tips : How to Grow Pansy/Viola (Viola) - YouTube
May is Garden for Wildlife Month

Technorati Tags: bad garden soil, rich soil