The ultimate beginner’s guide to planting flowers

Ah, flower gardening – definitely one of the more creative and interesting hobbies that you can acquire. However, like with all projects, it’s best to do your reading first, come up with a plan, and then get your hands dirty, especially if you are a newbie. 

But where do you start reading? There is so much information out there!

Well, there is where we come!

In this nifty guide, we are going to cover everything that you need to know about planting flowers, including:

• how to plan your flower garden project;
• the best types of plants for beginner gardeners;
• the proper way to plant flowers;

… and so much more!

Beginner gardening tools

If you are interested in starting a flower garden, it’s important to have the right tools for the job. As a beginner, you don’t need every gardening hoe and fork on the planet. Purchase only the basic instruments like a:

Plan how you want your garden to look

You can’t just go running around, randomly planting flowers wherever you feel like it. Ok, you can, but trust us – if you want an aesthetically pleasing garden space, it’s better to sit down and really think it through.

First, you need to decide what kind of garden you want, where you want it, and how big you want it. Basically, you are creating a map. With that being said, let’s not forget that we are talking about flowers here. And what do flowers like? A lot of sun. That’s something that you need to keep in mind when picking a location for your garden project. An area that receives at least 6 hours of sun exposure per day, and is also protected from the wind, is ideal.

Take your time to prepare the soil

Now that you’ve found the perfect location for your flower garden, it’s time to do some heavy-duty ground preparation. Think of it like getting your canvas ready for a painting – the better the initial base, the prettier the end results.

Begin with clearing the ground. Remove any nasty weeds, rocks, twigs, leaves, and other sorts of debris. If you have any wild plants that don’t quite fit your vision – get rid of them. Also, don’t forget to take care of the sod! It’s a messy process, but it’s a necessary one.

The next step is to get your flower beds ready. In term of flower bed building, you have two options – to either remove the top layer of sod and amend the soil underneath it, or to create a nice, raised bed. If you decide on the second option, you can always order a raised garden kit online and build the thing yourself.

And lastly – it’s always a good idea to give your soil a good boost. You can do this by applying lots and lots of organic matter, like the decaying leaves you gathered when clearing up your garden, grass clippings, kitchen compost, etc. Add the organic matter when the soil in your green space is warm and a bit wet.

Decide what type of flowers you want

This is the fun part – choosing your new flower friends. For a beginner gardener, we highly suggest sticking to plant types that are low maintenance. Here are a few good options:

The listed flowers aren’t that capricious and are really easy to take care of. If you want to make things even easier for yourself, plant perennial flowers – you won’t need to replant anything for about 3 years. For more perennial flower ides, you can always check our article on the 19 long-flowering perennials that you can grow in your garden.

Plant your new flowers

When it comes to planting your new flower friends, you have three options: to buy pre-grown plants, to get bulbs, or purchase seeds. And, of course – each flower planting method has its advantages and disadvantages. Here is how all of them work:

How to plant pre-grown plants

Planting pre-grown flowers is extremely easy! You can actually do it blindfolded. Ok, here is what you need to do:

Create a hole twice as big as the container that your flower friend arrived in. You can use your new garden spade for this.

How to plant flower bulbs

Like with pre-grown flowers, planting flowers bulbs is also not very complicated. And let’s not forget to mention how cute flower bulbs are – they are basically baby plants! So, if you decided on bulbs to start your flower garden with, follow these steps:

How to plant seeds

Flower seeds are a bit trickier to plant and to take care of but are certainly very convenient.

Basically, you get to choose from a wide range of flower seed options and you can just go out and buy them from your local supermarket. Now, here is how to correctly plant them:

Take care of your flower babies

Now that you’ve planted your dream flower garden, all you are left with is keeping it alive. Different flower types have specific needs in terms of watering schedules, fertilizers, sunlight and so on. That said, if you need more in-depth information on plant watering, you can always check out our article on how to water plants in the garden.

Also, it’s very important to remember that gardening is not an easy hobby to acquire and it will take you a bit of time before you learn how to properly take care of your plants. So, if you happen to overwater or lose a baby flower to pests, don’t get discouraged – you’ll get the hang of it. Consider making your own natural pesticides with which to treat light infestations on your plants.

Get a professional to help you out

As you can see, planting flowers is a lot of work and there is a lot of preparation involved. So, if you want to make things a little bit easier for yourself, why not call a professional gardener to help you out?

Fantastic Services offers professional gardening services in London that can make your dream garden a reality. The experienced gardeners can do anything from lawn mowing and hedge trimming, to weeding and even flower planting. And the best part is that you actually get a team of two experienced and trained professional gardens, who will bring everything the job requires – tools, equipment, products, etc. How Fantastic is that?

So, don’t waste time on tedious tasks like weeding and give Fantastic Services a call!

Takeaways

• Be creative! Plan your dream garden! Try different flower combinations, arrange decorative stones around your new flowers, go the DIY route and build your very own, custom flower beds – just let your imagination go wild.
• Take the time to do the prep work. We know that a gardening project is an exciting thing and you can’t wait to start planting, however, you can’t skip important steps like clearing the debris or making sure that the soil is ready.
• Read! Read! Read! It’s really easy to get a fancy, exotic flower and plant it in a weird place in your garden, only to find it dead in a couple of weeks. So, make sure to do your research, figure out what types of flowers you can grow in your climate, and most importantly – find out how to take care of them properly.

Knowing when to plant different plants and how to take care of them is the key to having a colourful, flourishing garden throughout the whole year. Find out more in our gardening calendar for the UK – from planting to pruning!

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Did you find our article helpful? Feel free to share your thoughts, tips, and experience in the comment section below!

Image source: Shutterstock / Tverdokhlib