Flower Garden Design
Design a Flower Garden!

Flower garden design is at the heart of every garden. This is the art, the life, and the heart of the garden. When deer eat our tulips, we're busy mixing a spicy spray. When the roses burst into bloom, it's bliss.

Your garden is unique -- just like you are. Crafting your own space should be a joy -- a labor of love.

Below you'll find lots of ideas to get you started.

Container garden designs offer doorside flowers all season. Place them on your patio or any part of the garden that needs a little spice.

I love potted flowers. Talk about 'instant garden'! If you can't wait to get to the nursery, design your container garden now.

Plant Encyclopedia

One of the biggest stumbling blocks is finding the right plant encyclopedia. Don't buy a gardening software and think that it will have a list of plants that you'll need. How do you know that you'll be able to find those plants?

Instead, visit some of your local nurseries and see if they have plant magazines to hand out. They usually have lots of plant pictures and various notes. These are a 'must have' if you are planting a large area or redoing your landscape. These magazines will show plants that will probably be available in your area.

While you're at the nursery, go ahead and note any plants that stand out. (Take a camera!) Are there some that you would love to use? Write them down. Later, you'll make sure that they will work for your flower garden design.

Second, I've got a couple of good, on-line plant encyclopedias.

Missouri Botanical Garden: If you have the chance, visit! They have good information and lots of pictures.

United States Department of Agriculture: Great resource for finding native plants. In depth information, though you may have to download pdf files to get full information.

Site Conditions

Next, consider your site conditions. Know what zone you are in: Eau Claire, WI is Zone 4. Are you going to plant in an area that has full sun (more than 6 hours of sun per day)? What are your soil conditions? Eau Claire is mostly sandy, but Rice Lake has large areas of clay.

Does your area have lots of deer? You may, even if you're near town. Deer can devastate a garden. Each year they cost hundreds or thousands of dollars in damage.

Planting a rain garden? Choose your rain garden plants carefully. They'll need to be able to handle periodic soaking with dry periods in between.

Best tip: Plant plants in rain gardens, not seed that might get washed away.

Garden Style

Lastly, think about your garden style. Everything, including the plants, in your garden should fit the garden's style. Maximum impact comes with careful planning.

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