If you want to bring life, bright colors and beautiful different textures to your garden, you can’t go wrong with flowers. Many flowering plants are happy to self-seed around your garden, others don’t mind sitting in hanging baskets or in pots and there are plenty of creative ways to make the most of your garden and introduce new plants.
The bolder you are willing to be with your garden design, the more you will see how even a small space can be a veritable paradise. Nature doesn’t mind small spaces. In fact, nature will occupy any space you are willing to give it.
So, here are a few ideas you might like to try to bring more flowers to your garden.
How To Bring More Flowers To Your Garden
Grow Vines Over a Pergola
One of the best ways to introduce shade to your garden while also bringing in more flowers is to grow vines over a pergola. Building a pergola is quite easy and you can buy kits from a Pergola Company, which are simple to construct. Once your pergola is up, you can start to grow vines up the posts and even over the canopy – assuming that your pergola roof is static.
There are a few different flowering vines that you can try growing over your pergola. Some, like honeysuckle, are quite sweetly scented so you might want to check that you like the scent before you start planting as some people find it overwhelming. Roses and jasmine also have quite distinct scents to look for.
When you are planning which flowers to grow over your pergola, do research on how large your vines are likely to grow and make sure that you buy enough plants. Most pergola displays are created with a vine rooted at either side of the pergola so that the plants meet halfway. However, many pergolas look lovely with just one vine covering a section of the roof as though nature is taking over of its own accord.
Install Columns for Hanging Baskets
Hanging baskets are definitely the easiest way to bring more flowers to your garden, particularly higher up. Some people seem to really hate hanging baskets as part of garden design and this is, of course, their taste. However, it does seem a shame to limit the garden to what can be grown at a lower level.
Planting up hanging baskets is an endless source of fun for gardeners. While your spring baskets might take priority so that the summer is filled with gorgeous blooms, you can also plant winter baskets to keep the color going for as long as possible. Strategic planting can ensure that your baskets are in bloom for most of the year and under planting your winter baskets with spring bulbs is a trick that never gets old.
When you are looking around your garden for spots to put hanging baskets, do think strategically. Hanging baskets do well in both sun and shade, depending on the planting, and it is quite easy to design a hanging basket column and drill on brackets to hold your baskets anywhere in the garden. If you are feeling adventurous, you could also use posts to hang a hammock so that you can enjoy the sun while surrounded by blooms. Another option is to place your column in a large planter so that you can really make the most of your space.
Companion Planting
If you like to use your land to grow fruits and vegetables, you could be forgiven for believing that you don’t have room for flowers as they will impact your harvest. Well, nearly forgiven – this attitude has come about with industrial-scale farming and really couldn’t be more wrong. If we know anything about nature, it’s that companions are to be found everywhere and there are plenty of flowers, like marigolds, that can really benefit your crops.
Simply put, companion plants tend to complement each other and benefit from living in close proximity. While this might mean that you have to reduce the number of plants you have, it also tends to mean that you reap healthier crops so it is well worth the time. The main reason for this is that companion plants tend to use and return different nutrients to and from the soil. This means that the soil quality remains higher for longer so you don’t have to use so much fertilizer.
Another good reason to grow flowers in a fruit and veg garden is that they can act as a kind of pest control. Some flowers attract pollinating insects that are essential for fruiting plants. Other flowers, such as Calendula, can trap pests like aphids in their stick sap, preventing them from doing too much damage to your crops. This means that you are more likely to succeed as an organic farmer and have to rely on bug spray much less.
Any Space Will Do To Bring More Flowers To The Garden
Most plants will try to colonize an empty area if it suits their idea of a good home. For gardeners, this can sometimes be frustrating – especially when you have other plans for an area! However, using this trick of nature to your advantage can be really helpful in filling your garden with flowers.
One of the best tricks for filling an empty yard with life is to simply throw a load of seeds around and see what takes. This method may not be the neatest way to start a garden but it does show you how easy it is to let nature in. If you have a few gaps in your garden now and you aren’t sure what to do with them, allowing some self-sowing flowers to enter that patch is a good option and won’t take any input from you either.
If you want to fill your garden with flowers, all you really need to do is provide the opportunity for them to grow. Pick out the seeds or plants that will flourish in your soil type and then give them space, sun, and water they need to thrive.
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