A How-to Guide to Great Flower Garden Ideas
Want to add some color to your garden? Plant flowers. In some cases, simply planting a flower or two among the rest of your garden is enough to liven up the space. If you’re looking to make a big splash with your garden or want to go over the top when it comes to color, check out these creative and vibrant flower garden ideas.
Rows of Tulips
Nothing quite says spring like rows and rows of tulips brightening up a garden. You don’t need to plant quite so many tulips as shown in the picture above, but if you have the space and don’t mind planting lots of bulbs in the fall, why not go for it?
You can also try a toned down version. Choose an area of your garden that’s about three feet wide and six feet long. Divide it into three sections, each a foot wide. Plant a row of red tulilp bulbs in one section, a row of pink in the next, and a row of yellow in the third.
Spring Planter
If you don’t have a lot of space, planting flowers in a container is a great way to add some seasonal color to your garden. You’ll most likely have to swap out the flowers as the seasons change, since some only bloom in cooler temperatures.
The video from Garden Answer shows you how to put together a flower garden container for spring. In the video, she plants a number of cold-hardy flowers, such as daffodils and pansiolas (a cross between pansy and viola). The container is relatively easy to care for, especially in the early spring, when it doesn’t need that much water.
Spilled Milk
It can be a lot of fun to get creative with how you plan and arrange your flower garden. For example, the garden pictured above features a row of daisies that look as though they are spilling out of a tipped over pitcher.
If you’d like to create something similar in your own garden, it’s a good idea to start with transplants, rather than from seed. Clearly mark where you’ll be planting and dig out the area before you begin. The flowers will grow in as the season goes on, so it can be helpful to leave some space, but not too much, between them when you plant.
Flowers and Trees
If you have an old tree stump in your yard, you have a few options. You can hire someone to come and dig it up. You can ignore it and just let it rot.
Or, you can transform it into a pretty flower garden. Turning a tree stump into a container for flowers will take a bit of elbow grease. You’ll want to cut a hole in the center of the stump, using a pickaxe. Ideally, the hole will be about 6 inches deep.
Once you’ve got the main opening in the stump, drill several holes on the side, to allow for drainage. Then, fill the stump with container mix and add your flowers.
Wheelbarrows Full of Flowers
Here’s another way to give an old, disused object new life. If you have a rusty, unused wheelbarrow, turn it into a vessel for flowers. Just make sure to drill a few holes into the wheelbarrow before you plant, so that it can drain properly.
Choose plants for the wheelbarrow that have similar needs. If you are planting in the summertime, pick flowers that bloom in the heat, such as zinnias and sweet alyssum, which are pictured in the pin. Zinnias are ideal for planting in the center of the wheelbarrow, as they grow up tall.
Sweet alyssum tends to have a creeping habit. It will fill in spaces easily and might even tumble over the edge of the wheelbarrow, creating a dramatic look.
Picket Fence Garden
If you want the neighbors or passersby to take notice of your flower garden, don’t be afraid to go over the top. The garden shown above has a number of summer blooming perennials, such as black eyed susan and phlox. The flowers look like they are completely taking over the picket fence.
This is obviously not the garden for you if your homeowner’s association has strict rules about front yard gardens. But if you can do whatever you want with your yard, and what you want is to make a statement, it can be the perfect choice.
Flower Garden Boat
Got a spare rowboat or canoe lying around that you don’t know what to do with? Turn it into a flower garden. Spruce up the boat with a new coat of paint, then arrange a few containers with flowers inside of it.
If you know that you’ll never use the boat again, you can drill a few holes in the bottom, then fill the entire thing with container soil and plant directly in the boat. Just keep in mind that doing that will make the boat very heavy and difficult to move about.
Another option is to place a few planters full of flowers in your boat, then anchor the boat in the middle of a small pond.
Cottage Garden
Do you want a garden that seems to care for itself? Then check out the cottage garden in the video above. It contains a mix of self-seeding, color annuals such as pot marigold and cornflower, as well as perennials like giant scabious, which continue to grow for many years. The arrangement of the garden helps to showcase the flowers as they bloom.
The video shows you how to sow the seeds for annuals for the first time. It also walks you through planting perennial transplants into your cottage garden so that they live for a long time.
