There are different forms of flower gardening, as long as it is a garden with flowers it can be considered flower gardening, regardless of what kind of flower it is.

A different, though very popular form of flower gardening is wild flower gardening. Wild flower gardening may be the easiest form of flower gardening there is out there. But it is not as easy at it looks. Many amateur gardeners believe that putting up a wild flower garden would only require you to buy those wild flower seeds from the supermarket, scatter them over your backyard and just let them grow. This is not actually true. As most flower gardens, wild flower gardening does involve a little bit of work. You just dont scatter some seeds and expect them to line up on their own, dont you?!

Before you go to the supermarket to buy those wild flower seed packets, you would have to first prepare the soil where you will plant them. Preparing the soil means that you have to water them regularly and till the soil completely. It is also advisable to your wild flower gardening in cooler climates, which are usually late fall or early summer. Late fall is the time that the soil is absolutely cool, this way, when you plant your wild flower seeds, they will not take root until spring, when they will be able to come in full bloom.

In wild flower gardening, a gardener can also consider planting perennials. Perennials are plants, or in this case flowers that can live their full life cycle in two years. (Annuals on the other hands, completes their life cycle in one year.) With this kind of flower gardening, perennials should be planted by early fall, ten to twelve weeks from frost, this way your seeds will have enough time to set up themselves before they can become dormant.

When needed moisture is absent from your soil , the best way to start your wild flower gardening is at late fall. This is also the best time to start planting your wild flower seeds. With this method, even if there is little water, the gardener can expect lots of rain to douse your thirsty soil and plants.

The most popular wild flowers today are single special meadows. Plant single special meadows in mass and close together (but not too close, leave space for their roots to grow and so that they will not compete for both sunrise and food found in the soil), because they look better this way. Dont worry if all your single special specie of wild flower would not bloom the entire period of spring to fall, this usually happens. Because of this, though planting single special meadows is the trend these days, some wild flower gardeners still opt to plant two or three species of wildflowers. By doing this, they are ensuring the complete bloom of all their wild flower species the entire spring to fall.

To ensure a better bloom rate from your wild flower garden, keep the seedling moist by watering them everyday. And although wild flowers are wild flowers, the gardener should still be patient enough to pull out the weeds from his flower garden, especially in the early stages of your wild flower garden.

In late fall or winter, keep the wild flower height to about six inches high. This process will prevent the other plants from invading your flower bed and will also help disperse the seeds of your wild flowers.

The Boundary

Assuming that you have neighbours and need or want to demark your boundary, what do you want to look at? Trees? A hedge? A fence? Lets consider a few alternatives.

* Wire fence – not pretty but you can grow climbing plants up it and bushes in front and eventually, it will become invisible (and so will your neighbours).

* Wood panel fencing – not too bad to look at but you will need to paint or spray on some sort of preservative. Creosote is quite cheap but smells horrible and damages plants (dont forget there may be some on the other side of the fence). Other preservatives cost a bit more but come in a variety of colours so you can have a light or dark wood or even green or blue if you want. This will need redoing every couple of years depending on weather conditions where you live. If you have concrete posts and the panels need replacing, you can just slide the old ones out and the new ones in. Wooden posts need to be embedded in cement as do concrete ones but wooden ones frequently rot so you will need to replace the post and dig out and replace the cement.

* Wooden rail and overlapping plank fencing – each plank needs to be nailed to the horizontal rails. It looks nice but also needs a protective coating. It can be cheap and easy to repair if only a few planks rot at a time.

* A hedge. No matter what you choose in terms of hedge plants, you will need to clip your hedge at least once a year to keep it tidy. When choosing, you need to decide whether you want evergreen or deciduous, how tall you want it to be, what soil it needs and how quickly you want it to grow. My advice would be to choose something which will grow to the required height and no more and only needs annual pruning. Dont forget that conifers such as Leylandii grow very quickly and can lose foliage at the bottom if theyre not kept in check. In addition, nothing else will grow below them and they may well end up blocking out both your and your neighbours light, particularly if your garden is not large.

Grass

Do you want a lawn? Bear in mind that it will need watering in dry spells, feeding about twice a year, mowing at least once a week in the growing season (including tidying up the edges), aerating occasionally, scarifying to remove the dead bits underneath and worse still, kept weed free. On the plus side, mowing etc. can be very therapeutic and satisfying, a well-kept lawn is lovely underfoot and much nicer to look at than concrete. Of course you can always invest in Astroturf for the same effect!

Hard Landscaping

If you ever saw the popular TV series “Ground Force”, you will know that there are endless possibilities for hard landscaping. You can have a paved patio or a wooden deck, raised flower beds of stone or brick, or terraced flower beds and steps if your garden slopes. You can have paths of gravel or pebbles or coloured slate or stepping stones. You can have pebbly or gravelled areas with artistic arrangements of plant-filled pots, coloured china balls and any other garden ornament you can think of. How about a deck or other seating area away from the house to catch the last of the evening sun?

Decorative Bits and Hiding Horrors

Right at the start is a good time to decide on other structures too. Are you going to grow climbers? How about a pergola or an archway? Do you want trelliswork? Where are you going to keep that mower and all the other tools youll need? A garden shed? One of those plastic cabinets? Do you want this storage to be visible or nicely camouflaged? Are you going to grow vegetables and if so, do you want your veg bed and/or greenhouse hidden behind some nice climbers? After all, tomatoes and runner beans may taste good but they’re not very attractive to gaze at over your well-earned glass of wine at the end of a hard days gardening!

Watch out for the next article on choosing your planting.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
John