Choosing The Right Plants For Your Summer Flower Garden

If flowers are your thing or if you plan to include some flowers in your summer garden then you should take a moment to learn about those flowers or flowering plants that are best suited to summer months and what those plants like by way of sunlight and shade. Not all flowers are created equal when it comes to withstanding the heat of the summer sun and some require a little more care than others. Keep all of these things in mind when planning your summer garden and choose wisely according to the type of care you wish to provide.

Summer Garden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a general guide to the various types of plants that are well suited for a summer garden and not necessarily those that are well suited to be planted together. Study the flowers you decide you would like to include in your summer garden in order to insure you keep those that love water and dislike sun away from those that thrive with little water and copious amounts of sun. In other words you will need to conduct a more thorough study of the flowers you decide to include in your summer garden in order to determine the proper placement of these flowers for the most color, effect, and the best possible life for the flowers you choose.

The following are some fun sun-loving flowers you may wish to include in your summer garden. Geraniums are bright little splashes of color that are ideally suited for a summer garden. They happen to work well for creating borders or simply providing a highlight of color in a bed of green and do quite well in pots on their own or mixed with other colorful summer flowers. The Hibiscus is a beautiful spot of color that will lend a tropical feel to your summer garden. A welcome addition to many gardens, they may grow quite tall so keep them to the back of the summer garden to allow the full array of color from all summer plants to capture the eyes of visitors. Marigolds are another popular addition to most summer gardens. With a wide array of colors from which to choose, and the ability to keep pesky bugs at bay, it is no small wonder that these flowers remain a popular favorite for sunny patches within the summer garden.

A Hibiscus flower. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shade-loving flowers also abound for summer gardens everywhere. Most gardeners find heavily shaded spots within their lawns or gardens to be a particular challenge. Perhaps some of these suggestions will help. Impatiens are widely popular choices for shady spaces and provide a wide range of bright colors perfect for creating fun and bright borders. The viola is another great brightly colored flower that is well suited for borders or potted arrangements, whichever suits your particular summer garden needs. Mimulus is another excellent choice for color in your summer garden and may tolerate partial sun quite well if you're looking for a nice border plant. If you prefer more dramatic coloring in your summer garden you might be interested in including Lobelia or ageratum, which both have beautiful blue hues and provide a lovely backdrop for other colors.

Of course this is only a small sampling of the many bright and beautiful summer flowers that can make a real splash in your summer garden. Be sure to check out the color offerings of each and specific care instructions to make sure that they are a genuine match not only for your personal tastes but also the landscape and terrain of your garden and the other plants that will be included in your summer garden. The planning stage is often the hardest work that many people put into their summer gardens but the pay off for all this proper planning is quite often rich and beautiful - especially when it comes to the flower garden.

What Type of Garden Should You Grow?

If you're thinking about starting a garden, the first thing you need to consider is what type of garden you will have. There are many different choices and often it can be hard to pick just one, but hopefully you can narrow it down. But by narrowing it down, you'll make the gardening experience easier on yourself and the plants. If most of your plants are similar, then it shouldn't be very hard to care for them all. So here are some of the main garden ideas for you to choose from.

Image via WikipediaIf you're just looking for something to look nice in your yard, you'll want a flower garden. These are usually filled with perennial flowers. Perennial flowers are flowers which live year-round, or which come back every year on their own. You could almost say they're basically weeds because of their hardiness, only nice looking! Different areas and climates have different flowers which are considered perennials. If you do a quick internet search for your area, you can probably find a list of flowers that will bring your flower garden to life. These usually only require much work in the planting stage - after that, the flowers mostly take care of themselves, and just require a little maintenance like watering and occasional fertilizer or mulching. The only downside to this is that you don't have any product to show for it.

Image via WikipediaAnother choice is a vegetable garden. These usually require a little more work and research than a flower garden, but can be much more rewarding. No matter what time of the year it is, you can usually find one vegetable that is still prospering. That way you can have your garden be giving you produce almost every day of the year! When starting a vegetable garden, you should build it with the thought in mind that you will be adding more types of veggies in later. This will help your expandability. Once all your current crops are out of season, you won't be stuck with almost nowhere to put the new crops. A vegetable garden is ideal for someone who wants some produce, but doesn't want to devote every waking hour to perfecting their garden (see below.)

One of the more difficult types of gardens to manage is a fruit garden. It's definitely the most high-maintenance. When growing fruits, many more pests will be attracted due to the sweetness. You not only have to deal with having just the right dirt and fertilizer, you have to deal with choosing a pesticide that won't kill whoever eats the fruits. There are a few organic pesticides, so you should do some research to find the ones that are safest for you and your family. Your fruit garden will probably not produce year-round. The soil needs to be just right for the plants to grow, and putting in another crop during its off-season could be disastrous to its growth process. If you're willing to put lots of work into maintaining a garden, then a fruit garden could be a good choice for you.

Image via WikipediaBasically, the garden type you will choose comes down to what kind of product you want, and how much work you want to put into it. If you're looking for no product with no work, go with a flower garden. If you want lots of delicious product, but you are willing to spend hours in your garden each day, then go for a fruit garden. Or for something in the middle, try a vegetable garden. And remember, you can always start small - don't let your ambition carry you away if you've never gardened before - start with something you can handle, and scale up from there as desired.

Happy gardening!

Helpful Gardening Resources for Flowers, Veggies, & Fruits:
   

Tips for a Great Flower Garden

We tend to focus more on growing vegetables here, as we believe this is such an important part of living a sustainable lifestyle. However, sometimes it's just nice to see some gorgeous flowers in your garden - they can really brighten your day and lighten your heart. So of course you can incorporate some flowers into your garden landscape! But knowing how to care for your flower garden can make a big difference in the look and over-all health of your plants. Here are some simple hints to make your garden bloom with health.

Image by Exothermic via Flickr1. The essentials must always be given consideration.

Your flower garden must have an adequate supply of water, sunlight, and fertile soil. Any lack of these basic necessities will greatly affect the health of plants. Water the flower garden more frequently during dry spells.

When planting bulbs, make sure they are planted at the correct depth. When planting out shrubs and perennials, make sure that you don't heap soil or mulch up around the stem. If you do, water will drain off instead of sinking in, and the stem could also develop rot through overheating.

2. Mix and match perennials with annuals.

Perennial flowers and most bulbs need not to be replanted since they grow and bloom for several years while annuals grow and bloom for only one season. Mixing a few perennials with annuals ensures that you will always have blooms coming on.

3. Deadhead to encourage more blossoms.

Deadheading is simply snipping off the flower head after it wilts. This will make the plant produce more flowers. Just make sure that you don't discard the deadhead on the garden or mildew and other plant diseases could attack your plants.

Image via Wikipedia4. Know the good from the bad bugs.

Many garden insects do more good than harm. Butterflies, beetles and bees are known pollinators. They fertilize plants through unintentional transfer of pollen from one plant to another. 80% of flowering plants rely on insects for survival/propagation.

Sowbugs and dung beetles together with fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms are necessary to help in the decomposition of dead plant material, thus enriching the soil and making more nutrients available to growing plants.

Other insects like lacewings and dragonflies are natural predators of those insects that do the real damage, like aphids.

An occasional application of natural liquid fertilizer when plants are flowering will keep them blooming for longer (but don't apply too much, or the plants may put more energy into their foliage, and less into new blooms).

Always prune any dead or damaged branches. Fuchsias are particularly prone to snapping when you brush against them. For some plants, the broken branch can be potted up to give you a new plant, so it won't be wasted.

Short Video on Winterizing your Flower Garden

This quick video gives a few tips and ideas for preparing your flower garden to weather the winter storms, so that it comes back strong and beautiful next spring.

Although many may have already prepared your gardens for winter, in some climates the preparation is still going on, so this may be helpful for those of you in the southern states.


Preparing Your Garden For Winter : Protect Your Growing Plants & Flowers from Cold Weather
Plants and flowers need to be insulated from cold-weather conditions. Learn more in this free educational video series. Expert: John Guion, Arnetia Francis Bio: John Guion is the Area Manager for Bell Nursery in Burtonville, MD. He has 12 years exper...

 

Related articles on Winter Garden Preparations:

• Mulching in Your Flower or Vegetable Garden (hubpages.com)
• December In The Garden:Cool helps bulbs set flowers (commercialappeal.com)

Step One: What Type of Garden Do You Want?

Welcome back to our gardening series!

This article is the second in a series designed to help those interested in starting your own sustainable garden. Whether you are working with limited space, or have a large area available, whether you are interested in fruit, vegetables, or flowers, I hope you will find these tips helpful.

This week we are going to cover the first step in the process:

Image via WikipediaDecide What Type Of Garden You Want
If you’re thinking about starting a garden, the first thing you need to consider is what type of garden you want. There are many different choices and often it can be hard to pick just one, but hopefully these tips can help narrow it down. By narrowing it down, you’ll make the gardening experience easier on both yourself and the plants. If all your plants are similar in type, then it shouldn’t be very hard to care for them all. So here are some of the main garden ideas for you to choose from.

Flowers
If you’re just looking for something to look pretty in your yard, you may want to consider want a flower garden. There are a couple of different families of flowers available for your new garden. Perennial flowers are flowers which come back year after year. Different areas and climates have different flowers which are considered perennials.

Annuals are flowers which must be planted every year — usually in the spring, although this also will depend on your climate and location.

If you do a quick internet search for your area, you can probably find a list of flowers that will bring your new garden to life. Flowers are generally fairly easy to grow, since they often require the most work in the planting stage – after that, they usually can take care of themselves to some extent.

Vegetables
Another choice for your new garden is a vegetable garden. These usually require a Image via Wikipedialittle more work and research than a flower garden, but can be much more rewarding, as they can help you put food on the table! Depending on your climate, you may be able to produce vegetables in your garden for most of the year.

When starting a vegetable garden, you should build it with the thought in mind that you will be adding more types of veggies in later. This will help your expandability. Once all your current crops are out of season, you can rotate in new and different crops. This type of planning works very well for those with limited garden space. A vegetable garden is ideal for someone who wants some produce, but doesn’t want to devote every waking hour to perfecting their garden (see below.)

Fruit
One of the more difficult types of gardens to manage is a fruit garden or orchard. It’s definitely the most high-maintenance! When growing fruits, many more pests will be attracted due to the sweetness of the fruit. You’ll not only have to deal with having just the right dirt and fertilizer, you have to deal with choosing natural pesticides which won’t pose a health-risk to those eating the fruit.

Your fruit garden will probably not produce fruit year-round. The soil needs to be just right for the plants to grow, and putting in another crop during its off-season could be difficult, or even disastrous to its growth process. But if you’re willing to put lots of work into maintaining a garden which gives sweet rewards, then a fruit garden could be a good choice for you.

So now that I’ve outlined some of the main garden types that people choose, it’s time to spend a little time considering your decision. Basically, the garden type comes down to what you want to get out of it, and how much work you want to put into it. If you’re looking for a lovely looking garden with little work, go with a flower garden.

If you want to grow lots of delicious produce, and are willing to put in more time and effort, then go for a vegetable or fruit garden.

Just be sure this is something that you are going to enjoy doing — otherwise, it won’t be worth it for you to put in the effort involved.

In the next article in this series, we will discuss how to choose the best location for your new garden.

And as always, you can find more sustainable gardening tips and resources on our main website at http://www.newholisticliving.com/sustainablegardening.html.

See you next time!
Rose.