Gardening Guide: Essential Tips for a Blooming Garden

May is a turning point for your flower garden. The tulips, daffodils, and crocuses are long gone, and it's time to take the spring flower spectacle to the next level. Use these essential tips to keep your flowers happy and healthy, as well as the stars of the show all summer long.

Grow your flower garden sustainably

Sustainable practices work along with nature, not against it. A flowering garden is a chance to be kind to the planet. Grow your flowers organically without using pesticides. Control weeds by adding a layer of organic mulch around your plants. It will suppress emerging weeds while helping the soil to retain moisture. If you need to use a pesticide, look for the least toxic one available.

Grow pollinator-friendly flowers

Bees, butterflies, and pollinating birds will flock to an organic garden. Planting flowers like cosmos, zinnia, and lavender will produce tasty nectar for our pollinating friends. As pollinators move from flower to flower, they disperse the pollen collected on their bodies and legs. Your flowers will become a part of the life cycle that includes us humans.

Plant flowers of various colors

To attract a diversity of pollinators, plant flowers in various colors. Bees especially have good vision and are attracted to yellow, white, purple, and blue. Orange and fuchsia are bright colors that pollinators love.

A colorful flower garden is a feast for your eyes, too. You'll certainly want to bring the beauty indoors to enjoy and share during all the late spring and summer events like Mother's Day, graduations, and weddings.

Local and native plants are best

For your flower garden, it's best to go with local and native plants rather than exotic ones. They will be more adaptable to the conditions of your growing zone. They will also be more attractive to native pollinators. Research online or visit your local garden center for advice.

Water your flowers

As the temperatures rise, water your flowers often and well. Deep, consistent watering is best. Monitor soil levels, especially in cooler climates and during those mid-spring cool spells, and adjust accordingly. Water in the mornings, the earlier, the better, before the hot sun comes out to evaporate the life-sustaining liquid. Unevaporated water droplets on the petals and leaves provide a cool drink for pollinators.

Flowers need food

Like people, flowers need good nutrition to be healthy. Although organic compost and mulch enrich the soil, these nutrients may not be enough for big, showy blooms. Supplement your flowers' diet with a liquid or granular plant food with a 10-10-10 label. This indicates nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium and may be abbreviated to N-P-K.

Plant flowers for all the seasons

Gardeners who love to grow flowers want early bloomers and pretty flowers for as long as possible. Zinnias, geraniums, and marigolds are good early summer bloomers.

After you get the early bloomers in the ground, you'll have time to plan a sequence of blossoms for your garden that will last until the first fall frost. Visit your local garden center to see what is current for the season in your region.

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