Flower Gardening For Beginners – the Secrets No One Tells You

So in this video I'm going to give you a complete crash course in Flower Gardening 101 and I know that some of you are already familiar with the basics of gardening and you may be inclined to skip this video but I encourage you not to because a lot of the things that are on this list are things that I thought I knew but I didn't really know and it caused me a lot of heartache and pain in my garden in the first one or two years before I kind of figured these things out. So whether you're brand new to gardening or you've been gardening for quite some time I think there are things on this list that will resonate with you and you're definitely going to learn something. So let's get right into it. So the first thing to know about flower gardening is that you have to put the right plant in the right place and that sounds really simple but that's really all it is. So in this video I'm going to go over a lot of the things that would be the criteria that you would use to determine whether you have the right plant for that right place and the first one I want to talk about is your gardening zone. So a lot of people in Facebook groups and online will ask you immediately what's your zone? What's your gardening zone? So your USDA hardiness zone is very simple you just google gardening zone by zip code and you can put in your zip code and it'll give you a number and a letter after it. So my zone here in northeast Pennsylvania is zone 6b and what this tells you is the plants that you could plant in your garden and that it will survive the coldest temperatures that it gets in the winter. That's literally it. It's just a determination of how cold your garden gets. So every number from six to seven is a 10 degree difference Fahrenheit in how cold it gets on average in the winter and every a versus b every half step is a five degree difference. So just the very baseline you have to know your gardening zone in order to determine if the plant that you want to plant will survive the winter in your area. In my opinion gardening zones really don't matter all that much. The reason that you do need to know your zone is if you're looking for information online. So if you're asking in a Facebook gardening group or if you're looking at blog posts online with different plants listed or if you plan to buy any of your plants online you'll need to know your zone so that you can filter down the results that you're getting and make sure that they're able to plant in your particular space. Other than that you don't really need to know that. If you're going to be shopping locally the plants that will be at the garden center where you are locally will definitely be suitable for your zone and it doesn't necessarily just because a plant fits into that particular zone that you're in doesn't necessarily mean it's going to survive in your garden. So there's a lot of other considerations that we're going to cover in this video that would make it clear as far as is this the right plant for the right place. The next thing to consider when planning your first flower garden is whether you're going to use perennial flowers or annual flowers and this gets a little confusing because you would think annual flowers would come back every year but annuals need to be planted every year. Perennials will you plant them once and they come back in your garden every single year. So the differences between the two typically perennials that come back every single year while they're beautiful and less maintenance they typically don't bloom as long as an annual plant will. So perennials will bloom for maybe four to nine ten weeks in your garden and then they'll stop blooming and they'll just be green and their life cycle will kind of continue the next year and they'll bloom at the same time next year. Annuals on the other hand in general will bloom for quite a bit of time so if you're choosing like zinnias or cosmos or impatience or things like that they will provide year-long color in your garden until it gets too cold in your area for the frost. If that's the case then they'll die out and they don't come back they can they complete their life cycle in one year. So a lot of times something that is a perennial plant will be considered annual in your zone and that's just because so in the south in Florida this plant that is considered an annual for you may be a perennial and it may come back every year in the south or in California or something like that but because the temperatures are so cold where you live it will just die. So there's that kind of annual that literally is a perennial but it just won't come back because it's too cold where you live so we consider them annuals in like colder climates and then there's other plants that are true annuals and they complete their life cycle in one year and some of those annuals will at the end of the year when they're done flowering they'll drop seed in your garden into the soil and potentially will grow back the next year through those seeds so they complete their entire life cycle in that one year. The next thing that you need to consider when you're planting your first flower garden is the sun requirements of the particular plant. So typically you'll see full sun, part sun, part shade, and full shade for the requirements and I like to just narrow it down to full sun, part sun, or shade and just have those three categories. So full sun will need six hours of sunlight per day for that plant to survive. Part sun or part shade would be anywhere from three hours to six hours of sunlight per day and full shade would be three hours or less of sun per day. So that's just sort of how I categorize it and it's just important to know that even if the area is a full sun area like it's a south facing property you may have other things on your property or in your neighbor's properties that may be restricting sun in some areas so you could have a lot of areas of your garden that are full sun and other ones that are in shade because they're blocked by a tree, by a fence, by a structure, by a building. Areas in side yards are typically shady because they're shaded by the house next to you so the best thing to do is create a sun map for this and then just watch the sun throughout the day and every couple hours record if the sun is actually on that spot or if you're seeing shade at that time and then determine if that particular area that you're planting gets over six hours or it gets somewhere from three to six or if it gets less than three. The next thing that you'll want to consider when planning your first flower garden is what type of soil that you have. So there are a lot of different ways to do this. There are home test kits, there are ways to send out soil samples to your master gardener extension can help you with that or you can just do simple testing at home. In my plant perfect activity book I have a couple different exercises you can go through. One is using a mason jar to test your soil and determine the different types of materials that are in your soil and about how much to get the type of soil. I also have a perk test in there that will help you determine how well your soil drains. So you may want to check out my plant perfect activity book. That's just one small part of that book and there's a lot of other things in there that will help you especially if you're new to gardening and starting with a blank slate and planning your space. But in general you can either test your soil or a really simple thing that you can do is just dig a hole and kind of grab the soil and try to ball it up. If it's in a ball and it stays sticky and it's like a sticky ball that probably means that you have more clay like material in your soil and that means that the drainage isn't going to be as good. And if it feels sandy and the ball is like not sticking and it's breaking apart you likely have more sand in your soil which means the water is going to drain really well. There's not one that's better than the other in my opinion. There's a lot of plants that will grow in sandy soil. There's a lot of plants that will grow in clay soil. So it's really just a matter of determining which type you have and then that will help you choose the right plant for the right place. A lot of plants don't like wet feet so they're not going to be great in clay soil where the water may sit. And some plants need a lot of water so they're not going to be happy in a sandier soil where they're drying out in between rainfalls or watering or things like that. So it's just something to keep in mind. It's a good thing to know what type of soil that you have. So after you determine those few things about your property, the soil, the zone that you're in, whether you're going to use perennials or annuals or a mix of both and how much sun that you're getting, you're going to be ready to choose your plants. So now you have a really good basis to use to actually choose the plants. And I like to just go online even if I'm not going to purchase the plants online. The online websites like Nature Hills Nursery or Fast Growing Trees or things like that usually have a lot of filtering features where you can filter by sun requirements, you can filter by your zone, you can filter by the type of soil that you have and things like that. And you can get a really targeted narrowed down list of plants that are actually going to work for your space. So that's definitely what I would recommend. And once you have those plants chosen, there's a couple things that you need to do to keep those plants alive. So the main thing to remember is that once you plant a plant, it can't really move out of that space. Plants don't have feet. So as a gardener, it's your responsibility to make sure that you're putting it in the right place and then giving it what it needs to survive. So the first thing is water. Plants need water to survive, especially when you're first planting that plant, you're going to have to water pretty regularly. If it's a perennial or something like that, you're going to need to water every day or every few days until that gets established. That can usually take a month or two. And if it's a larger shrub or tree, you may need to water consistently for an entire year. So the next thing that I would recommend is that you buy a simple rain gauge. And these are really cheap. You can get them online. You can get them at the garden store. And basically it's just a cup and it has measurements on it. So you stick it out in your garden. And when you get actually natural rainfall in your area, it'll tell you about how much. And every week you just dump that out. So in general, plants need about one inch of water per week to survive. So if it's rained at least an inch of water in your particular area, that means that you're good to go and you don't need to do any supplemental watering for your plants. And if it's less than one inch of water, then you're going to need to supplement with that water. And you may wonder how much is one inch of water. So in a one foot by one foot space, it's about 0.6 gallons of water would equal one inch. And I'll put a calculator in the description below that will help you determine. You just basically take the width and the length of your garden bed in inches, and then you can calculate about how much water is going to be needed for that particular area. And a good way to do this, like a simpler way to do this, you just have to do it once and then you're good to go, is I like to take that measurement. So say it's five gallons of water for the space that you have. I would take a five gallon bucket and I would just water into that bucket using whatever you're going to be using to water your garden bed. So if you have a hose, put the hose on shower and spray it into that five gallon bucket and time yourself. So that way, you know, okay, it takes me 20 minutes to fill this five gallon bucket. So I'm going to water my garden for 20 minutes. That's probably excessive. It's probably not going to take you that long to fill a five gallon bucket, but just as an example, and that calculator will be in the description below. So proper watering so that they can get established is really important. Okay. So they need water, they need food and they need shelter. So the next thing is food and that's fertilizer. Typically I will fertilize a new plants using Espoma Biotone and I'll put a link to the fertilizers. All the Espoma products I like, they're all very good. So I use that every time I plant a new plant. And typically from year to year, I will fertilize maybe twice with my perennials in the spring. And then again, like later in the fall or when they start blooming and I'll use a plant tone or some kind of Espoma product for that as well. If you're planting annuals or anything that really blooms heavily and has a lot of blooms, that's using a lot of energy for the plant. So you're going to need to supplement that with food and feeding them. And especially in containers where they're in a contained space and the nutrients in the soil are what they are. You may need to continue to add nutrients to the soil as you go. So just keeping up with feeding that plant, making sure that it has the proper amount of water and the proper amount of food. And then the next thing that we'll talk about is sheltering the plants. So this is kind of dependent on your zone as well. So if you are in zone six and you're growing a plant that can grow from zones six to nine, that means you're kind of on the edge of that growing zone. So there is the potential for it to get a little bit too cold for that particular plant. So in those situations where you're kind of on the edge or the border of the zone, you may need to take more care when deciding where to plant that plant, whether it's like sheltering it from the wind or from any of the harsh weather by tucking it into a corner or protecting it with like the side of the property or putting it in between. Something that's going to protect it and keep it away from the harsh environment. And there's also other things that can happen like heavy rain, storms, or just extreme heat or drought situations. And your plants are going to potentially respond to that in a negative way. So just keep an eye on all your plants. Make sure that they have the shelter and the protection that they need from any of the harsh elements that are out there. Okay, so the next consideration that you need to make is actually spacing out your plants properly. And a lot of new gardeners get this wrong because you buy this teeny tiny little perennial plant in the garden center and you plant them a little bit too close or too close to the property line, too close to the house, too close together, things like that, or really too far apart. So always know the full size of the plant that you're planting and make sure that you're planting accordingly. If you're planting trees or shrubs, I recommend following whatever the criteria is on the package. I'm going to have a video all about plant spacing that you can watch on my channel too. But in general, if the plant is going to get five feet wide, you need to plant from trunk to trunk if you have two of them, at least five feet apart, sometimes six if you don't want them to touch. With smaller perennials, you have a little bit more leeway as far as that goes because you can plant them, if it's a two foot wide perennial, you can plant them anywhere from two foot. You could even go kind of to 18 inches to make them fill out a little more. Just know that when you do that, they'll look nicer right from the beginning. So you'll have that great impact in the beginning. But as they grow, you may need to divide them, split them, and spread them out throughout your property. So it creates a little bit more maintenance in that respect because every couple years you may need to be splitting them. But at the same time, it kind of reduces maintenance in another way because if they're closely planted together, there's not a lot of ground space that's open and that's where the weeds come from. Anywhere there's bare ground, you're going to have weed pressure. So planting a bit more tightly in the beginning with smaller plants is a great idea. And for those larger ones, just make sure that you're giving them enough space. And also make sure you're not planting too close to your house. In general, if you're doing a foundation planting or something and you have a five foot by five foot shrub, an inclination would be to plant it two and a half feet from the house. But I'd add another foot or two out so that you could actually get behind that plant to do any kind of maintenance or especially if there's a spigot or any kind of like meters that need to be read, just be really cognizant of that and also be cognizant of where the windows and things are in your house so that you're not planting something that's too large and it's going to cover a window or block a walkway or something like that. Okay, so you've picked your plants and you have the spacing figured out. Hopefully you drew a little plan on a piece of graph paper with just little circles just to give yourself an idea and now you're ready to plant. Planting is really simple. It shouldn't be stressful. The only thing that I would recommend is making sure that you're following when your last frost date of the spring is. So I'll put a link in the description below for a frost date calculator. This is by Farmer's Almanac and it'll just tell you that, okay, it's safe to plant now in your area. There's likely not going to be any more frost because your new plants will not be able to tolerate that frost and annuals definitely won't be able to tolerate that frost. So if your frost date, for example, is May 1st in the year, I'd actually recommend waiting another week or two or at least checking the weather for the next few days or up to two weeks if you can and make sure that there's no time in that period where it's getting below freezing in your zone. And that will give your plants the best chance to survive in that situation. And once you're ready to plant, I recommend planting, digging the hole and making sure that you're kind of measuring how high it is in the actual container where you purchased it. And that's about as deep as you're going to go with your hole, but about twice as wide. So make sure you're planting at the same depth that it is inside of its container and then make it a little bit wider and add a little bit of compost or some of that biotone by Espoma and mix that in with the native soil that you have. Water it in really good and make sure you pack around it and then cover with mulch, but make sure the mulch doesn't touch the actual plant. Just put it around and that'll hold in some of the moisture and keep the roots a bit cooler while it establishes. A lot of people say with new plantings, the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap. So it's typically a three-year period for a lot of, especially larger shrubs and things like that, to get established because the first year it may look like they're sleeping, but they're actually building up that really good root system before they start growing foliage and starting to flower. So the second year you might see more growth on the foliage and the third year it might flower. There's definitely exceptions to this rule. I've actually designed and planted gardens and within by the end of that season they look great and they fill in over the next few years. So I would take that with a grain of salt. I hear a lot of people say it and I really don't believe that you need to wait three years to have an established looking garden, but at the same time it is good to know that at first they're going to be putting in down those roots before they start growing above the soil. So your job really is just to keep an eye on that plant, make sure it has the water, the food, the shelter that it needs, and be a patient gardener. So if there's anything I learned about gardening is that it'll teach you the art of patience. So while you're waiting for those plants to grow, you can check out some of my other videos. I'll put another one over here. I have tons of garden design tips and tricks on this channel and I will see you over the next video and you can keep learning while you're waiting for those plants to get established.