Spring Flower Garden Tips to Beautify Your Home

Planning Your Spring Flower Garden

 

We have the most amazing spring weather in Sonoma County right now and it’s the perfect time to plan your spring flower garden. Adding flowering plants and cut flowers to your garden can be easy and fun. Flowering plants and cut flowers add beauty and color to your garden while providing you with a bounty of cut flowers to beautify your home.

 

We share some tips below to help make your spring flower garden planning easy and fun. Planning a flower garden is half the fun and can make rainy days a little less dreary and add a fun activity to your evenings and weekends.

 

Sonoma County Has a Wonderful Growing Zone

Knowing your growing zone makes all the difference in the world between gardening success and failure. Growing zones are also known as plant hardiness zones and these zones help you know which plants will grow well in your garden and which plants will usually have a challenging time thriving.

 

Growing zones take into account many things including rainfall, humidity, your area’s shifts in temperatures, sunlight intensity, and other important factors that determine what will grow well in your area. The USDA or U.S. Department of Agriculture have maps on their website with all the latest input of weather information for our area. According to the 2023 USDA Hardiness Zone Map for Sonoma County, California, we have several growing zones, including Zones 10a (30°F to 25°F), 10b (35°F to 30°F), 9a (20°F to 25°F) and 9b (25°F to 20°F). You can input your area code to learn which hardiness zone your home is located in within Sonoma County.

Once you know your growing zone it becomes easy to search for plants that will grow well in your area. Many online gardening catalogs have search capabilities by hardiness or growing zones to make selecting your plants or seeds easy. My hardiness zone changed from a 9B in 2012 to a 10A in 2023 with changing weather conditions. So, it’s best to check yearly before ordering seeds or plants, because weather changes along with what will thrive in your area.

 

How Much Sun or Shade Does Your Garden Get?

Knowing how much sun or shade exposure your garden receives and at what time of day is important for choosing the best flowering plants for your garden. Creating a map of your garden area and then highlighting which areas get full sun throughout the day, partial sun and what hours, partial shade and what hours, and which areas are in full shade most of the day will help you plan a successful garden.

 

Plants need different light requirements; full sun makes some plants thrive and others die. Many bright-colored flowering plants do best in full sun, while ferns and leafy plants usually like partial shade or full shade conditions.

Even if most of your garden is shaded there are still many choices available of beautiful plants to create a gorgeous flower garden for your home. If you are fortunate to have a garden that is a mix of full sun, partial shade, and full shade, you can grow just about anything you want in your garden.

 

Do You Want to Plant Annually or Have Perennials?

 

Some people like to plant their flower garden once and be done with the project. Other people enjoy rotating out different flowering plants on a yearly basis or a mix of annual flowers and perennial flowering plants. Annuals last one season and perennials will grow year after year. I usually reserve my annuals to cut flowers and then perennials for the rest of my flowering plants because I don’t have the time to do that much planting each year.

It’s fun to add annuals to your flowering garden early because you can try out new plants each year and have an ongoing variety of plants in your garden.

 

What Flowering Plants Do You Want?

Here comes the fun part. We suggest making a list of the plants you love that grow in your area. Now it’s time to do some research for flowering plants that grow well in your area. It’s nice to have a variety of colors and also stagger your blooming season by choosing flowering plants that bloom at different times of year so you have a continual supply of cut flowers for your home.

 

Checking out online sources for ordering flowering plants and seeds can get you excited about your garden design. Once you have your list you can either purchase from a local nursery or order online. If you order online read the company’s reviews and go with the company that has the best reviews not only for healthy plants, customer service, and also their return policies.

Some bare-root rose companies guarantee their roses to thrive for a year after planting and this ensures that your costly investment in roses is backed by the company. So, ask friends who they order from, and check the company’s reviews, and also the company’s social media to see what is said about their products and their customer service.

 

The Fun Part-Designing Your Flower Garden

 

Most people love designing their flower garden layout. Once you have an idea of the plants that will thrive in your area, soil, and sun conditions, it’s time to do the fun part of laying out of your flower garden. This is the fun and creative part. It’s simpler than you think! Here are some easy ideas to get you started:

 

Mapping Your Flower Garden

Get a piece of blank paper or butcher paper to draw out your flower garden plan. Drawing your garden will allow you to try different ideas before ordering the plants and digging the holes to make sure they work for your particular space. Start with the rough dimensions of your garden as the outline, and color what areas get full sun, partial shade, and full shade.

 

Mapping Out Plants’ Height and Size

Knowing how wide and tall your plants grow is very important for a beautiful flower garden. A good rule is tall to the back of the garden and short to the front of the garden with medium-size plants in the middle. Arranging your plants by height adds depth to your garden. Planting by height also creates a good balance in your garden.

 

Plant Colors that Work Well Together

 

Knowing the color of your flowers lets you lay out your garden in a way that shows off the color of your flowering plants best. Some people plan their flower gardens by color blocks, so one area is mostly blue, yellow, or red with greenery dividing up the areas. I like planting with complementary colors in my flower garden.

Vary Textures in Your Spring Flower Garden

 

Varying textures will give your flower garden extra depth and beauty. Placing feathery plants next to smooth-leaved plants gives your flower garden contrast and added variety. I also like to vary whether plants move with the wind or are very stationary in their look because it gives your garden more interest. Having fun placing garden art in your flower garden whether gnomes, whirly gigs, or metal sculptures can enhance the overall look of your flower garden.

To have more time for what you love consider having Crystal Clear Home take house cleaning off your to-do list. Give us a call this spring at 707-827-3316 or fill out our FREE ESTIMATE form and one of our cleaning professionals will give you a call promptly to answer your questions and give you a cleaning estimate for your home.