Gardening is not a simple hobby or a splendid pastime, but an activity that benefits the organism as a whole. Taking care of plants and beautiful flowers allows you to stay in shape, improve your health and to increase personal self-esteem. Yet it is not a simple activity, especially for those approaching this art for the first time since it requires dedication, patience and study.
What are the tips for excelling in gardening, what are the most popular styles and what tools and techniques to apply? Here are some useful tips for beginners in gardening flowers.
Choose Perfect Soil for Flower Plantation
Before coming towards suitable flowers, beginners have to consider the soil and temperature they are going to plant in. Check whether the soil is sandy and rich of ingredients in which you are going to plant your flowers. As the plants need salts and nutrients to grow faster. Sandy loam seems perfect for the flower’s plantation, as it helps in natural drainage and roots growth. For the flowers in pots potting soil is the best. A flower garden soil needs to contain a mixture of compost in it; for the healthy growth of plants.
Flowers for Beginners
Now let’s talk about the flower’s beginners can start planting in their gardens:
Geranium
Geranium is the balcony flower par excellence. It produces many colourful and fragrant flowers, and it is inexpensive too. Geranium is also very easy to plant. Just take a small branch out of a pot and insert it into the soil, forming a fairly deep recess. Being careful to clean the trunk of the leaves and eliminate the dried flowers.
Primrose
Primrose is one of the very first flowers that announce the arrival of summer. This flower was once called “pale flower” because of its soft and opaque colours. But today thanks to the selection, hybridization and introduction of new species. The primroses give us bright colours, sometimes incredible, with refined designs, or with an antique look. They are sold in small inexpensive pots and can colour any environment: from the house to the balcony, to the garden. Primroses are a simple flower to take care of.
Tulips
Tulips are the symbolic flowers of spring. Colourful and cheerful, they bring back a smile and a good mood. Tulips have often used to create beautiful bridal bouquets. You can buy vases of tulips already blooming in spring, or buy bulbs, and try to plant them. The ideal time to plant tulip bulbs is from October to late November. If temperatures allow you can plant it even in the first days of December.
Climbing Roses
Climbing roses are perennial shrub plants that produce beautiful flowers, and for this reason, they are grown for ornamental purposes both in pots and in the garden. These types of roses are very suitable for decorating porches, arches, walls and walls of balconies.
Lobelia
If you have a balcony or garden in the shade, another perfect plant to grow is Lobelia. From April until the first colds it produces a cascade of small tubular flowers, of an intense purple, blue, blue, white, or pink colour. Lobelia is a simple plant to grow and is widespread in European gardens. The best variety to grow on the balcony is Lobelia Erinus, originally from South Africa. It grows very quickly and is perfect to put in hanging pots, next to geraniums and surfinias.
Modern alternatives
As easy to guess, the creation of a garden does not necessarily have to respect the classic canons of the disciplines already mentioned above. In recent years, for example, new trends are emerging. With the affirmation of increasingly functional green spaces: the garden has no longer considered as a pleasant place to visit. But it has taken as a means of responding to specific needs. Among the many, we list:
Vertical garden:
Increasingly appreciated in urban contexts, it solves the lack of space by creating green spaces along the walls of the buildings. The alternatives are the most varied. From the reproduction of miniature woods to coverings with moss or climbing varieties, up to real urban gardens.
Edible garden:
It is an evolution of the classic vegetable garden. It is for that the green area is not only a place of cultivation but also a site to live daily and relax. Instead of ornamental varieties, fruits and vegetables that might be grown, as well as aromatic herbs, natural and herbal remedies, and more in home planting like microgreens. Because research confirms that we can earn many natural remedies even from flowers.
Therapeutic garden:
This type of garden focuses on the psychological well-being of the individual. So that the garden becomes a place of meeting and socialization. This socialization is useful for eliminating tensions, anxieties and fears. Also, with visual and olfactory stimulations; you can make use of plants with known calming properties.
Basic Tools and Techniques
Finally, before embarking on the landscaping of a plot to turn it into a beautiful garden. It is useful to learn which tools can never be missing, as well as some basic techniques. As for the former, the essential equipment includes at least hoe, shovel, rake and shears. To which add watering pipes and pots, the latter if you do not want to leave flowers and plants in a permanent home.
As for the techniques, it is useful to know some basic definitions:
Fertilization
It is the procedure that leads to the fertilization of the soil, adding substances that increase its nutrients. For example, organic fertilization improves the soil with nitrogen components, using natural fertilizers such as compost.
Sowing, Repotting and Transplanting
They represent the stages of growth and definitive insertion in the dwelling of all plants. With the sowing, as the name suggests, the growth of the plant will take place starting from its seed. With the repotting, on the other hand, we take already grown plants; to house them in a larger container. While the transplant consists in the transfer of a seedling from the pot to the final home.
Cuttings
It is the ability to obtain a new plant from an element cut from an existing one, for example, a sprig. With this procedure, a second specimen has obtained with the same genetic characteristics as the original one.
Grafting
Grafting is the technique that allows you to plant a different species on the trunk or branch of an existing one. It is to obtain decorative hybridizations.
Pruning
Pruning is the operation that allows you to shape a variety while controlling its vertical and horizontal development. It can be made for ornamental needs, but also to remove dry or diseased branches. So that they do not affect the entire flower plant.
Mulching
Mulching is the practice that allows the cultivated varieties to be preserved over time, by the action of the climate in the coldest months of the year, and by the proliferation of weeds. It has achieved by placing a dense covering around the plants of the flowers. Either it is a cellophane sheet, or natural elements, such as gravel, shavings, sawdust, or shards.
3 Main Rules For The Correct Maintenance Of Green Spaces
- To become aware: that a garden is like a living being and therefore needs care and attention. But above all water matters, like all animals, it suffers or even dies.
- Carry outworkings: fertilization and treatments in the right period. In case of lack of experience, get help from a professional or inquire on the Web.
- Having passion: if you do not have the passion, manage the maintenance to a specialized company, which will agree on the interventions and costs.
Advice For Having A Flowered Garden Or Terrace
The selection of essences is essential for the high-grade final result. We must always keep in mind the exposure and consequently choose the most suitable plants.
On the terrace, since the plants will get placed in pots or planters, there will be a greater need for watering, especially if the exposure is south. Consequently, automatic drip sprinkling is advisable.
The blooms to prefer are the seasonal ones in the south, better to opt instead of the acidophilic ones in the north (Hydrangeas, Azaleas, Pieris, Rhododendron, Camellias etc). Remember that all plants need nourishment, even more in the vegetative phase, but above all potassium during flowering.
The same general guidelines apply to the garden. The difference has represented by the presence of flowering shrubs. It can differ in times and ways of pruning, depending on the species.
Winter flowers
In addition to being the coldest month of the year, January is also the period in which we must protect our plants. The activities of January vary concerning the climate and exposure, as well as the type of plants present on the ground.
If we live in areas with a harsh climate, we must, without doubt, expect frosts. A simple remedy for frosts could be to transfer plants to indoor but well-lit spaces. If you do not have the opportunity to bring the plants indoors, you can remedy them by sprinkling them with straw or dry leaves. If, on the other hand, we live in milder areas, we can proceed with planting and possibly also with pruning.
Where to plant fragrant flowers?
The most suitable places for the cultivation of these beautiful and fragrant flowers are flower beds in the garden. Cultivate along a path, under a patio, on the windowsill, on the balconies. To enjoy their beauty and their scent at all hours of the day and evening, alternate them about their hatching and their flowering period. The most fragrant and brightly coloured ones should always be positioned far from the area intended for the children’s play area. It is to prevent them from being stung by pollinating insects and also far from people most sensitive to pollen or fragrance allergies.
Flowers are the portion of the plant that stands out most to the eye. Characterized by flashy shapes, varied colours, and intense fragrances, these splendid jewels of nature have always captured the human imagination.
Flower Parts and their Symbolism
The flower is composed of four main parts, calyx, corolla, stamens and carpels. Which take on different features depending on the species they belong to. The flowers represent the reproductive apparatus of the plant and have the function of attracting the insect prònubi to make pollination possible.
Each flower has its meaning, unique and profound, made of colours, perfumes, shapes and sensations. It enriches the symbolic value of an important moment or a special gift, of love, friendship, thanksgiving, affection. Therefore, giving a flower or having flowers at home can change many aspects of our life positively. Precisely for this reason we should plant more flowers and enjoy all the benefits it gives us.