Flower Garden Ideas

Nowadays you can buy bedding plants of just about any kind of flower imaginable. They cost more. For what you would spend for a couple of bedding plants all ready to set out in your flower bed, you could buy a package of seeds and have a whole yard of blooms maybe.

There is many a slip between seed and clip, to coin a phrase. Some of you can sow a packet of seeds and barely have time to leap back out of the way before your flower bed is ablaze with beautiful blooms ready to be cut and transported to the flower vases. Others of us must toil and plod and perhaps harvest a spindly, little zinnia at midsummer. For these brown-thumbers, hope is at hand in the sturdy, well-branched bedding plants found at your local garden supply stores, all ready for planting in your garden.

For sunny gardens, the most reliable and popular kinds of annuals are ageratum, marigolds, petunias, salvia, snapdragons, and sweet alyssum. For the shady garden where there is some good light, the most useful annuals are wax (or fibrous-rooted) begonias, coleus, and impatiens.

Marigolds are produced in several varieties and sizes of flowers and in plants of different heights. Choices include the low bedding varieties, the remarkable "hedge type" marigolds and the taller-growing specimens which flower later in the season.

Petunias are the mainstay of the sunny flower garden, and the new hybrids are better than ever. Choose the colors and forms you like. Red, white and blue varieties of petunias are available. Snapdragons are produced in clear vibrant, colors on tall, medium or short-stemmed plants. They are good for display and for cutting. There are open-faced kinds! As well as the familiar hooded varieties.

Wax begonias can be used in sunny gardens, but they also do well in partial shade. Begonias are available in heights from 10 to 18 inches, characterized bygreen or bronze-colored foliage. Other valuable plants for the shade garden include Impatiens, now appearing in wider color ranges and increased flower size, and colorfully-leaved coleus.

If you're gardening on level ground, try building a mound slightly higher in one area for another dimension in your garden. Ageratum, alyssum, asters, begonias, calendula, geraniums, marigolds, petunias, vinca, and zinnias are some good kinds of bedding plants for a mound garden. A mulch spread between plants will prevent possible erosion before plants grow together;

For cutting flowers buy plants of asters, bells of Ireland, calendulas, carnations, larkspur, marigolds, stock, and zinnias. Strawflower plants produce flowers for colorful dried arrangements. Heliotrope sand flowering tobacco plants have fragrant flowers. Ivy-leaved geraniums, lantana, dracaena, petunias, and variegated vinca vines are excellent for container gardens.

The same holds true for vegetables. Many people prefer to start their own vegetable plants from seeds grown indoors and then set them out in the gardenwhen danger of frost is past. However, already started vegetable plants can be bought in units of one, six, or more, depending on the gardener's needs.They are easy to plant, and quicker crops are possible for home gardeners using them.

Tomato plants are the most popular. Choose sturdy plants of fine hybrid or old reliable varieties. Just be sure they're disease resistant. In addition to the red, tomato, there are large yellow tomatoplants, as well as cherry and plum tomatoes. Staking these will conserve garden space. Dwarf plants which produce medium-sized fruits have become popular for planters or for hanging baskets.

Pepper plants also are sought by many home gardeners. The green hell pepper salads or stuffing ripens to red later in theseason. Sweet frying peppers and spicy "hot" peppers can be grown from plants offered at your garden simply store. Broccoli, cabbage, celery, and onion plants are available at your garden supply store in the cooler days of early spring. They do well in the garden in cooler weather.

Celery and onion plants should be planted at distances equal to the size of the celery or onion when mature. Broccoli, 12 inches apart. Cabbage, 18 inches apart. Eggplant transplants, parsley, and other herb transplants are available at most garden supply stores at the proper planting time. You may also, find potted plants of summer squash and cucumbers. Try planting marigolds in the vegetable garden beside vegetable rows or between vegetable plants. Marigold root systems excrete a substance harmful to certain soil nematodes which attach to plant roots in the vegetable plot, providing the garden with a natural pesticide control.

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