Gardening

The Basics of Annual Gardening 

 Annual plants are a testament to the adage, “it’s better to live a short wonderful life than to live a long but empty one.” These plants with their very brief lives provide their nurturers with only a short period of time to enjoy basking on their sweet fragrance and beautiful blooms. But this does not stop a lot of gardeners from planting annuals.  

Compared to perennial flower seeds that grow into long enduring blooms, short-lived annuals may seem to be a lot of work only to be enjoyed for a brief time. But the magnitude of beauty that you can feast your eyes on makes planting annual plants a truly worthwhile endeavour.  Planting annual flowers enables you enjoy a thick cluster of beautiful blooms of different sizes and colors without getting stuck with the same plants for a long period of time. For those who get easily bored with routines, having an annual garden is perfect because you can enjoy different kinds of plants each year.  

You can have annual plants in your backyard, in a plant bed or rock garden. You can also plant them indoors in containers and give your home a nice refreshing ambience that only plants and flowers can provide.  It does not matter whether you’re an experienced gardener or it’s your first time, a lot of annual plants are easy to grow flower seeds. With the vast variety you can choose from, you can easily create a garden that will suit and cater to your personality and interests. 

 Just like with any other garden, growing annual plants also takes a lot of effort and time. To help you create a masterpiece annual garden let’s go over with the step-by-step basics of annual gardening.  

1. First you have to do some research. Online, you will find dozens of information and resources that will help you plan your annual garden. Equipping yourself with the knowledge on annual plant species and the do’s and don’ts of putting an annual garden will help you a lot in your gardening experience.  

2. Prepare your garden tools. For your annual garden, you will need a hoe, rake, water sprinkler, spading fork, shovel and shears. Investing of high quality tools is always a good idea. Don’t rely on cheap equipment just because you think you’re saving money by doing so. You will just end up spending even more for repairs or for buying new ones to replace your broken tool. Besides, there are many durable tools that come in reasonable prices. Good quality tools will make your work a lot easier.  

3. Decide on which kind of annual plants to grow. A to Z flower seeds will provide you a convenient list of annual plants that you can start growing. Some of the most popular annuals include zinnia, marigold, poppies, bachelor button, daisies, larkspur, alyssum, snapflower, begonia, impatiens, marigold, petunia, and cosmos.  

2. Prepare your soil. Do this by clearing the plant bed and getting rid of unwanted plants using a hoe and rake. Till the soil six to eight inches deep while incorporating organic matter such as high quality peat.  Keep in mind that annuals need well-drained but moist soil. To test the sufficiency of moisture, see if the soil crumbles easily but retain its shape when you hold a handful on your palm. Annual plants will thrive healthily in soil that has 6.0 to 7.4 pH level.  

3. Sow the annual flower seeds of your choice into the soil. If you’ve purchased seedlings in cell packs, be sure to transplant them immediately. When transferring your plants, lift them from their container by squeezing the bottom of the pack. Water these immediately for the plants to efficiently take root. Be sure that there are enough spaces between the plants. 

4. If you intend to start an indoor garden with annual plants, start planting the seeds around eight weeks before the last day of frost. Plant them in well-drained but moist soil and expose them to 12-16 hours of sunlight or artificial light. As they grow, transfer them to larger containers.  The process of putting up an annual garden does not end with this step-by-step procedure.

They won’t grow up healthily on their own. Continuous maintenance and care is needed to ensure the success of your annual gardening.

Here are the four primary elements that will help turn a bunch of tiny flower seeds into a cluster of magnificent blooms:  

1. Sufficient water. The type of annual flower will tell you the amount of water it requires to grow up hale and hearty. Annual plants such as impatiens like moist soil whereas geraniums prefer soil that is a little dryer. To make sure you don’t make the mistake of over- or under-watering your plants, carefully read the label on the seeds to give you an idea on the condition that the plant favors.  

2. Enough sunlight. Again, the kind of the plant is the determining factor for how much sunshine it needs. There are annual flowers that grow best when exposed to direct sun while others go for some partial shade. It’s a good idea to get an advice from another experienced annual gardener or the person whom you bought the seeds from.  

3. Right kind of soil. It’s the same thing with soil. Prepare and maintain the soil according to the needs of the particular annual plant you have.  

4. Proper care. Your annual plants need some tender loving care too. No, you don’t need to buy the most expensive tools or fertilizer, just visiting your plants and spending a couple hours of each day with them to see if they are doing great are quite enough.  Annual gardening is an experience like no other that every gardener should go through. The wondrous beauty and the amazing flower scents are just few of the many rewards you can get from planting annual flowers.

Sometimes, it’s hard to let go of them especially after you’ve grown fond and become attached. But that’s the beauty of it. Annual plants and flowers make their short stay the best there is.  

Tags: easy to grow flower seeds | easy to grow flower seeds | perennial flower seeds | perennial flower seeds | A to Z flower seeds | A to Z flower seeds | annual flower seeds | annual flower seeds | wildflower seeds | wildflower seeds | flower seeds | flower seeds

del.icio.us Digg Furl Reddit

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 4:46 pm and is filed under gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.