For Wildflower Week, Design A Mini Wildflower Garden
The second week of May is National Wildflower Week. While clean and beautiful landscapes are all the rage, having a spot in your garden for a mini wildflower meadow will make a beautiful addition to your landscaping. To help inspire you, we have put together some information about designing a wildflower garden for Wildflower Week.
Benefits of a Wildflower Garden
Besides providing a unique dimension to your landscaping, planting wildflowers has many benefits. Because of the grass you have to plant to support wildflower plants, it greatly reduces the amount of weeds that crop up in that section of your yard. Additionally, the wildflowers you plant can attract songbirds and butterflies to give your garden a truly magical effect. The garden provides a miniature habitat for these animals and can provide food for them as well.
Basics of Wildflower Planting
The location of your wildflower garden should be in a sunny location that receives a minimum of six hours of sun. The garden will have to be watered frequently in the beginning, about twice a day, but after the garden is growing it will need little to no care. Seeding the garden will be a little tricky depending on your flowers chosen, so it is best to consult with a landscaping design professional to get it right.
Design Tips for Success
There are a few things you can do when you plant wildflowers to create a lovely, eye-catching landscape feature. Besides some of the obvious items, like planting tall plants further back and shorter plants near the front, here are some wildflower garden design tips.
- Plant the wildflowers in waves of color for a detailed and dramatic look. To avoid weeds, plant more than two plant species and choose an easy grass that will not compete for soil.
- Place wildflowers in a way that will allow you to have flowers blooming year round. Research each wildflower to see when it blooms the best. Then space those blooms out throughout your wildflower garden so you have something to look at in the fall and winter.
- Make focus points in your wildflower garden with large plants or bunches of the same wildflower.
Easy Flowers to Plant in Your Wildflower Garden
If you are not an experienced gardener, try these easy flowers for your wildflower garden.
- Bachelor Button, also known as Cornflower, will grow up to 24 inches tall. They are good for cutting and will germinate in 14 days.
- Coreopsis will grow to 18 to 24 inches tall and bloom for a long time. They are tolerant to drought and will germinate in five to ten days.
- Cosmos will grow to 40 to 48 inches tall and are one of the easiest wildflowers to grow. While they are good for cutting, they will have a short vase life and will germinate in seven to 10 days.
- Marigold will grow up to 36 inches tall and germinate in four to seven days.
- Mexican Sunflower will grow to 30 to 48 inches tall and are long-blooming. They are tolerant to drought and will germinate in seven to 14 days.
- Sunflowers will grow to 24 to 36 inches tall but have a short blooming season. They germinate in seven to 14 days.
- Zinnia will grow to 18 to 24 inches tall and there are many varieties available. They are great for cutting and will germinate in three to seven days.
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