There are few things as rewarding as a garden filled with flowers in the spring and summer months! It takes sweat and getting your hands dirty, but the colors and scents that flowers bring are exactly what gets people hooked on gardening in the first place. Here are some tips for creating a successful flowerbed for your Dallas home.
It all starts with solid preparation work
Without a good foundation, flowers just aren’t going to thrive, so preparing your flowerbed properly is essential. If you are starting from scratch, choose your location carefully, preferably a space that is in full or partial sun.
The second step is to dig out all the weeds, grass and unwanted plants or spray with a weed killer. Digging out is quite a bit of manual labor, but it does have its advantages over using herbicide, especially since its eco-friendly and you won’t have to wait until the weeds have died and the herbicide is flushed out of the bed before planting your flowers. All you have to do is take a flat shovel and dig down 4-5 inches around the bed’s outer edge and lift out the top layer of soil along with the grass. Be sure to carefully remove this soil, as it will contain seeds from grass and weeds that you won’t want in your flowerbed.
The third step is to prepare the soil. Soil generally comes in two types – sandy and clay – but both will need some improvement if you want the best from your flowers. This means adding lots of organic material and digging it in well, which is much easier to do before the plants arrive. Start by loosening the soil in the bed to a depth of around 8 inches, removing any rocks and breaking up heavy clods of dirt. Then spread about 2-3 inches of organic compost, mulch or well-rotted manure on top of the bed and turn the soil so that it mixes in well. Rake the bed to level it out.
The acidity or alkalinity of your flowerbed can affect plant performance too, so it’s a good idea to get a simple soil analysis from your local garden center so that you can either take steps to change the acidity of the soil or so that you can plan for plants that thrive in that particular soil type.
It’s also a good idea to edge your flowerbed properly, as it really does look great as well as helping to prevent grass growing into the bed and soil erosion. You can get really creative with this, using short wooden edging, cinder blocks, natural rocks, brick, or even terracotta pipes.
Flowering plants that flourish in Texas heat
When choosing plants for your garden in Texas, it’s important to consider their heat tolerance and the amount of water they’ll require. Here are some of the most rewarding flowers to consider.
- Salvia farinacea – A Texas native, this plant will bring hummingbirds and butterflies to your garden. It’s exceptionally drought tolerant, growing to a height of 2-3 feet with foot-long purple flower spikes. It’s deer-resistant too.
- Cape plumbago – This is a large, bushy plant with bunches of sky-blue flowers through the spring and summer. It can grow as a rambling groundcover, a manicured hedge or fall over a low wall. It loves heat, sandy soil and is pretty drought-tolerant, but it is vulnerable to frost.
- Grandma’s Yellow Rose – If you love cut flowers, this rose is incredibly rewarding to grow, with fragrant blooms all through spring, summer and autumn. It grows to around 4-5 feet in height, needs around 6 hours of sun a day and loves the heat – although it will need regular watering and feeding to produce blooms. It’s hardy but might need some frost protection in winter if you’re in an area that gets severe frost.
- Belinda’s Dream Rose – This pink rose is a Texas Superstar and the first rose to receive the Earth-Kind designation, making it one of the best roses to grow with the least water and care! It grows around 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide, producing fragrant, double-petal blooms.
- Desert rose – Succulents are obviously one of the most drought-resistant types of plants you can grow, and this one is well-known for its beautiful flowers. It loves full sun, only needs a little water through the summer, and requires well-drained soil.
When planting your new plants, remember to plant them at the same depth as they are in their container, to water them well after planting, and to plant in the early evening or early morning.
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