You've decided to put in a flower garden. Maybe you envision a long perennial border reminiscent of English gardens, or you want a casual cottage-style garden full of flowers. Either way, you'll soon discover that the sheer number of options you have when deciding which flowers to include in your garden can be quite overwhelming. The easiest way to narrow down your choices is to consider several important aspects of growing a flower garden.

When choosing perennials for your organic flower garden, you'll want to think about sunlight and soil requirements, height, shape, and color. Here are some tips for choosing the best perennials for your garden.

Sun and Soil Requirements

Every garden starts here, by evaluating the soil and how much light the area gets. Failing to evaluate your garden in this way will doom you to failure before you even begin.

As you choose perennials for your garden, you'll need to know what their preferred soil conditions are, and then group perennials with the same preferences together in the right places. For example, if you have a spot with well-drained soil, you can grow a variety of plants there that prefer not to have their roots sitting in overly damp soil. If you have an area that tends to stay wet, you'll know you can place plants that prefer a more moist soil, such as delphiniums or phlox, there.

Of course, you have to take the amount of sun the spot gets into account as well. If your site is in blazing sunlight for eight to ten hours a day, you'll want to look for plants that prefer full sun AND whatever type of soil you have in that area.

It it's a shady spot, look for plants that prefer shade. When considering the type of light a spot gets, you'll want to evaluate it during the main growing season, after your trees have leafed out; the site will look quite different before and after the trees have their leaves.

Height and Shape (And Texture, Too!)

The best way to get a really attractive look for your perennial garden is to vary the heights, shapes, and textures of your plants. You'll want to grow a range of plant sizes, from short and round, to tall and wispy. Organize your plants by height, so that the tallest plants are at the back of your beds (though bringing the occasional tall plant forward adds a lot of visual interest.) Low growing perennials make great edging for your beds. By combining both plants that have tall, more structural forms with mounding, flowing plants, your garden will have plenty of interest.

It pays to pay attention to texture when choosing your plants as well. Try combining plants with wide strappy foliage with those that have feathery, wispy foliage. Round leaves with long thin leaves, or tall feather grasses with mounding foliage. This ensures that even if things aren't in bloom, they still combine in a way that makes your garden look interesting.

 

Color

Some gardeners love a riot of color, and will put any and all flower and foliage colors together in a garden. Others may prefer a more planned, coordinated method. A good tip for those who want this look is to choose two or three main flower colors, with maybe another one or two other colors for a pop of contrast. This will simplify your plant choices, since you can then narrow down your selection to just a few colors.

Planning an organic perennial garden is a lot of fun. By keeping things like soil and sun, size and color in mind, you can confidently put together a beautiful garden.