Good flower garden design is the result of good planning. Be careful not to place too much emphasis on a colorful spring, also plan ahead.

Plan ahead and enjoy the best results

Make sure to plan spring, summer and autumn bloomers. I know the months after the grey winter we are drawn outside and are prepared to work out butts of, but with some planning your garden will be an explosion of color and a quick succession of blooming flowers the whole gardening season.

So if you want your garden to look good in spring, summer and autumn, do some planning at the start. If you are going for annuals, choose plants that bloom in all seasons where possible.

Long Bloomers

Choose those with longer blooming seasons over those that only bloom for one or two weeks. Consider all the work you have to put in, plant, water and weed. And the net result is two weeks of bloom. This to me sounds like a waste. If you really adore those short bloomers, then go ahead and put them, but mix in some longer bloomers too.

Mix Annuals and Perennials

If you mix annuals and perennials in the same garden, you can put the perennials into the middle and keep the short annuals for the edges. You could alternate things like mondo grass and pansies for an attractive edging, and then when the pansies are starting to fade off, you still have the mondo grass.

Some tips on Bulb Layering

The Bulb Flowers that announce spring usually don't last long. There is a nice trick to overcome part of this challenge, plant them on top of each other. Meaning plant them in layers. Plant some really early bloomers like...sneewklokje in layer one and for example daffodils underneath them. Or use layer on for crocusses and the second for tulips

The process of planting the bulbs is simple dig deeper them you are used too. Place the bulbs that are second in line. Cover them with a layer of soil and proceed with the second layer.

Alternatives

Or you could design your garden so that spring, summer and autumn flowers are interspersed throughout. That way there will always be something of interest to look at. If there is a bare spot, pop in something from the nursery that will soon be blooming.

This introduction to a planned flower design was meant as an "aanmoedonging to be creative in your approach. Its fun to plan things like this on the computer. Use some good design software for this purpose.