How To Plan Your First Flower Garden

When I first started gardening, I didn't really know what I was doing. I planted anything to make my yard look prettier (with no mulch, LOL). Needless to say, I learned rather quickly that there was a lot for me to learn about gardening. This post will show you exactly how to start a flower garden, even if you're a beginner!

Fast forward six years, I LOVE gardening now! Spring is my favorite time of year for the sole purpose of making my yard look clean, well-kept, and inviting by creating beautiful gardens.

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How To Start A Flower Garden

Planning Your Flower Garden

Figure out exactly where you want your flower bed to go in your yard. Keep in mind what kind of sunlight will hit the spot that you choose, and base your flower choices on this information.

I find it's easiest to draw out exactly how I want my flower garden to look in my bullet journal!

Writing my garden ideas down in my bullet journal helps keep all of my ideas organized and together. If this sounds like something that would work for you, make sure you read my Ultimate Bullet Journal Guide for Beginners!

How to start a flower garden for beginners! A step-by-step guide on how to create beautiful flower gardens for your yard. Find great tips on how to landscape and plant a new flower garden just in time for spring!

You don't have to know exactly what flowers you'll put in your flower garden, but be sure to have a rough idea of what you'd like to plant or what flowers will thrive best in that area. Do a bit of research before you head to the store.

What You'll Need

If you've NEVER gardened before, you'll need to get a few tools in order to start:

Garden Gloves. I used to buy cheap gloves from the dollar store, now I buy the more expensive (but still a steal!) brands so they last me for the season or longer.
Garden Tools. This set is perfect for beginners!
Knee pad. You'll be happy you bought this- using a towel or nothing at all will kill your knees and you'll end up being sore the next day.
Soil Tiller. If you are starting from scratch, you'll need one of these to loosen up the soil in the area you are creating your garden.
Plant Food. This is important after your flowers are established in their garden beds.

You'll also need soil (more on this later), mulch, and of course flowers!

Setting A Budget For Your Garden

Creating a flower garden can become expensive quickly. Set a realistic budget that you can stick to when planning your flower garden.

If you aren't trying to spend a fortune on your new flower garden, make sure you read my blog post 10 tips for gardening on a budget!

How much area do you need to cover? Remember that perennials will get bigger and can spread, so try to save some space. It might look a bit bare in some areas but the following year it will come back bigger!
Where are you shopping for your plants? Sometimes private flower nursery prices are really high. Consider ordering some flower seeds online or shopping at Lowe's or Home Depot. Their prices tend to be a bit better.
Your garden doesn't have to be completed in one day! If you have a lot to purchase, spread out when you spend money on flowers so you aren't going completely broke.

Designing & Prepping Your Flower Garden

The beginning stages of starting a flower bed from scratch.

Now the fun part! Once you've decided where your garden will go, start digging up any grass or weeds in that specific area. This is when your tiller comes in handy.

Once all grass and weeds have been removed, use your tiller to dig up and loosen the soil.

When I start a new flower garden, I usually buy good garden soil from Home Depot or Lowe's and mix the entire bag into the area that I'm going to plant in, so the soil usually ends up being 50% native soil and 50% nutrient-rich soil that will help keep my plants healthy.

Flowers planted after soil has been tilled and weeded.

After the soil has been tilled and you've spread out your garden soil, pick out your flowers!

My advice is to pick out perennials first (the plants that will come back year after year) and then pick out annuals (you will need to replant these each year. I have had a few annuals randomly pop back up in my garden, but it's rare!)

Flower garden with flowers and plants in the ground and mulch being laid down in the flower bed.

Keep in mind how much space each plant needs and follow the guides on the plant tags accordingly.

Before you put them in the ground, place them in the flower bed while they are still in their pots, so you can get an idea of how they will look next to one another when they are completely planted.

Planting Your Flower Garden

When you're read to plant, start digging!

A flower bed that has been landscaped and is ready for mulch.

Dig a hole twice as deep as the container the plant came in. When you put the plant in the ground, be sure to rip at the roots at the bottom of the plant a bit, so that it's easier for the roots to take in the soil. Cover the roots, and lightly press the plant into the ground.

A useful tip is to incorporate different heights of plants in your garden.

When I first started, all my plants looked really uniform and were all the same height. Adding various heights will give your garden dimension and will make your yard SUPER eye-catching!

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that my first garden didn't have mulch and all of my soil washed away.

I didn't know how crucial mulch is for flowers! Mulch helps to control moisture, protects soil from being washed away, and makes all of your hard work look neat and landscaped.

Flower Garden Maintenance

After you're done planting all your flowers, make sure you take care of them according to their instructions on the flower tag that came with the container (if it helps, hang on to the tags until you know exactly how much water/sunlight/plant food each plant needs).

I highly recommend using plant food.

Make sure you follow the instructions on the package according to what kind of plants you are feeding! It's possible to over-feed your new plants and accidentally kill or burn them.

Watering your new plants is important also! But don't OVER water them. Sometimes it's best to wait a few days in between watering (depending on the plant, of course).

There's a ton of DIY tricks and tips out there for feeding and nourishing your garden. Some of them I've found to be helpful, others not so much. Gardening is a lot of trial and error. Thankfully, once you find what works for you, you'll get so much better at it!

My shade garden from last year! It came out so pretty, I was in love with it!

Comment below & let me know how your garden came out! What other tips have you found to be helpful when on how to start a flower garden? Comment below and let me know how your garden came out!