How can I make by myself a flower garden?Do you recommend dig?

The soil is a little bit rocky and moddy

How can I make by myself a flower garden?Do you recommend dig?
If this is your first flower garden, first decide how big you want it to be and mark out the area with something like a rope or hose. I recommend you start small to experiment and save money, (you will have some successful plants and some failures until you get the hang of what you can grow in your area).



The next step is to remove the rocks, (if you like rocks you can always use some as accents in your garden), and other debris like sticks. Use a shovel to turn the soil to a depth of 8-12", (deep is good...roots of flowers go deep into the soil), and examine it. Remove as many rocks as possible.



Now this is important: get a kit and test your soil. You can get a kit for soil testing at garden centers, and some home centers. Ask someone at a local hardware store or garden center. The kit is inexpensive, and it will tell you your soil ph, which will let you know what to add to the soil. Some soil will need lime to reduce the acidity, and some will need the alkalinity reduced, (usually easily accomplished with the addition of composted cow manure).



Once you know what you need to add, I recommend doing that first and working the additives into the soil by hand with the shovel.



Do you make your own compost? If you are serious about flower/vegetable gardening, you should know that your soil IS your garden, and the best way to care for your soil is to add organic material to it, (compost is made up of organic materials like leaves, grass clippings, kitchen vegetable scraps, straw, etc...check out composting on line...just google it). If you can't make your own, (or are just starting), try to get some compost from a local source. Check in your local newspaper or postings at garden centers. Also, ask a neighbor with a garden. You don't want to add potting soil, you want compost and/or a good planting mix intended for outdoor gardens. Vermont's "MOO" products are good but expensive. If your garden is small, I would start with a couple of bags of complete planting mix by Moo if you can not buy local compost.



Once you have a nice area of soil turned with your shovel, rake it out lightly with a metal rake. Measure out the area, (this will help you figure your square footage and the # of plants you need to buy).



My advice is to start out with some simple things that survive easily in your zone. I am not sure of where you are gardening so I can't help you here...but look up your area of the country on line for USDA growing zones, and when you buy plants be sure that they are hardy to your zone.



Add compost mulch to your garden once you have planted it, and/or natural bark mulch if you like that look. Mulch is key to garden success to keep down weeds, conserve moisture and keep roots cool. Mulch builds soil and attracts your good friends...worms.



Good books to help you by flower garden authors:



Tracy DiSabato Aust, (garden maintenance book)

Stu Campbell, (The mulch book)



any perennial book will help you choose plants for your hardiness zone.



Good luck and remember, it takes time to get a good garden going! Failures are just steps to success.
Reply:Thank you so much for all your help.I am working already on it.

thanks again... Report Abuse
Reply:What you will probably have to do is dig out the rocky / muddy soil. Where I live its kind of the same. Dig it out to a depth of around 8 inches and then replace it with a 1 to 1 ratio of potting soil and compost. Mix it will and add in some extra fertilizer for plants. You can get those bags and fertilizer at gardening centers or home improvement stores. It can be kind of expensive initially to start it that way, but you could start with a smaller bed and then add to it later. But it is so much easier to work with, looks better and the flowers grow a lot better in it as well. Plus its easier to irrigate.
Reply:Don't forget to put the plastic barrier in the ground around it to keep it separated from the lawn.

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