Yearly flowers last for only one growing season, unlike perennials, which come back year after year. Because of this, annuals tend to be much cheaper than their perennial counterparts and also create an excellent selection for adding bursts of color throughout your landscape for a portion of the cost. When designing a bed of annuals, the very same rules apply as if you’re designing perennial beds. You will want to plan the beds based on height, texture and colour, in addition to choose the right plants for your land and the amount of sun the bed receives.
Mark out your flower bed by means of a garden hose, string or spray paint. This will help you when you till the dirt and include amendments or fertilizers. Annual beds can be as small or big as you need because the blooms only last one season and also don’t develop especially big. Common bed shapes comprise half moon, half circle, circle, oval or rectangle, but you need the freedom to decide on the shape that works best in your lawn.
Sketch out your flower bed to scale on a sheet of chart paper. This will help you decide the number of plants you can place from the bed.
Have a look at your lawn and decide which colors best suit the rest of your landscape. For example, if your lawn is largely green with lush vegetation, you might want bold splashes of color to stand out and contrast or annuals with verdant leaf to accentuate that the greens currently in your lawn.
Make notes on your sketch about how much sunlight your bed gets. You will need this information when selecting your annuals in the nursery. For example, you should note whether you get only morning sun, afternoon sun, all day sun or filtered sunlight or if you’ve got a shaded bed. Begonias, impatiens, coleus and fuchsia are shade-lovers, but a couple of varieties of some of the plants will tolerate more sun. Dahlias, geraniums, zinnias, annual daisies and petunias are sun-loving annuals.
Visit a nursery early in the spring and check out its assortment of annuals. Take your sketch with you so you can decide on the right number of crops. Since annuals live for only one season, your best choice is to get them early because many nurseries sell from them fast. Annuals are also a favorite for planters and flower boxesthat increases demand. A general guideline is to receive your annuals before Mother’s Day when the selection remains wide. Read the descriptions of every annual you enjoy and choose the last dimensions and spacing requirements into consideration before you buy.
Plant taller annuals at the center of circular or stand-alone beds and stagger the height downward toward the outer sides. For beds against your house or smaller structures, keep taller annuals from the rear and sides while planting shorter ones toward the front. Some taller annuals incorporate many geraniums, accent grasses, many types of zinnias, some cosmos, spikes and coleus. Shorter annuals include begonias, calibrachoa, certain dahlias and creeping plants.
Clump your annuals in groups of three or even five of the identical type. That is a general rule for planting perennials too. The odd-numbered groups add interest and look much better as opposed to planting only one or two of a specific type in one area.