Seasonal Planting
Seasonal Flowers Landscaping
A collection of well-planted, beautiful flowers is unmatched in beauty. There’s a reason that Buckingham Palace pulls out the stops and lines huge flower beds with wave petunias and other small bursts of color. There’s a reason floral prints are so feminine and endearing. It’s because flowers are some of the most beautiful things you can encounter in nature, and it’s impossible to ignore their attraction. In fact, it’s one of the many ways that you can begin elevating your outdoor space. Planting flowers, whether you’re investing in a flowering tree or a seasonal bloom, is the perfect way to start making your yard a unique living space that you and your guests can enjoy. It’s a way of accessing pure, natural beauty and utilizing it to make your home more comfortable and stunning than ever before.
But, apart from aesthetics, there’s loads of benefits that flowers offer. They can improve your yard health and the health of the ecosystem around you.
Improve Your Yard Health
A yard that’s full of color is a yard that’s full of healthy life. And that’s especially true when speaking of your flowers. They protect against a silent menace to your newly decorated and orderly backyard: soil erosion. It’s a problem that plagues people on every continent and in every type of environment imaginable, and it’s a pain to boot. While erosion is a natural process, human activities seem to be disrupting and changing the natural dynamics and causing soil erosion to become more of an epidemic than anyone could have guessed possible.
The Root of the Problem
Because deforestation has taken root all over the world, erosion is becoming a larger issue. Indeed, the rate of soil loss has increased by 52%, and we lose around 75 billion tons of soil due to that erosion. It renders land infertile and in need of constant fertilization, usually with strong synthetic substances that aren’t exactly a better version of the natural alternative.
What’s even worse is that it’s disrupting our waterways. Sedimentation and nutrient loading waterways are seeing increased flooding and land slang because of that precious soil being removed. But there's a way you can help! And you won’t have to volunteer on Arbor Day to dig holes to plant new trees in, either. Instead, you can merely keep your own little plot of land in good condition. While the individual can’t do much to stop mass deforestation, you can do quite a bit to preserve the integrity of your own nearby ecosystem. Our favorite method to prevent soil erosion? Planting seasonal flowers to bring cheer and joy to your yard while saving the environment.
Invest In Vegetation
There’s no dancing around the fact that a yard with vegetation looks better than one without. After all, even the tastefully xeriscaped zen gardens you’ll glimpse from time to time still feature well-trimmed pieces of vegetation here and there. Plus, vegetation will add personality and beauty to your yard, while protecting your soil and the surrounding waterways and add structural integrity to the area.
When you’re designing your landscape, it’s important to select a wide variety of vegetation types. A plant’s roots, depending on the species, grow in different ways and different lengths into the soil. When you vary your species selection, you vary your underground root systems and the type of stability they provide to the soil. Trees, in particular, are excellent as main focal points for your yard but can also provide exceptional soil control.
Unfamiliar With How to Care For Your Yard?
Plus, the greater diversity of bio life you have, the more you’ll be able to protect the deeper layers of soil from rain and wind that might erode it away . Additionally, the water that does fall will be absorbed fairly quickly by the myriad root systems you’ve already installed. This makes the deeper levels and upper levels of the soil more secure and packed in more tightly. During the winter, you’ll be able to rely on your plants then, too, to provide protection from snow runoff. The roots prevent damage from the snow to upper soil levels and helps the water move independently to nearby streams without taking too much of your land and soil with it.
Thus, by investing in the right kinds of seasonal flowers for your yard, you’ll be protecting and preserving your land while making your outdoor space into the jewel of the neighborhood.
How to Pick Your Flowers
Choosing the right type of flower for you and your yard is a balance of environmental factors with your tastes. In order to reap all the benefits of seasonal flowers, you’ll need to plant them in the right areas and with enough variety and space that they can all easily flourish once they’ve found their place in the ground. While this may seem as easy as reading directions and following through, there’s a bit more finesse involved than just that.
When, What & Where
The success of your little flower garden, and indeed your entire backyard, relies entirely on where you plant, how big the plants are, and if you’re planting during the right season. If you want your garden to thrive and your landscape to be as impressive as you’re hoping for, you’ll need to keep those factors in mind throughout every part of designing your yard. Just because you want a certain flower to thrive here doesn’t mean it can. Take note of where things do well the first year, and arrange once again the second year to hone the process. But first, to manage those three factors that dictate a successful yard:
The Where
Where to plant certain plants in your yard depends entirely on the type of sunlight they’ll be getting. You’ll see labels like “full sun,” “partial shade,” and “partial sun.” It’s not worth it to guess at what those mean. You should know that full sun means the plant needs at least six hours or more of direct sunlight in order to thrive. Partial shade means three to six hours of direct sun, and shade means they need less than three hours of any kind of sun, direct or indirect. Water can only save some plants, and over watering them won’t help them establish a real root system and thrive like you’d like. Keep them in the habitat they prefer, and things will be far easier.
The What
Picking out flowers at a hardware shop or nursery is great fun. There’s adorable little sprouts in tiny, quant pots, peeking up from soil and full of promise. But it’s important to know that they’re not done growing. And while you might have just the spot for that sprout, you might not have room for it when it grows into its own.This is especially important when you’re placing plants around each other, for they’ll all need to be able to plant their roots and stretch out comfortably as they go.
The When
When you break ground on your new little flower bed or any part of your landscaping, the time of day is the last factor that you have to consider when trying to treat your flowers right. If you’re planting something that you’re not hoping to hold onto for years to come, you can try and plant some temporary mums in a planter or pot to put a little color back in the yard. Otherwise the spring and early summer are the preferred time to plant anything, whether it’s seeds or fresh flowers. This way, it’s not too hot, and they won’t get cooked in the sun. They’ll also have plenty of time to establish a good, strong root system that will help them last through uncertain weather and the cold winter. This means they’ll be established enough by the time you’ll want them to look their best.
Leave The Landscaping to the Pros
Planting the right seasonal flowers and creating a carefully mapped out landscaping plan is no small task. It takes hours of time and patience as well as knowledge and careful execution. If you don’t have the time to complete it yourself, you can always leave it to the professionals. Here at My4Seasons Landscaping, we’re passionate about helping the people in the Alpharetta area realize the full potential of their yard. Since we get such beautiful weather all year long and so many species thrive in our environment, there’s no reason that your outdoor space shouldn’t be your favorite spot in the house. We’ll happily lend our services so that you can explore the real possibilities in your yard. Reach out to us today to get started, and schedule your initial consultation.
Key Benefits of the Service
The experts carefully design a landscape that will bring beauty for years. We have the experience to handle all your lawn care needs.
Extend your home with a beautiful garden
Your property value increases many times initial value
Aesthetic garden beauty that improves with age
Allround certified and insured landscapers