A Recipe for Disaster: The Biggest Mistake I Made in My Cut Flower Garden

LEARNCUT FLOWERS

Oct 3

Written By Kara Hoey

Cut Flower Garden

Makes 2 raised beds

by Kara Hoey

INGREDIENTS

I had all the right ingredients for a successful cut flower garden.

2 - corten steel raised beds in the perfect size

10 - bags of good soil, compost, and amendments

1 - trellis

1 - water source

1 - area that gets sunshine

30 - perfect plants

DIRECTIONS

I got one step very very wrong and it was the most important step of all. Can you guess which one it was?

step 1 - find the best location in the yard and install the raised beds

step 2 - add landscape fabric and soil to raised beds

step 3 - add compost and amendments

step 4 - install trellis

step 5 - arrange plants according to planting plan

step 6 - water deeply

MY MISTAKE

I planned my raised bed location in the early spring. At that time of the year the sun in my backyard was low in the sky and the tree branches were still mostly bare. The location I picked was getting full sun (6+ hours of sun) which is what my flowers needed. As the season changed the sun shifted higher in the sky and the leaves grew full on the tree branches, which created hours of shade in my garden. And within weeks my full sun garden became a part sun garden (< 6 hours of sun). So are you wondering what happened to the plants? The plants didn’t thrive! The plants were small, there were very few blooms, and the bloom size was small. The plants looked sad overall and some had yellowing leaves. It was very disappointing to miss out on a growing season because of the poor location choice I made. Unfortunately once raised beds are in place, it’s not a simple task to move them.

HOW TO AVOID MY MISTAKE

Will your flowers need full sun? Learn the path of the sun throughout the day in your late spring and summer seasons and be sure to place your raised beds in an area with 6-8 hours of direct sunlight. If your garden has only part sun conditions then only plant cut flowers that will thrive in those conditions.

NEED SOME HELP?

If you need help determining the amount of sunlight you have for your cut flower garden, we would love to help you with that. We can get all of your questions answered in a 1-hour on-site consultation. Here’s how we can help: Book a Consultation

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

If you want to learn more from my mistakes, then feel free to download “5 embarrassing mistakes I made in my garden + Bonus Planting Plan”