A Guide On Starting A Flower Garden In Australia

Setting up your space to grow

• Size of the garden. Planning what you want to grow and working out how much space you will need. If just starting out in your cut flower garden journey, I would start small and then once you get the hang of growing flowers you can then slowly extend your growing space. Making sure you can maintain what you have.

• Planning. Which variety you want to grow and what season will also determine the size of the garden needed. Planning out the space is needed between plants so they have room to grow will help with how many plants you can fit into your garden. Researching the height of the variety will also help to know where to place it in the garden, making sure taller varieties don’t shade shorter varieties.

• Sunlight. Choosing the right spot in the garden. Ideally full sun at least 6-8hrs. If you watch your garden space throughout the day, see where the sun falls on the garden. If it disappears behind a shed by midday this will not be enough sunlight for plants to grow.

• Protected from wind, choosing a sheltered area to prevent flowers later on snapping in the wind or young seedlings to be stressed. Less wind also means the soil will not dry out as quickly.

• Fencing. Protection from wildlife, you may need to fence if you have wildlife visitors in your backyard. Possums and kangaroos will pretty much eat everything! 

• Water. The area needs to have easy access to water for watering your plants.

• Good soil. The most important factor for your flowers to grow well is good soil, it is the foundation of gardening. You can add in compost and well rotted manure to improve quality. 

• No Dig Method. When I am setting up a new bed, I use the No Dig method. This involves placing down thick cardboard removing any plastic tape, this will block out the sun to kill the weeds/ grass underneath - then wetting it down and placing around 15cm of soil/ compost/ manure on top. The cardboard will eventually break down. You can also grow flowers in large pots or raised garden beds. 

  
  
  Access. Making sure you can access the garden easily to tend to it after planting out. 

Starting growing flowers from seed

• If new to growing flowers from seed I would recommend raising seedlings as opposed to direct sowing/ scattering the seeds in the garden. If direct sowing the seeds they can be washed away with heavy rains or eaten by birds etc. 

• Raising the seedlings in a greenhouse like environment ensures a more controlled environment, if you do not have access to a greenhouse you can grow in a warm spot inside BUT it does need to have all day sun otherwise your seedlings won’t grow well or become leggy.

• Choose low maintenance and easy to grow flower varieties to start with.

• I would recommend starting with flower varieties that have larger seeds that are easy to handle and sow. Sowing them in the correct season = correct temperature for the seeds to germinate. Eg Cosmos in spring/summer, Zinnia spring/ summer, Sweet Pea autumn. These easy to grow varieties will also germinate quicker and faster to grow and flower.

• Sow the seeds into a punnet/ pot using the best quality potting mix, label and water carefully. Any heavy watering will cause the seeds to dislodge too far down the soil and not germinate. Teeny tiny seeds such as snapdragons and poppies should be watered using a fine mister.

• Keep the soil moist until the seeds have germinated, then water seedlings daily. If it’s very hot then you may need to water twice.

• A fortnightly seaweed treatment will help with plant health and growth.

• Harden off the seedling for a week prior to planting to prevent transplant shock, leaving the seedling outside for one hour then building it up to a full day.

• Plant the seedling into the garden at around 6 weeks of growth (two sets of true leaves).

• Pinching out your seedling at around 15 cm tall or snipping off the first but will tell your plant to produce more side stems which = more flowers. Do not do this if you are growing single stemmed plants eg stock. 

• Make sure the seedling is protected from slugs and snails that love to eat them at this stage. You can get pet safe snail pellets at your local garden store.

Caring for your garden

• Plants will need to be water regularly depending on the weather.

• Mulch around the base of the plant to keep weeds at bay and help retain moisture.

• Regular weeding.

• Watching the plant closely for any early signs of pest or disease and then treating them quickly if needed as both can take over the garden very quickly.

• Implementing flower supports where needed, if the plant is going to be tall it may need to be staked or flower netting, if it is a climbing flower like sweet peas it will need a trellis. Support will help the flowers to have straight stems and prevent snapping in the wind.

• Deadheading flowers once they have finished and gone to seed, or saving the seed for next time!

Ideas of what to plant when:

Spring 

• Rudbeckia 

• Billy Button

• Strawflower

• Dahlia

• Corncockle

• Delphinium

• Aster

Summer 

• Sunflower

• Celosia

• Zinnia

• Cosmos

• Phlox

• Marigold

Autumn

• Queen Anne Lace

• Sweet Pea

• Nigella

• Scabiosa

• Poppies

• Statice

• Stock

• Ranunculus

• Daffodil

Winter

• Calendula - warmer climates

• Cornflower - early

• Pansies/ Viola - Early

• Snapdragon - Late
  
  

Cool Climates will mostly be over winter and flower early spring. 

Gardening and growing flowers really is learning as you go and finding out what works best in your own backyard/ climate and learning from other gardeners.