photos by Rita Elliott

Knowing how to care for your flower garden can make a big difference in the look and overall health of your plants. Here are some simple hints to keep your garden in blooming good health:

1. Give the essentials major consideration

Your flower garden must have an adequate supply of water, sunlight and fertile soil. Any lack of these basic necessities will greatly affect the well-being of plants. Water the flower garden more frequently during dry spells; thats a given!

When planting bulbs, make sure they go at the correct depth.

Remember this: When planting out shrubs and perennials, make sure that you dont heap soil or mulch up around the stem. If you do, water will drain off instead of sinking in, and the stem could develop rot through overheating.

2. Mix and match

Perennial flower bulbs need not to be replanted since they grow and bloom for several years. Annuals, on the other hand, grow and bloom for only one season. Mixing perennials with annuals ensures that you will always have blooms coming on.

Gardeners usually prefer to put their annuals in pots instead of directly in garden soil; potted annuals are easier to switch around in the landscape

3. Deadhead to encourage more blossoms

Deadheading is simply snipping off the flower head after it wilts. This will make the plant produce more flowers. Make sure that you dont discard the deadheads on the garden, or mildew and other plant disease will attack your plants.

4. Know the good from the bad bugs

Garden insects do more good than harm usually. Butterflies, beetles and bees are known pollinators. They fertilise plants through unintentional transfer of pollen from one plant to another. Eighty per cent of flowering plants rely on insects for survival.

3. An occasional application of liquid ferti-liser when plants are flowering will keep them blooming for longer

Always prune any dead or damaged branches. Most broken branches can be potted up to produce new plants to give to a friend or a neighbour.