How to Plan and Plant a Cutting Flower Garden: Part I – Planning and Prep

Fall has arrived and summer has come to a close. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the change in seasons, but I am totally going to miss being outside all the time. I mean, we practically live out there. The other thing I will miss…this right here:

I love flowers, gardening and putting together different bouquets and have always wanted to create a garden strictly for cut flowers.

I told my husband about the idea (thank gosh he was on board!) when we lived in our old house, but knew we were going to outgrow that house and move in the next couple years. The last thing I wanted to do was put all that work in to have to leave it 🙁

Planning and Preparing Your Cut Flower Garden – Part I

Find and scope out the proper location

I knew I wanted to have some decent sized beds and an over abundance of flowers! My husband was smart in thinking that the flower beds shouldn’t be any wider than 5 feet so I could weed, trim and maintain them. We mapped out our projected site and measured to see how big we could make each bed.

We initially came up with the idea of 3 – 4 ft. x 12 ft. beds with 3 ft. spacing in between so we could walk through each. I will elaborate more in the next section because we did not end up going this route – but that was the initial plan.

I did not get a picture of that part, but we did stake the area out to get a visual if 1) it was big enough and 2) to track sunlight in the area…which brings me to the next point.

When choosing your location, make sure you know how much sun or shade the area gets. The spot in the yard we chose got sun all day. There were maybe a couple hours that some portions of the beds would get some shade – so I noted that in my garden bed sketch (Will be sharing this in Part II).

Design/purchase your garden beds

As I mentioned above, we were initially planning to DIY it and make our own raised bed custom using to the size we wanted. We thought this would save money, but discovered these would end up being pretty expensive.

I read about the importance of using treated lumber because untreated would rot quicker. When I saw the price of treated lumber, I could not believe how expensive it would be! When it was all said and done, in order to do what we wanted to do, our wood cost alone was close to $400…yea- no way!

I started researching raised bed kits but the sizing wasn’t exactly what I wanted and those were getting pricey as well. The one thing I did love about the raised bed kits is that they were made from a plastic/composite material that would not rot like wood!

We ended up purchasing this 2-pack raised bed kit sold at BJ’s, but it can also be found on Amazon! The price was so reasonable that we ended up purchasing 3 (many thanks to my in-laws!) so we could interlock multiple walls to create the longer bed look we were trying to go for. The best thing about these, no tools were required! I think the DIY wood bed would have been a disaster had we done that…

Research the flowers you would like to grow and put your “planting” list together

I will definitely share more in Part II on what flowers I chose and why. I did a lot of research on the best cutting flowers out there. I know the flowers I personally love in an arrangement – Hydrangeas, Roses, Dahlias and Gladiolus. I also love an assortment of vibrant colors, bigger blooming flowers and low maintenance ones – the more you cut, the more they bloom!

When planning your list, it is important to know how much light your flower choice prefers. Pretty much all the annuals like full sun – at least mine did – they got HUGE!

Prep your raised bed location

We were super lucky that the area was already flat, but you will need to make sure the area is level. Here is a step-by-step guide to help level your area: https://www.wikihow.com/Level-Ground

If the area is pretty flat to begin with, you may only need to use a tamper tool. This tool was also extremely helpful to have when we filled the beds with top soil. My husband’s parents told us to make sure we “pressed” the soil down using this tool to get some of the air out of the soil.

We also did not even kill the grass because our area was so flat. The garden beds would be getting a solid 7″ + of topsoil in each bed- so that worked out we were able to skip the whole leveling step.

Don’t skimp out on the prep work. I definitely have a tendency to want to do that at times, but making sure your area is planned and done correctly will yield amazing results and save you from having to fix a big mistake somewhere down the line.