Cutting gardens are trending, and with good reason: Flowers make us happy, and it doesn’t get any fresher than harvesting from your own back yard! “It’s rewarding to grow flowers you can bring inside to enjoy,” says grower Lisa Mason Ziegler of The Gardener’s Workshop in Newport News, Virginia, and author of The Cut Flower Handbook. “You only need a small space in order to grow enough flowers for bouquets every week.”
Tips for Growing a Cutting Garden
Start by choosing a designated spot for your cutting garden in full sun, which is considered 6 or more hours of direct sunlight per day. Flowers will not produce well in shade. An area the size of a picnic table (roughly 3 feet wide by 10 feet long) is sufficient, or you can plant in large containers, such as a half whisky barrel filled with potting mix, says Ziegler. Also, plant near a water source because dragging a watering can or 100-foot-long hose to your garden during the height of summer isn’t fun.
Choose the flowers you love the best, but stick with a few varieties your first year so you don’t feel overwhelmed. Many types of flowers can be direct seeded into the cutting garden, or you can purchase seedlings from nurseries. If you want to get a jumpstart on the growing season in cold climates, you canstart seeds indoors.
You also can plant flowers that bloom beyond the summer months. “In the warmer regions of the South, many flowers that love cool weather can be planted in late September through November and overwintered so that they start blooming in March to May,” says grower Rita Williams of WilMor Farms Flowers in Metter, Georgia…