This time of year provides a perfect opportunity to brighten your home with vibrant flowers.
Regardless of your gardening skills, there are plenty of simple yet effective ways to surround yourself with their loveliness. Here are just three to consider.
Plant a container garden
Rather than having to plant a huge flower bed, you can enjoy plenty of color simply by creating a summer container garden. Anything from a repurposed tin to a bucket can work, though you’ll want to drill a hole using a quarter-inch bit to ensure good drainage. Use a wood drill bit for a resin planter, a sharp, black-oxide twist bit for a plastic planter, and a masonry bit for a terra-cotta or ceramic pot (soaking it overnight to make the drilling easier). If your container is larger than 14 inches in diameter, it may need more than one hole for proper drainage.
Once your vessel is ready, fill it with a lightweight, nutrient-rich potting mix specially made for gardening in containers, then plant your flowers of choice. Ones like coneflowers, lantanas, zinnias, and begonias are ideal for warm-weather gardening; you can purchase full-grown versions of them at your local nursery. Just be sure to double-check their water and sunlight needs. Coneflowers, lantanas, and zinnias all require plenty of sun, while begonias prefer ample shade. Also consider setting up an inexpensive solar drip-irrigation system to make watering your container garden easier.
Grow a cutting garden
One of the most pleasant perks of planting summer flowers is having them at the ready for DIY floral arrangements. When deciding on what to grow, opt for cut-and-come-again varieties, such as cosmos, dahlias, marigolds, or sweet peas, that can produce more blooms after each cutting. You can consult with your local nursey to determine which may thrive best in your area.
To create an arrangement, first fill a vase three-fourths full with water and add some soluble flower food according to the package instructions. Then clip your blooms using garden snips—never paper scissors, which aren’t sharp enough and can damage the stems—and at a 45-degree angle to help them absorb the water more readily. Doing this is in the morning, before they have time to dehydrate in the sun, may enable them to last longer. Place them immediately in the vase and arrange them as you please, and you’ll have a gorgeous centerpiece to complement any room in your home.
Create colorful art
Want to be able to savor the beauty of your flowers forever? Try a technique called flower pounding: place them on a piece of fabric or paper over a hard surface, cover them with a paper towel, and gently hammer them to transfer their pigments onto your medium. Flowers that are flatter and have more color, including daisies and petunias, will work best. If you like, you can add various embellishments to your resulting artwork, such as by doodling around them with calligraphy pens or gluing on some colorful sequins.
Another method you can try is to create pressed flowers using your microwave. Clip a few blooms, put them between two paper towels, and set them in your appliance with a heavy plate on top. Heat them for one minute, and check if they are dry. If not, warm them in thirty-second intervals until they’re ready. Then glue them onto cardstock to display in a frame or place them between two pieces of contact paper and secure them in an embroidery hoop to craft a translucent suncatcher. With such enduring artwork, you can gaze at your gorgeous flowers even long after summer’s end.
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