If you're tired of looking at a drab yard filled with grass, it may be time to start your very own wildflower garden. Wildflower gardens are bright and colorful, and they can help support your local bee population. Here are a few tips for getting a garden started.

Enrich the Soil First

For the most part, yards are often ill-suited to supporting healthy plants. Yards can have depleted soil over years of grass growing and may not have the nutrients needed. You can supplement your soil with garden soil, in addition to applications of fertilizer. Just don't overdo it: too much fertilizer can hurt a plant just as badly as no fertilizer at all.

Always Use Fresh Seeds

Seed germination rates can sharply drop off if your seeds are older. Purchase new wildflower seed packets every year to sow new plants, as these will not only have better germination rates but will also germinate faster. Better germination rates lead to a denser flower cover, which will naturally be more attractive.

Begin With a Design

Before you begin planting, you may want to come up with a design for your wildflower garden. Wildflower gardens should usually have taller flowers in the back and shorter flowers in the front. You may also want to plan for specific colors of flowers.

Add Some Larger Flowers

Larger flowers and plants, or tall grasses, can be used as features and focal points throughout your wildflower garden. You can also add features such as large rocks or fountains, to break up the flow of the flowers.

Mix Up When the Flowers Bloom

For a garden that will bloom throughout the year, you want to plant different types of flower. There are spring-blooming, summer-blooming, fall-blooming, and even winter-blooming flowers such as pansies. If you plant some flowers of each season, you'll have a garden that will be constantly attractive and in bloom.

Find the Right Place

A wildflower garden will often need to be in an area that gets sun throughout the day. However, some flowers thrive better if they also get some shade. Track the sun throughout the day around your property to find an area that gets a good mix of sun and shade.

Planting a wildflower garden is an amazing hobby and, once you've established a garden, it will become much easier to get it started and maintain it. You can begin planning now by finding the perfect spot. For more information on wildflower seed mixes, contact your local nursery.

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