Maximize Your Space: A Beginner's Guide to a Compact Cut Flower Garden
Flowers cut from the garden are a classic and beautiful way to brighten up your space, whether at home on the kitchen table or if you’re like me, taking them to work to bring additional joy. Not everyone has a large amount of land to grow cut flowers, but even with limited space, growing flowers for personal enjoyment or exploring the idea of starting a flower farm is attainable.
Growing cut flowers comes with rewards and challenges; growing a compact cut garden does not escape those challenges; it has unique ones as well. Small space means planning out how best to utilize your limited space through layout, variety selection, and maintenance.
Planning Your Compact Cut Flower Garden
Assessing Your Space
Getting the lay of your land and what you are working with for your compact cut flower garden is an essential first step in having oodles of blooms to harvest.
First, walk through your yard at different times, such as morning, midday, and evening, to determine sunny and shady locations. Most flowers prefer full sun for at least eight hours a day, ideally, morning sun and afternoon shade if possible.
Once you have determined where you will have adequate sun exposure, the next step is to measure the available space and how you want to lay out your growing beds; ideally, bed orientation can be set up optimally, running them north to south. With a 3’x10’ bed, your 300 square-foot garden will allow you to cut a lovely bouquet a week!
If you already have a vegetable garden and want to incorporate flowers, read our blog 10 Best Flowers to Add to Your Vegetable Garden.
Selecting Suitable Varieties
With limited space to work in, variety selection is critical. Varieties bred specially to be cut flowers will have a better vase life, longer stems, and are less messy. For example, hybrid sunflowers that are pollen-less are ideal for cut flowers since they won’t shed pollen everywhere and have an exceptional vase life.
Related: How to Grow Sunflowers for Cut Flowers
Mixing annual, biennial, and perennial varieties is another tactic to ensure continuous blooms. Annual flowers can be interplanted with perennial varieties, or perennials can be incorporated into the landscape, with growing beds reserved for annual flowers so they can be easily replanted throughout the season.
When planting varieties together, think about bloom times, such as planting spring varieties with other spring varieties and summer with other summer varieties. This way, your growing bed has multiple types of flowers and foliage for you to harvest from at the same time. There are many delicious colors to choose from within any variety group; for a more sophisticated bouquet, choose colors that work together. Neutral white goes with everything; you have warm color groups such as reds, oranges, and pinks or cool color groups such as blues and purples.
One of the great benefits of growing flowers for cutting is they can be planted fairly close and still thrive! Our average spacing for most of our varieties is 7”x7”; for more humid climates, 9”x9” spacing is ideal for increased airflow. Varieties that produce a single stem and are fast growing are great candidates for a compact garden, such as Procut sunflowers, which we plant at 4”x4” spacing since they are ready to harvest in under two months, freeing up space for more of them or other varieties.
Designing the Layout
The next step in designing your compact cut flower garden is where we get to take all our ideas and desires and start putting them into action—officially designing the layout!
When mapping out the growing beds, you will want to think about the width of the growing beds that will be manageable for you to work in, along with incorporating pathways and access points. Standard widths for growing beds in market gardening is 30 inches. This allows you to access the center of the growing bed easily. Additionally, many pieces of growing bed preparation equipment are designed with this width in mind, such as walk-behind tillers and broadforks.
When designing the layout for a compact garden, proper trellising of plants can keep the garden bed more manageable while also maximizing space and incorporating vining flowers such as love-in-a-puff and nasturtiums. Using horizontal netting can allow these varieties to grow upwards rather than clamoring onto other plants. Using obelisks or vertical trellising is another method, especially for vigorous vines.
Related: How to Install Plastic Trellis Netting for Flowers
While designing the garden bed and deciding how to layout your varieties to ensure that all your plants thrive, group plants by their water and sunlight preferences. For example, place the taller varieties in the bed where they won’t block too much sun for the shorter ones, or select varieties to plant in their shadows that like partial shade.
To prevent the varieties from over or underwatering, group drought-resistant varieties with similar ones, such as yarrow and feverfew, and the more thirsty varieties, such as ranunculus and sweet peas, together.
Small Space Beginner Cut Flower Garden Layouts
Choosing less fussy varieties to grow for a beginner cutting flower garden will give you a successful yield, which will be more rewarding and confidence-boosting. Varieties that are quick and easy to grow from seed, varieties that are happy to re-seed in the garden beds for you, such as violas and Queen Anne’s lace, and varieties that can be fall planted, such as tulips and daffodils, will allow you to have plants to harvest throughout the season. Some of our favorite easy-to-grow varieties are herbs; they smell amazing in bouquets, are tough, and often re-seed or perennialize!
Going further and choosing varieties that are best for your growing climate will increase your success! Read our blog here to learn more about growing cut flowers for your hardiness zone.
Preparing the Garden Bed
Soil Preparation
Every good garden starts from the ground up, literally! Soil health and soil understanding are paramount in successfully growing cut flowers. This starts with a proper soil analysis and amending the soil appropriately for proper drainage and nutrient uptake. You can do a quick soil texture test to get a starting point.
Related: How to Determine the Texture of Soil
Soil tests are best done in the fall or spring. For the most accuracy, send the sample to a lab, either privately or through a local extension office. Paying the extra few bucks for the lab to provide recommendations is worth every cent!
Related: How to Test Soil pH Before Planting and Why You Should
While preparing your growing beds, take a couple of extra weeks to use silage tarps properly. This will set you up for more success and less aching fingers from weeding. Silage tarps will allow you to get a jumpstart on the weeds, drastically lessening weed pressure during the growing season.
Related: Using Silage Tarp for Organic Weed Control and Bed Prepping
Bed Construction
Depending on your soil test, you may want to grow on top of your native soil using raised garden beds. Raised beds don’t have to be incredibly expensive or labor intensive. Some farmers build them by making a 30” wide pile of compost on top of the soil to plant into.
Growing in containers is another option that many growers with limited space consider. When choosing a container, be sure that it is deep enough for the roots to stretch out and that proper potting soil is used to ensure sufficient drainage. When growing in containers, be aware that temperatures and water levels fluctuate more than when growing in the ground; adjust accordingly.
If you don’t have space to dedicate to a permanent garden, grow bags are another amazing and affordable method of growing!
Related: Grow Bags vs Pots
Planting Techniques
When a seed packet recommends direct sowing, it usually means that the variety is touchy about being rootbound or having its roots disturbed. It is best to directly sow these varieties, such as sunflowers and bachelor buttons, into their growing beds. Even when direct-sowing seeds, give proper spacing for the plants to thrive. If you accidentally sow multiple seeds in one spot, go back and thin them to the strongest seedling. Most varieties can be planted from four inches up to fifteen inches apart. If you are in a humid climate with disease pressure, give your plants more room to help prevent disease.
Incorporate succession planting into your growing strategy to continue harvesting blooms all season long. Interval planting in succession is when you sow the same variety in intervals of a few weeks or months. This is especially helpful for varieties that don’t rebloom, such as single sunflowers and celosia. Interplanting is great because you can start growing a crop as another one finishes. Companion planting, a common tactic for vegetable growers, can help with pest management, such as using trap crops or crops that deter pests, like pungent herbs.
Ongoing Care and Maintenance
Getting your cut flower garden planted is just the beginning. Then it’s time to keep the plants happy and healthy, which is done by:
Watering and Fertilizing
Plants thrive with consistency. A consistent watering schedule to keep them happy and hydrated will reward you greatly. When in doubt, water once the top two inches are dry. Consider installing drip irrigation for more efficient watering. Plants prefer a slow, deep drink of water that overhead watering can’t provide in many climates. Installing drip irrigation will ensure your plants are properly watered and save you tons of time from hand-watering!
Your soil test will tell you the best amendments for your soil needs. Along with compost, most soils benefit from a slow-release fertilizer such as pelleted feather and bone meal. Slow-release fertilizers are helpful because rather than weeks, they take months to break down, which means giving the plants meals throughout the growing season rather than one large feast. Supplementing with foliar fertilizer such as compost tea will keep flowers at their prime while helping them cope with temperatures and pest pressure stresses.
Keeping Plants in Production
When it comes to cut flowers, we want nice long stems for a filled-out bouquet. We do this by “pinching” the repeat-bloomer varieties such as cosmos and zinnias. Pinching is where we take out the center stem; this is usually done when the plant is between eight to twelve inches, and you cut off about a quarter to a third of the plant, about four inches. This will encourage the plants to produce long branches.
Ideally, you are harvesting fresh flowers to enjoy, and deadheading won’t be needed, but those overachievers always bloom before you can get to them! By deadheading the plant, you will keep it producing cut flowers rather than shutting down and focusing on seed production.
Pest and Disease Management
Pest and disease management is essential to a productive cut flower patch. Pests and diseases often go hand in hand, which means that if you can control one, it often helps control the other.
There are two classes of pests: the piercers and the chewers. The piercers are the ones who are big vectors of spreading disease, and they suck on the plants. These are pests such as aphids, thrips, stink bugs, and leafhoppers. The chewers are the ones that take out chunks from your plants and flower heads, such as earwigs, caterpillars, Japanese beetles, and slugs.
Most backyard gardeners are conscious of what they spray or place for pest and disease control since their garden is also a refuge for their pets and family. Controlling pests and diseases safely and effectively is possible.
Here are some tips for pest management:
- Monitor with sticky traps or check in the evenings or early morning to identify pests
- Crop rotation
- Keep the garden tidy to prevent pests from having places to hide
- Handpick and drop pests into a bucket of soapy water
- Use homemade or commercial traps
- Use insect netting
- Create a friendly environment for beneficial insects and nematodes
- Use OMRI-certified pesticides when other methods are not enough
Related: Insect Netting for Pest Protection
Conclusion
Creating a compact cut flower garden is a rewarding endeavor that brings beauty, joy, and a sense of accomplishment. Start small, embrace the process, and let your garden become a source of inspiration and delight all season long. Happy planting!Growing flowers has many benefits, including being fulfilling and building character. Read our blog to learn whether flower farming is right for you.
FAQs
How often should I water my compact cut-flower garden?
Once the top two inches of soil are dry. Depending on your climate this could be weekly or every other day.
What are some low-maintenance cut flower varieties for beginners?
- Cosmos
- Zinnias
- Sunflowers
- Chinese forget me nots
- Marigolds
- Calendula
- Coreopsis
- Amaranth
- Ammi
- Bachelor Buttons
- Corn Cockle
- Yarrow
How do I prevent powdery mildew and other common diseases?
Pest management, proper spacing to allow for good airflow between plants, and succession planting to replace tired plants are all good strategies to help prevent common diseases.
What are the best ways to attract pollinators to my cut-flower garden?
Don’t worry; if you grow them, they will come! Butterflies especially love scabiosa and ammi, yarrow. Avoid spraying any pesticides that will kill the pollinators you are trying to attract.
How do I choose flowers that will bloom throughout the season?
For production, each plant has a peak growth period before getting tired and succumbing to disease and pest pressure. Some varieties, such as yarrow, bloom in early summer and give a second flush in fall. Many perennial plants, such as snowball viburnum, are best suited for an all-season crop, where you can use the immature flowers, the full flowers, and the foliage all season long. Planting one of each of our recommended flower bed layouts will give you blooms throughout the growing seasons.
What are some strategies for dealing with pests in a compact garden?
Keep the garden clean of debris, rotate your crops, preventative measures such as interplanting with herbs, and check regularly so you can handpick before pests have a chance to reproduce.
Written by: Jessica Chase, Sierra Flower Farm, Photography by: Graham Chase, Sierra Flower Farm