Spring Into Color with Flower Garden Ideas

Spring flowers invite us to get outdoors and enjoy the fresh air, the sunshine and participate in the renewal of life that spring signifies. While it's important to inspect your home for winter damage and tackle home maintenance chores, you also want to re-charge your emotional batteries. Flowers impact our moods in positive ways so we've got easy flower garden ideas to brighten up your home.

Rarely do we have enough time to stop and purchase fresh flowers on a regular basis, so planting perennials in your garden will help insure you enjoy flowers for many years. Think about the flowers you enjoyed as a child. Do you have special flowers you associate with positive experiences and/or people you love? Do you remember the daffodils and crocuses poking up through the dirt?

Flower Garden Ideas for Every Season

Maybe you don't have a big yard or enough time to create and take care of a big garden? There are still many different flower garden ideas to add a touch of color to your home. Think of flowers like jewelry and use them to highlight features of your home and yard.

First think about how much time you have create and maintain your garden. One of my friends loves visiting her local nursery at least two or 3 times a month, to see what's new or on sale. She'd rather buy some new plants than clothing but if that's not you …

• Annual plants are beautiful but you've got to buy and plant them year after year, and likely more than once a year if you want color through multiple seasons. If you love gardening and/or trying out different plants, they're perfect.
• You can find different perennials that bloom in the spring, summer and fall. Once planted they'll blossom for many years so they're really cost effective in terms of your time and money.

Picking the right flowers is important as you've got to consider the type of soil you have, the amount of sunlight they need each day and temperature they need. Some plants are easier to grow and some are hardy once you've nurtured them through the first year or 2 like the hydrangeas I love. You have many choices about where and how you plant your flowers. Here are flower garden ideas to help you add a bit of color to your home, color you can enjoy outdoors and with extra planning, you can arrange flower boxes so you can see them from inside too.

Ideas for Decorating Fencing

Look at the walls in your house, where they meet the floor. You don't see any cracks or gaps because they're covered up with baseboard … maybe simple, possibly taller and decorative. In much the same way, shrubs and flowers can fill the gaps at the bottom of your fencing and you won't have to worry any longer about the dirt getting on this sidewalk.

Decorating your fencing can solve many challenges. In front of your home, lots of flowering shrubs are great for curb appeal. The flowers will also give you an extra year or two before you need to paint a wooden fence. Don't worry about painting the spindles behind the flowers … as that's what painting mitts are for.

Where you have fencing along the sides of your house or backyard, focus on what you see when you're relaxing outdoors. You can hide ugly fencing with fast growing shrubs or flowers like bougainvillea (my favorite), jasmine, honeysuckle, clematis, wisteria or climbing versions of roses or hydrangea.

Trellis, Arbors & Gazebos Provide the Perfect Backdrop for Flowers

You have many ways to decorate the sides of your home, from shutters to decorative window trim. Trellises are one of my favorites with the natural color they add to your home's facade. Trellises are made from metal, wood and vinyl. They offer many choices in shapes and designs with horizontal, vertical and even diagonal bars to create decorative structure including walls, a tower or archway (see trellises available at HomeDepot).

In addition to trellises, there are many other decorative structures used for landscaping, all of which offer the opportunity for flower gardens to enhance their appeal. They include:

• Arbors – have sides and a roof with a framework made of wood or vinyl. They're used to train climbing plants or trees for shade. You often find an arbor breaking up a long privacy hedge, providing an opening to go through that may or may not have a gate.
• Pergolas – provide partial shade over a patio, pathway or garden. They have a slatted roof that allows sunlight to shine.

• Gazebos – are roofed structures, typically with six or 8 sides, that have an open view of the surrounding area. These structures are most often used for relaxation or entertainment.

Flower Garden Ideas for Flower Boxes

Flower boxes traditionally hang right below windows. Today's flower boxes can sit just below window sills or on the side or top of railings on a porch or deck. Flower boxes offer a great way for people outside and indoors to enjoy the amazing colors of your blooming flowers. 

While traditionally we think of think of using flower boxes for windows, there are lots of different places where flower boxes can go. They're great on decks and patios and you can get creative and build planter boxes into the seating along the edge of a deck. Use your imagination and find what works for your yard … like the flower boxes attached to this fence (shown above).

More Great Flower Garden Ideas

Where you place flowers is a matter of creativity. Each house and it's surrounding landscaping offers unique opportunities that no list can capture although we invite you to share your ideas and photos. Placing flowers in front of your home, i.e. surrounding your mailbox, will enhance your home's curb appeal.

Just because you don't have enough time, doesn't mean you can't add a splash of color. You can buy hanging flower baskets where the only work required is a hook screwed to wood trim on your house. Don't want to do that …

Buy a few large ceramic pots and plant those. You can find ones in bold, bright colors or natural clay and don't ignore the more whimsical ones either. They're easy to water and you can change the flowers for each season.