A hundred years ago the majority of Americans grew up in a rural landscape. Gardening was a standard part of everyone's experience and most families were actively involved in growing vegetables and fruits to grace the table, herbs for culinary and medicinal use, and fresh flowers to delight the senses and decorate the home. Home gardening is a wonderful way to reenter the world of growing your own flowers to cut for fragrant fresh bouquets and everlasting arrangements and creating beautiful landscaping around your house. Not many of us can afford someone to maintain a garden for us, or to buy all the flowers we would like to have, but in this busy and hectic world we respond greatly to the peace and harmony that fresh flowers provide. Fortunately it's easy to start your own flower garden, even if you've never done it before; and there is no other hobby that yields such rich returns. GETTING STARTED OUTSIDE Open the Collection Envelope and look over the seed packet backs. Your flowers include varieties to plant in cool spring weather and others to plant later when it is warm and sunny. It is time to prepare the garden for planting in your area when the soil is "ready to work". This means in early spring when the earth is no longer frozen in northern climates, and in milder areas when heavy spring rains have subsided and soil is no longer muddy or sodden. Begin by planning the layout of your garden plot so the taller plants such as the sunflowers do not shade the shorter ones such as the cosmos and alyssum. You will need to spend some time thinking about where the sun comes up and allowing for trees or shrubs that may make shade later in the summer. All the varieties in this collection prefer a full sun location except the nigella which can grow in sun or in partial shade. ("Full sun" means at least 6 hours of sunlight that span the midday hours.) Read the packet backs to see how far apart final spacing of plants should be to get an idea of how large a garden to plant. Of course if you don't want to plant all these flowers together in one spot, you can plant them separately in an existing garden plan or in various locations around the house. You will always start by sowing many more seeds than you actually plan to have mature. This is because not every seed germinates even in ideal conditions, and you want extra seedlings "for insurance" to cover inevitable and ordinary losses to inclement weather insects, etc. also, you'll be choosing only the best and healthiest plants to grow to harvest; this selection or "thinning out" process is an important part of successful gardening. PREPARING THE GARDEN BED Once you've decided on the size of your garden area and early spring weather has arrived, the first outdoor work is to prepare the soil. Mark out the garden area and using a digging fork, garden spade, shovel, or (convenient and fast, but not critically necessary) a rototiller, loosen the soil to a depth of 18 inches. Make sure you don't dig when the soil is too muddy. If you live in an area where your soil is very dry, water first to make it easier to work. Turn over the soil and break up the clumps, removing rocks, branches and weeds. Mark out paths so you can distinguish the "beds" or areas where plants are to grow. A two or three foot bed makes an ample planting area and is not too wide to reach across from both sides to weed, water or harvest. From now on, try to walk only on your paths so you don't compact the soil and lose the nice fluffy quality you are working to create in the planting areas. BUILDING GOOD SOIL There is a very simple gardening Golden Rule: the better the condition of your soil, the better garden you will have! The best way is to add humus - organic material that is worked into the soil to improve its balance, texture and water -holding capacity. Used aged manure, rotted leaves, peat moss, compost (the best!) or whatever kind of organic material is available in your area. Adding humus benefits all soil types - sandy soil will hold more water and clay soil will be "friable" or loose, and less compacted. Humus will break down over time, so add it continually to your garden. Add it before you plant each new crop as well as at the end of the season. For new beds, add 3 to 5 inches of well-rotted humus material and turn it into the top 4 to 6 inches of soil, chopping it up and working it in until the soil texture is as crumbly and even as possible. (To make your own compost, "a gardener's gold," order our compost making brochure.) Now is also the time to add fertilizer. Especially in new gardens, the humus material won't supply enough nitrogen soon enough to feed your first plantings. You can add plant feeders such as bone meal and cottonseed or blood meal, or use commercial granulated fertilizers. Follow package instructions and work in well to the top 4 to 6 inches of soil of the bed so they will be available to shallow plant feeder roots. Finally, smooth the surface of the soil with a rake to make a fine-textured seed bed. The goal is to have finer soil on the top and coarser down below, providing for good drainage and percolation. If you have a very limited garden space due to very bad soil, consider making raised beds with wood boards that work like big bottomless containers. This is especially useful in very sandy soil to hold in the soil-building organic material, and in clay areas it keeps the soil from becoming too compacted when walked upon. If gophers or moles are a problem in your area, the raised beds can be underwired with galvanized 1/2 inch chicken wire or hardware cloth. Just tack the sheets of wire to the bottom of the bed boards after excavating soil, then fill the frame back in. Although it is still too chilly to plant your warm weather crops, go ahead and prepare the soil for them at the same time you are digging and fertilizing the other beds. This will give you a head start and will also pre-germinate some early weeds which can be scraped off with the rake when you are ready to plant. Nigella, Lavatera, Alyssum - These are three varieties that like to germinate and grow when weather and soil are still cool in early spring once weather is settled and soil can be easily worked. Light frosts won't harm the young seedlings. Start your planting season with these three flowers. Read the packet backs carefully for specific planting instructions. Nigella Plant seeds of nigella several inches apart, cover seeds about 1/2 inch deep, and expect germination in 7 to 14 days. You can plant nigella seeds in rows, or broadcast them in a swath for an informal cottage garden look. When plants are several inches tall and weather seems settled, you can thin them 5 or 6 inches apart, moving extras around as desired. Leaving seedlings more crowded will give you a shorter flowering season, but plants will still bloom. The delicate lacy blossoms float in the feathery foliage in an old fashioned color mix of sky-blue, mulberry rose, and white. Once the petals fall, nigella forms attractive papery vanilla seed pods striped with deep purple which in colonial gardens were called devil in a bush because they look like they have twisted horns. Cut the pods before they split and spill their seeds and hang the stems with pods upside-down in a cool, shady, dry place for several weeks to dry for everlasting arrangements that stay nice all winter. Love in a Mist will easily self-sow in the garden, meaning its seed pods, if left on the plant, will drop seeds that will grow the next season all by themselves. Lavatera Although lavatera blooms well all summer long and can also be sown later in the season, you can plant the seeds now for earliest bloom. Sow seeds several inches apart and 1/2 inch deep. Lavatera may take up to several weeks to germinate and doesn't like to be transplanted. Plan to thin at 14 to 18 inches apart when seedlings are 3 to 4 inches tall. They will grow 2 1/2 to 3 feet tall and are quite bushy, with healthy deep green foliage. The satiny chalice shaped blossoms in the hollyhock family provide wonderful bright blossoms in shades of deep rose, pale pink and silvery white for cutting or for garden beauty. Beauty Mix begins to bloom 8 to 10 weeks from seed and continue all season until frost. Plants are quite trouble-free once established. Alyssum Alyssum makes a low growing honey-scented carpet in soft lavender, rose and white. The fragrant clusters cover the ground quickly and bloom in about 6 weeks from seed. Scatter the seed as thinly as possible in the area where it is to grow, in front of the other plants, or under rose bushes or other ornamental shrubs. Easter Basket makes a lovely edging and is a bright fast-blooming little flower for patio pots and containers. Scatter the seed as thinly as possible and scratch it in to the surface with a rake or lightly cover with soil. Keep soil moist and expect germination in 10 to 14 days. Keep seedlings well-weeded to establish strong growth. Alyssum will bloom all summer until frost, especially if it gets sheared back after the first flush of bloom is over. Butterflies love the scent and nectar. Sweet alyssum will self-sow easily and come back year after year. CARING FOR THE YOUNG SPRING GARDEN Be sure to mark each row or bed with the name of the plant sown there and the date planted. Cover freshly sown seeds with fine soil or use soil mix, crumbling it with your fingers to make it very fine, and covering according to the thickness of the seed, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep. Try to water gently and carefully, using a fine sprinkler mist at this stage so as to avoid washing the little seeds from their soil bed. Now your first seeds are in the ground outside. Make sure they don't dry out if there are no rains and the weather warms up in the day. At this time of year, it is best to sprinkle after the sun is up in the morning and not too late in the day to keep water from over-chilling seedlings at night. Seeds need even and constant moisture to germinate and the top layer of the soil bed may dry out, so watch carefully the first weeks after sowing your seeds; it pays to give extra attention to these vulnerable germinating seeds now. If you have any suspicion that birds are interested in your gardening project, cover the rows with netting stretched over little stakes. Inexpensive netting can be purchased from a garden center. Don't be afraid to replant if necessary. You can also cover crops with permeable floating row cover (our SGS brand is called Agrofabric) that protects from birds and flying insects. You can water right through it and plants get 95% available light through the fabric, pushing up the filmy transparent material as they grow. Row covers also warm up the ground so you can plant earlier in the spring, and hold moisture in to help keep seed beds moist. In about 4 or 5 weeks you'll need to start weeding to give your seedlings the best advantage. Weeds grow aggressively and will compete successfully for water and nutrients with your food crops. Weed carefully and frequently at this stage as little baby weeds are much easier to pull, and any you eliminate now will save labor later in the season when they are bigger and deeper rooted. Watch out for munching snails and slugs and hand-pick them when they are active in the garden after dark or in the early morning, or use bait or other controls if they are a problem. Thinning the flower seedlings is important while they are young. It is less fun than with vegetables because you can't eat the extras, but it is very important if you hope to achieve good-quality, full-sized long blooming plants. Most people have a very difficult time thinning their seedlings enough, but it helps to give perspective if you keep visualizing large full-grown plants growing side by side in your bed. If you dig up clumps of crowded plants carefully in the late afternoon when it cools down, and keep soil on their roots, you can discard any weak ones and move the extras around to other spots in the yard. Be sure the soil you lift them from is moist but not muddy, and water them well once you plant the seedlings in their new locations. PLANTING HEAT LOVING FLOWERS Sunflowers, Zinnias, Cosmos-When all danger of frost is over and nights are warmed up into the 50s and days are settled and warm, it's time to sow seeds of the heat-loving flowers in your collection. You can get a head start by sowing them early inside, but they are easy to grow and quick to bloom when planted directly in the garden bed. Read the packet backs carefully for specific instructions. Sunflowers Branching Inca Jewels need plenty of room and they'll grow 5 to 6 feet tall in full sun. Be sure to wait until weather is warm and summery before planting the seeds 1/2 inch deep, firming the soil gently over them. Cover at the time of planting to protect them from marauding birds who'll snatch them before they even sprout. Use netting or row cover. Plastic strawberry baskets work well for this too; plant 3 seeds close together and cover with the basket, remove it when seedlings begin to crowd. Thin or transplant before plants get too big. Final spacing should be 18 to 24 inches apart to give the strong growing sunflowers enough space. The multi-colored flower faces bloom in about 80 days in shades of yellow, gold, bronze, and bicolors borne on stems that make glorious cut flowers. Zinnias Sow zinnia seed 3 or 4 inches apart and 1/2 inch deep once weather is warm. Thin or transplant 12 inches apart for sturdy long blooming plants 3 feet high. Blue Point zinnia is an excellent cutflower variety whose clear colored flowers last very long indoors in cut bouquets or left on the plants. Blooming in about 65 days from seed, Blue Point's petals of scarlet, canary-yellow, rose-pink, orange, magenta and white are crowned with little gold stars when flowers are mature. Summer butterflies will frolic and linger in a zinnia bed all season until frost. Cosmos Sow cosmos once weather is warm several inches a part and 1/2 inch deep. Cosmos germinates within 10 days and transplants easily. Plan to transplant to final spacing of 8 to 10 inches when seedlings are 3 to 4 inches tall. Fairy Mix Sonata is a short variety of cosmos, perfect for containers and patio boxes, or to edge other taller growing flowers. About 20 inches, the ferny foliage is quickly covered in 8 to 10 weeks with bright silky open blossoms in carmine, white, and shades of pink with gold centers. It is one of the easiest flowers to grow. CARING FOR YOUR FLOWERS Water regularly if rains do not irrigate the growing garden. The best way to tell if plants need water is to put your index finger into the soil to test it and plan to water if more than the top 2 inches of soil feel dried out. A faucet timer will help with this chore as you can then turn on the sprinkler and not have to wait to turn it off (see the Shepherd's catalog). Plants require at least one inch of water at each watering. Sandy garden soil will need more frequent watering then heavier clay soil. To maximize the number of flowers on each plant, keep blooming flowers well picked and remove spent flower heads. This will keep seed pods from forming, a process that signals the plant to stop producing more flower buds as its purpose for flowering is finished. (Leave some pods at the end of the season for self-sowing varieties.)A side dressing of well-balanced fertilizer several months after planting and during heavy harvesting also helps keep new flowers coming with good size and form. Fish emulsion or our Vitalize is a good organic choice and there are many good all-purpose commercial fertilizers. CUTTING FLOWERS FOR BOUQUETS The best time to cut flowers is in the early morning. This is because blossoms have recovered overnight from the stresses of the day's growth and stems are tight with water taken up during cooler moist nighttime conditions. Morning is also the best time to tell which blossoms are brand new and best to harvest. A newly opened flower is always better to pick because it has not been worked and pollinated by the bees. Pollinated flowers immediately begin the process of fading and forming seed and their petals also tend to be more stained after the bees or other pollinators have visited them. If your schedule does not permit morning flower harvesting, cut them in the cool of the evening as a second choice. Avoid cutting flowers in the heat of the day. To harvest flowers for bouquets, carry a small bucket filled with lukewarm water (not cold) out with you to the garden. Place stems of cut flowers directly into the bucket as soon as they are cut. Try to keep the bucket of flowers out of the sun as you pick. Cut stems with a sharp scissors or knife, and never yank their stems or break them off with your fingers if you expect them to last in a bouquet. A cleanly cut flower stem (either cut straight or at an angle) allows plant cells in the stems to continue to circulate and take up water. Remember, cut flowers are alive and need careful treatment so they will last in your bouquets. Cut stems several inches longer than you think you'll need, so they can be recut as necessary. After bringing the bucket of flowers in from the garden, condition them by letting them rest in the water-filled bucket for 8 to 10 hours in a cool dark place. They will take up water and last much longer than if picked just before making your bouquet. This conditioning process is especially important if you plan to display flowers using floral foam. For long-lasting and fresh looking flowers, plan to use only clean containers, well scrubbed to remove any leftover bacterial growth from the last bouquet. Always strip any foliage that will be below the water line in the vase as otherwise it will decay and foul the water. Most flowers will last longer if their stems are recut under lukewarm water and then immediately transferred to a lukewarm water-filled vase. Even partially wilted flowers can be revived by this technique. Plan to snip off an inch or so, always with a sharp scissors or knife. Vase life of all flowers is extended by beginning with comfortably warm water (never hot.) Vase life will also be dramatically affected by water type. Do not use artificially softened water which contains dissolved salts; also avoid hard water whose high mineral content may produce unopened buds and darkened droopy petals. If your water is very hard, use distilled or bottled water for bouquets. Various preserving additives like Floralife can significantly prolong flower life. Once you've put your bouquets on display, change the water frequently. Recutting flower stems a small amount every few days will help them to last longer. Finally, keep finished bouquets out of drafts and direct sunlight. MORE GARDENING RESOURCES Get to know knowledgeable gardeners in your area or take a class at a community college. It's been our experience that folks who garden are truly friendly and generous with their knowledge and can help enormously with practical advice, recipes and general encouragement. We highly recommend buying one good general gardening book for guidance, reference and problem-solving in areas such as insect pest control, etc. Find one you like at any good bookstore. Look them over and choose the one that suits your own personal style and interests. Gardening is an art as well as a science and can be learned from others with great mutual benefit. It's fun to swap ideas as well as bountiful harvests. Please feel free to call, write or E-mail us at Shepherd's Garden Seeds. Our staff of garden advisers has gardened for years and will be glad to answer any gardening questions you may have or direct you to resources you may need. Finally, we invite you to simply watch and enjoy your garden every day. You'll find it a source of rest, pleasure and inspiration; a place of tangible rewards and spiritual satisfaction in this hectic modern world.