Planting a Cutting Garden

If you have ever wanted to plant a cutting garden, join me as I give it a shot by trial and error. My five year old nephew has had one for a couple of years now and watching his from afar, I have finally decided it was time for me to stop talking about it and do it. You know how children have no fear… so let’s follow  in Solomon’s footsteps and give this a shot!

Fresh bouquets of flowers are so beautiful and I have always thought it would be nice to be able to afford a bouquet from the grocery store each week as a bonus for having to spend part of my weekend in that dreaded place! But the few times that I have tried it, those bouquets started losing petals the moment I released them from their packaging.

So, what’s a better, cheaper, more fun way to get fresh bouquets? Plant a cutting garden!

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Pick out a spot to call your cutting garden

Actually naming this my cutting garden circumvents my biggest problem, which is mentally allowing myself to cut my flowers to bring inside, something I have always struggled with. I never felt like I had enough blooms to justify cutting them and removing them from their natural habitat. Now that I have designated these flowers for this purpose, I have no reason to feel guilty.

I chose a corner of my vegetable garden, but you can choose anywhere that works for you.

Purchase seeds

Because I wanted as many flowers as I can get for my money, I chose to plants seeds. One of the easiest to grow, most colorful and long lasting cut flowers are zinnias.  They come in varying heights and sizes, so I purchased six packs of seeds, two of each size.

For your shopping convenience, here is a link to California Giants Zinnias and Zinnia Flower Garden Collection.

Prepare soil

The seed packets will have instructions on the back which I use as a guideline for planting. Basically, you just need to know how deep they should be. Most flower seed are tiny and do NOT need to be planted deeply in the soil. I used my rake to scratch the dirt lightly and rake some of the top soil to the edges.

Sow the seeds

Sprinkle the seeds on top of the ground where you just removed the small amount of soil. Try to space the seeds out and not drop them all in one place. Then rake the small mound of soil that you have pulled to the edge, back on top of the seeds.

Water and wait

You can let the rain naturally water your seeds, or if you are impatient like me, gently water the seeds. You will need to keep the seeds moist until they germinate. So water them probably once daily if it doesn’t rain. They should quickly pop their little green heads out of the ground.

The zinnias were such a success that I plan to expand my options when planting a cutting garden next year and try a wider variety of seeds. I am thinking I want to add some daisies, coneflower, and cosmos at least.

In the meantime, let’s enjoy some zinnia beauty!

Solomon also inspired me to try Growing Pumpkins!