Planting a flower garden is one of the most rewarding garden activities. It's easy to do, and only requires some basic gardening knowledge to create a lovely spot full of blooming plants that will beautify your yard.

To prevent fungus from forming on the leaves, it is always best to plant a flower garden in the early morning, so that any water that gets on the leaves has a chance to dry before nightfall.

Make sure to choose flowers that have the same basic requirements for light, water and fertilizer.

You will need a few simple tools to plant flowers. You may need all or only some of these tools, depending on whether your garden spot has ever been planted before.

1. Shovel
2. Trowel
3. Hoe
4. Turning fork
5. Garden Rake
6. Compost or Well-rotted Manure
7. Epsom Salts
8. Water Source

Read the steps for how to plant a flower garden below.

For a flower garden, you need rich, well-drained soil with lots of organic matter. Depending on whether the soil has ever been worked before, you can turn the soil in a couple of ways.

If your soil has never been worked, and you are working with a large enough area, you may want to use a tiller to turn the soil the first time out. To make sure the ground is well broken up, you should till in one direction, then till crossways again. Add six inches of compost or well-rotted manure to the top of the soil and till one more time to work it into the soil. Break up any large clumps with a garden rake or hoe, and rake the area smooth before planting.

If you are working with soil in a smaller area that has been worked and amended before, you can turn the soil with a shovel or turning fork, work the compost or manure in with the turning fork, then rake and smooth the area.

Once the soil is well turned and amended, you should lay out the plants in the design you want. Taller plants should go in back, mid sized plant in the middle, and shorter or border plants in front. Make sure you space the plants properly before putting them into the ground.

Have a garden hose or watering can available when you plant the flowers.

For each plant:

1. Dig a hole two times the diameter of the pot in which it is growing, and 3 inches deeper.
2. Add 3 inches of compost or manure into the bottom of the hole. This will feed the plants for the first four weeks until they are established. ** Never put chemical fertilizer into a planting hole, as it will burn the roots and may kill the plant **.
3. Fill the planting hole with water and let it sink in.

1. Remove the plant from its pot and place it into the hole. Fill the hole with water again, and start adding soil until the hole is filled to one inch from the top of the planting hole.
2. Sprinkle epsom salts into the top of the hole: 1/4 cup for 3 inch pots, 1/2 cup for 6 inch or 1 gallon pots, 1 cup for 3 gallon pots. This helps get the roots established.
3. Water one more time before filling the hole to the top, no higher than the top of the original root ball.
4. If possible, cover each plant with a pot turned upside down. This is to keep the mulch from covering the plant when it is spread into the bed.
5. After all the flower plants are added, water the bed well.
6. Proceed to Step 3

You may choose to start your flower garden from seeds. Seed grown gardens take a little longer to establish themselves, but there are many plants that are well suited to starting from seed, and make lovely flower gardens. Some flowers that are easily grown from seed are:

Zinnia | Marigold | Cosmos | Bachelor Buttons | Blue Flax | Calendula | Cleome | Coreopsis | Gaillardia | Lavatera | Mexican Sunflower | Poppy | Shasta Daisy

Vines easily grown from seed include Morning Glory, Cypress Vine and Cardinal Climber.

Check your local garden center for more flowers and vines that can be grown from seed. Be sure to plant seeds at the right depth, the right spacing, and arrange by height. After planting your seeds, water in well, but do not mulch until plants are at least 6 inches tall.

Mulching is very important to the health of your flower garden. Mulch keep down weeds and holds in moisture. Mulch can be commercial bark mulch or just leaves you have raked from your hard. Even though the colored mulches are attractive, they are made from broken pallets, and may contain termites. The dye may also harm your plants as it leaches out during watering. Rubber mulches are harmful to your plants and the environment and should be avoided.

You may want to lay landscape cloth or use cardboard or newspaper as an underlayment. Landscape cloth and cardboard should be laid before the plants go in, and cut with X's to make a space for the plant to go into the ground. Newspaper can be laid before or worked in around the plants after they are planted.

If you have been able to cover all your plants with pots, it's very simple to add the mulch without worrying about covering the plants. After the mulch has been spread around the pots, simply remove them and work the mulch up around the bottom of them.

If the plants are uncovered, be careful not to get the mulch up into the plant itself, but spread the mulch about 6 inches out from around the plant, and work it in around in small handfuls.