Bring the Beauty of a Cutting Garden Indoors

Even if you think your garden has no more space for anything new, consider doing a little rearranging to make way for a small cutting garden.

If you take out a few rows of your vegetable garden and add flowers, you are going to get flowers and attract pollinators to your vegetables, so it’s actually a win-win. 

It is beautiful to look at your back yard and see those colorful blooms, wouldn’t it be nice to bring some of them in and arrange them in a pretty vase to add color and beauty to your room? Generally, annuals are the best for cutting flowers for in-home bouquets, because annuals repeat themselves and grow quickly. 

How to begin

• Think about flowers with long stems, like sunflowers. You are going to be cutting them and displaying them in vases, so the long stems will add to the visual effect. 
• Plant flowers with a lot of fragrance. Think: gardenias, roses, lilies. 
• For a pretty flower centerpiece, add some filler plants, like baby’s breath.
• Plant flowers that you can dry later and make into potpourri for the winter months. 
• Make sure the site you have chosen gets plenty of direct sunlight. 
• Great options for cutting gardens: zinnias, dahlias, snapdragons, sweet peas, amaranth, strawflowers. There are many more. 

If you really do not have any space at all for a cutting garden, consider a raised flower bed. You can place that on a patio or balcony, and you do not have to worry about critters getting to it. Pro tip: if you use a raised flower bed, before you put in the soil, line the bed with chicken wire. That prevents invasion from critters like vols from destroying your beautiful flowers…and all your hard work. 

Prepare the planting site

• Do not skimp on soil. For healthy, robust flowers, amend your soil with compost and other organic matter to make sure they will grow and bloom often. 
• Consider the height of the plants. Group them accordingly, because you do not want the shorter plants to be engulfed or shaded by the taller ones. 
• Keep the weeds out of the flower bed.
• Incorporate fertilizer at the beginning, along with the compost, to keep the plants healthy. 
• Plan your layout. Make sure your rows are wide enough, so you do not have to reach as far to cut the stems. Give yourself space, because as you cut, you will be carrying a basket to collect your flowers. 
• Arrange by bloom sequence since they do not all bloom at the same time. Group them in early season, mid-season, and late season. 
• Do not forget to mulch. That keeps the weeds from growing, and it keeps the moisture in. 

One more tip

Other flowering plants can offer beautiful additions to indoor floral displays, not just annuals. Annuals do not take up much space. Flowering shrubs like hydrangeas, lilacs and wisteria need more room to spread out, but they offer lots of blooms and you can cut them to add texture and more color to your displays. 

Now all you must do is wait for them to bloom and keep weeding and cutting. Keep your eyes out for pests and disease. Make sure they are watered frequently, and enjoy your beautiful, freshly cut flower arrangements in your home.