How to Create a Cutting Garden in Your Backyard

A cutting garden -- a dedicated section of the garden planted specifically to grow flowers for indoor arrangements -- is one of the most rewarding garden projects you can undertake. Unlike an ornamental garden, which is designed to look beautiful from a distance, a cutting garden is purely functional: its goal is to produce long-stemmed, vase-worthy flowers in abundance throughout the growing season. With a little planning, even a small raised bed or sunny border can yield more flowers than you know what to do with from late spring through autumn.

The foundation of a great cutting garden is the right selection of plants. Annuals are the workhorses of the cutting garden: they flower continuously, often all summer long, as long as you keep cutting them. Zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, lisianthus, sweet peas, and nigella are all excellent annual choices that are easy to grow from seed. For a perennial element that provides structure and comes back year after year, consider dahlias (technically a tender perennial that must be lifted in cold climates), peonies, and echinacea. Bulbs planted in autumn -- tulips, alliums, and narcissus -- provide an early spring harvest before the annuals are ready.

When laying out your cutting garden, do not worry about aesthetics: plant in rows, like a vegetable garden, for easy access and harvesting. Choose a spot that receives at least six hours of full sun per day, and prepare the soil thoroughly with compost before planting. The most important principle of a cutting garden is this: the more you cut, the more it grows. Cutting regularly stimulates the plant to produce more flowers, so resist the temptation to leave beautiful blooms on the stem. Pick them at their peak, bring them inside, and let the garden do what it does best -- grow more.