Question Should I buy compost for flowers?

[Mandy Onderwater]

Hi all! I have just ploughed through my front garden and cleared out a "garden bed" in the front yard that hasn't been used in probably more than 20 years. I am intending on growing flowers here, but I have no real experience growing flowers.

As such my question reads; should I fertilise the soil? And if yes, with what? This week it's meant to rain all week so I'm hoping on fertilising during the rain (if needed) and to plant seeds after the weekend. I've got a couple of Australian Native flower packets, hoping to bring some natives back!

*pictures are me halfway through clearing it and then finishing. I did spread a little blood & bone so that could get rained in)*

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Flower growing is pretty much the same sort of deal as veggie growing, only with a bit more variation just to complicate things. Some flowers love acid soil, some love it closer to neutral, and some like their soil to be a little bit base. Some love sandy soil, some love loamy soil, some thrive in rich fertile soil, and some thrive in relatively barren soil.

As a general rule of thumb, most Australian natives like free draining, slightly sandy, slightly acidic, not too terribly fertile but still healthy alive soil. But it can vary greatly by the plant, as some naturally grow in lush rich soil rainforests, others in sandy deserts. If you know the name of the plant, which should be written somewhere on the seed packet, a quick "how to grow <insert plant name>" into google should give you plenty of information to get that particular plant growing.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Thank you @Grandmother Goose

 

[Clara]

It depends on the natives you want to grow. A lot of popular natives are native to WA which is basically sand and that's not your soil type nor your climate. If you want to grow natives choose ones endemic to the QLD tropics otherwise you're just setting yourself up for heartbreak. My soil is similar to yours except we have higher clay content. So far I have not been able to get any natives to work here. I live on a river plain and we have soil which is too rich. However many popular english plants work very well h

BUT...I'm in mid NSW so my climate is much cooler than yours. It's going to be trial and error for you for a while. Have a look at what your neighbours are growing that will give you an idea of what you can succeed with. Many Aussie natives flowers are intolerant of humidity unfortunately. They come from arid zones.

Before you buy compost, dig all that cut grass into the garden bed about 1ft down. There's your compost without spending a cent. Also have a look around the garden for spent wood, and other plant cuttings or fallen leaves that you can rake up and use as well. I compost my soil using only my own garden waste, ensure you have about a 50/50 mix of dried brown material and green material and it will be fine to dig it directly into the soil. You can plant directly on top of it. When I've dug stuff in, I put seed in right away. Any heat from the composting material just slightly warms the earth which gives good seed germination and helps the young plants grow strong. But you have to dig it in at least 1ft so that by the time the roots get that far down the material is well rotted and eaten by worms. I never compost by any other method. Why wait months when you can use the material immediately with less effort? I do the same with my kitchen scraps. I usually have at least one little patch of garden bed bare so I can dump the kitchen scraps into it each week. Then plant over it and move to the next garden bed.

Caveat - Make sure you don't compost twigs of weedish plants this way. Like elderberry or muraya. That stuff is hard to kill and even buried deep green twigs like this will sprout a new plant right in your bed. If in doubt dry that materal out until it turns brown and dies.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Sadly there aren't many neighbours that grow around here @Clara . On top of that I frankly don't know my neighbours. We live rural, so we don't really see eachother often. We mostly know the dogs, haha.
On top of that, most people here seem to have trees, rather than veg or flowers. Plenty of lemons, oranges, etc being sold around here, but very little fruit - if any.

Sadly the bed that I cleared and composted is completely overgrown by weeds at the moment and I'm not sure how to handle it. I would rake all of them out, but I don't want to hurt my flowers. And my back wouldn't handle me being on hands and knees picking them out; there's simply too many.

 

[Clara]

Given your location these flowers will probably do well although none of them are natives.

New Guinea impatiens - can handle both full sun and shade. Massive flowers in bright tropical colours very dark foliage.
Heliconia - or parrots beak.
Ornamental gingers, they are perennial and will spread outcompeting weeds over time.
Coffee tree, has a profusion of white jasmine like flower and a beautiful ornamental bush, not sure if Mark is already growing it? But they are a compact tree that will keep weeds at bay because they shade them out.
Asian jasmine, this grows on a bush not a vine.
Mirrabella or 4 o'clocks, easy to grow bush with mad bright flowers on it.
Canna, a perennial that outcompetes most weeds, it's prolific. There are many varieties not just the ones from grandma's garden. They even come with highly coloured pink striped leaves and are stunning. I planted many of these new types.
Swamp Iris - grows in Lousiiana so yes humidity and heat are it's thing as is neglect and waterlogged soil. Prolific spreader with bright purple iris flowers.

I would plant canno's on the borders where the weeds invade because it will keep them at bay for you. Then once you've got the grass under control you can work on putting the other flowers in. Work from one corner and move out each season. Probably best not to dig a massive bed because it will be too much to keep up with given the speed of that couch grass. I have it in my garden too but it was out-competed by centella that just popped up in the garden bed one year. I planted Iris ensata in my own garden, it's a Japanese iris that has quite surprisingly spread like a noxious weed. I am not sure how far north they will grow though but they are hardy and like wet feet if that helps. I only lived as far north as Brisbane and found the sun there very challenging for gardening. It seemed to burn everything to a crisp.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Cheers!

 

[Cathy]

Sadly the bed that I cleared and composted is completely overgrown by weeds at the moment and I'm not sure how to handle it. I would rake all of them out, but I don't want to hurt my flowers. And my back wouldn't handle me being on hands and knees picking them out; there's simply too many.

How did you manage your weeds?

I suggest you keep some Slasher in a spray bottle, preferably with a hose type spray attachment. You can use cardboard or a plastic milk bottle with the top and bottom cut out to put over the weed and spray it.
If you do it in full sun it will burn these leaves in 30 min if not 60 min and by the end of the day they are dead.
The plastic bottle protects the flowers, same with cardboard. If you leave it there until the spray dries you generally don't get any burn on the neighbouring plants.
We are doing this today so I will get some pics. It won't kill the roots so you need to apply it two or three times.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

To be frank... I didn't. The whole thing is overgrown once more.
I used a metal garden rake to just slam it into the ground and forcefully yank all the weeds out at the root. It was quite effective to pull them out. But I didn't take any preventative measures afterwards and it was overgrown again in no-time. I've got cardboard over half of it now, but need to get back into it and pull the weeds out again. Next time I do this I should invest in some mulch to keep (most) of the weeds out.

Ohh that's very smart! I might try that next time. I'd love to see the pics @Cathy