However, if production is the only goal, then many of the traditional design issues associated with gardens can be set aside. Take, for example, a cutting garden that is tucked away behind a garage. Because it is not meant to be viewed, flowers with strong or clashing colors don t have to be separated and plants can be cut right down to the ground without worrying about the garden s patchy appearance. Paths and other features can be planned strictly for utility rather than decorative value. Sometimes it is possible to make a cutting garden do double duty as a display garden.
Many people don t have the space to devote just to cut flowers.
The greatest challenge in a garden like this is to avoid a ragged, over-harvested appearance. You can accomplish this by snipping individual blossoms here and there without picking every flower, but to do this, you have to have a lot of material. Try using the technique of over planting, growing things much closer together than is usually recommended, to squeeze more flowers out of a small space. To keep plants from crowding each other out, cut perennials back hard when they finish blooming and pull out annuals as soon as they are spent, replacing them immediately with something else. When you re deciding which flowers to cut, a good trick is to leave the older blooms in place and pick the ones that are just emerging.