Local Flowers & Vegetable Garden

How To Find A Local Urban Garden, Create A Home Garden and Style Your Flowers!

I love finding a local garden, especially when you aren’t expecting it as you drive around town. Our local garden is by the Urban Gardens Company, a family-owned business that grows cut flowers & herbs for the Champaign/Urbana/Savoy community.

It’s finally spring! You are probably starting to see flowers popping through the dirt, or even blooms starting to show on trees. Not all of us have time to create an at-home garden (I am in the process of trying, but we will see how good my green thumbs is), so you might get lucky and find an urban garden near you! Here are some bulbs I am loving this spring — Daffodils, Dahlia, Tulips, Carnations, Sweet Williams, Rose Mallow and Gladiolus.

If you want to start growing your own flower garden here are some companies I love to buy bulbs from: Eden Brothers, Floret and Breck’s.

How To Find Your Local Garden

|1|Search on Facebook: Once I found the garden, I immediately went to Facebook to find their page to see what they are selling weekly. You can also find out new flower types, popular herbs for the month and so much more through the posts. I stumbled across  a post that made me fall in love with the “Double Narcissus” a beautifully layered flower to add elegance to any arrangement.  Just search for “Urban Community Garden” in the Facebook search bar to find one near you!

|2|Learn About Local Flowers: One of the best parts of finding the garden, was learning about what local flowers are in the area. I learned that Central IL is in Zone 5, so the flowers that grow well here are: Sunflower, Narcissus, Tulip, Snapdragon, Zinnias, Celosia, and Coxcomb. Also, the best time to plant this is end of April and early May, so it is time to get your bulbs at your local garden store.

|3|Learn About Local Vegetables: Although, my attention immediately goes to the flowers, I do love eating healthy vegetables. If you are like me, always striving to have a colorful diet of fruit and vegetables, these are local vegetables you can grow in Zone 5: garlic, cucumber, tomato, strawberries, potatoes, squash, beans, pumpkin and green onion. Also, here are my two favorite juice recipes I make at home. Green Juice- 2 cucumbers, 3 green apples, 2 bunches of spinach, 2 heads of broccoli, and 1 celery stalk. Red Juice- 2 packs of peeled beets, 1 carton strawberries, 1 yellow squash, 1 ginger root and 1/2 bag of tart cherries.

How To Style Your Flowers at Home

Just make it a garden mix! One reason I love to pick flowers at a local garden, is you don’t have to make this perfect arrangement at home. You can just pick the flowers that inspire you that day, then go home and find the perfect vases for the flowers, and you have the outdoors indoors! Here are some arrangement tips you can use when you buy flowers:

|1| Cut the Flowers in the Early Morning

|2| Find the Perfect Vase/Container to Match

|3| Add Cold Water

|4| Strip the Leaves to the Water Level

|5| Cut the Stems with Sharp Scissors

Have fun supporting your local gardeners and community garden this spring, so you too can make your home vibrant & cozy!