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Materials:
- In-ground garden space, raised beds or container gardens
- Variety of plants that bloom at different times of the day
Instructions
- Find a garden site with at least six hours of sunlight. Your Flower Clock Garden can be planted directly in the ground, in a raised bed or in one large or a collection of medium sized containers.
- Select plants that bloom at different times of the day and will thrive in the amount of sunlight you have available. Examples include:
- 2 a.m.: convolvulus
- 3 a.m.: goatsbeard
- 4 a.m.: spiderwort, flax
- 5 a.m.: chicory
- 6 a.m.: morning glory, daylily
- 7 a.m.: African marigold
- 8 a.m.: fringed pinks
- 9 a.m.: marigold, tulip, and gazania
- 10 a.m.: California poppy
- 11 a.m.: sweet pea
- 12 noon: goatsbeard, wild daisy
- 4 p.m.: four-o'clock
- 5 p.m.: evening primrose
- 6 p.m.: moonflower
- 7 p.m.: sweet white nicotiana
- 8 p.m.: night-scented stock
- 9 p.m.: sweet rocket
- Decide on planting arrangement. By planting flowers that open at different times in a circle so that the blooming progresses throughout the day, you can create a living time piece. Planting for each hour of the day may be a bit ambitious, so you can always pick just a few time points and then also add a sundial. Sundials are fun accessories that use shadows to estimate the time. You can purchase a sundial or build your own.
- Install your garden and enjoy. Use your garden as a way to demonstrate how historically people relied on patterns of nature in a practical way --- giving kids a glimpse into the world before technological advances.
