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How to plant a flower garden?

I never had a flower garden until I moved to my new home. Since the flowers died over the winter I have had to put them up and now it is bare with grass trying to grow through. I would love to plant beautiful flowers but I don't know the first thing about gardening. I intend to buy the flowers that have already bloomed at the garden center but I don't know how to get the flower beds ready, what type of flowers to buy (wanting them to bloom every year), or anything else. Your advice would be appreciated. PS I live in the Panhandle of Texas

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1. Annuals are flowers that bloom once and then die. You need to replant them every year. Perrenials are flowers that come back year after year. The downfall to those is that the blooming season for them is usually pretty short, a few weeks at most. Just till up your dirt and mix in some compost of you have it. The flowers you choose to buy will come with planting and caring instructions. You can start your own compost for next year by saving your fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc (no cooked food), place it in some big container and add leaves and such from your yard, keeping it just moist and turning it regularly. You can search how to compost and come up with many pages but it really is easy and sooo good for your graden. Most people like to mix annuals with their perennials for constant colors throughout the seasons. Also may be helpful to lay some weed fabric, or alternatively, some people use layers of old newspaper as this is biodegradeable. Mulching around them will be attractive and help to protect the roots as well as keep them moist to minimize watering. Hope this has been of some benefit. Good luck!!
2. you need a space that gets alot of sun. you also need a hand shovel which you can buy from home depot or something. then you need to mix the soil up with the hand shovel until it can flow through your hands easily. a good way to check if your garden is ready for gardening is to take your hand shovel, dig some soil out then turn the shovel over. if the soil sticks then its not ready if it doesnt then its ready. sprinkle whatever kind of flowers that you like into your garden then mix the soil up again so the seeds are down under and not on top of the soil. make sure you water your plants everyday or every other day but make sure you dont over water them or it will kill your plants! i hope this helped.
3. I used to live there when I was a little girl ! This is how I learned to grow flowers. Google search on flower garden tips in your area because each zone is different. Or your local library for books. The main thing is the soil and how to prepare it for the flowers you want to grow. My parents live on the west side of Ft. Worth in Jacksboro. They live in what is called the 'bottom land'. Their soil is somewhat sandy. They had to do a little bit of work with it just to have a veggie garden. Also the type of flowers you want to bloom every year are called annuals. Of course, perennials are good to if you want something to change each year.
4. The kinds of flowers you grow will be determined in a measure by the amount of sunlight available. This will vary from bed to bed, from one side of the house to the other. Most flowers will thrive in full sun but a few require shade. Others are shade tolerant, though doing better with a greater amount of sunlight. So it is possible to have flowers in the shade of trees, shrubs and buildings even where no direct sunlight reaches. Such plants as ferns, many wild flowers, and begonias have to be protected from the summer sun, for otherwise they may sun-scorch. When making a plan, it is important to know how tall each kind of flower grows so as not to plant tall growing ones in front of low ones. More on Planning a Garden - http://www.perennial-gardens.com/flower-articles/how-to-plan-a-garden.htm