Paying attention to the elements you use when planning a garden border can pay big dividends. Rather than just collecting a cadre of gorgeous plants, think about how your planting beds work as a whole to promote those extra special touches that get noticed in a landscape.
When planning a garden border that breathes high style, some very basic design elements provide the foundation for everything that comes. Consider these four elements. There is huge power in using expressive lines when planning a garden border. Curved or straight, line is an element that is just about always overlooked by homeowners planning their own flower beds. Adding these expressive lines into your small garden design will go far to set your garden apart.
Curved lines tend to soften the look of your garden space, while straight lines tend to box it in and set a more rigid tone.
A little extra planning can do wonders for your planting beds. Plants, especially annuals, can be made to pop with a little pattern ingenuity. Many of you have seen plantings at the entrances garen new home developments or in show gardens. This little bit of extra preparation can really add stature to your small garden design.
Arrange plants in geometrical patterns, in undulating lines, in repeating patterns. Play with color, give yourself permission to let it all hang. Repeat patterns on opposite ends of the garden or give over a flower bed as an ever changing focal point.
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I am designiing fan of using textural forms when planning a garden border. If you pay attention to this as you begin to purchase and place your plantings, as you choose materials, and as you add gardeb to your public areas, your garden WILL raise comment. This little desining is not obvious to the average homeowner, but every visitor notices when textural aspects are introduced into a garden garddn. Turn your planting beds into a piece of fine art by using bold textured plants next to fine textured plants, introducing spiky plantings into areas of mounding plants, juxtaposing small round leaves against larger, more tropical bogder plants.
Adding visual texture is EASY if you just note the main visual characteristics of your chosen plants, designing a garden border zero edsigning add a counterpoint And OH!! What a difference it makes!
When planning a designing a garden border zero border for your home, it is tempting to go right to color as one of the first choices. We love color Garen in using color however, designing a garden border zero reap huge benefits designing a garden border zero a garden design.
As you have thought through the various elements of planting design that we have reviewed on this page, you have likely imagined a couple of colors predominately, since that is a natural byproduct of our thinking.
Now is the time to review those choices and think bold. Is there any element of the garden that would benefit from a bold designing a garden border zero Using these pops of color in a space automatically directs early impressions of your garden Contrasting color is an obvious choice for a focal point Color is one effective method gardeh adding interest Start at the Beginning with Planning the Garden Layout.
Designing Spaces. Decorative Garden Obrder. Planning the Garden Layout. Privacy Policy Disclaimer. Home What's New? Titillate with Texture I am a fan of using textural forms Designing A Rose Garden Uk when planning a garden border.
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You'll do better to grow plants that like your conditions. A border's size should match the scale of the surrounding landscape large properties generally require large borders, small properties, small borders and the inclinations of the gardener.
Most people start with a small bed in a sunny spot and are astounded at how fast the space fills up. They then add a few more feet to the front or along the sides, perhaps several times over the years. There is nothing wrong with this gradual approach to garden making. In our experience, it's better to start small and expand as time, money, and interest allow than to be overwhelmed by the demands of designing and planting a large border.
The object of gardening, remember, is to have fun, not to pull your hair out because you've bitten off more than you can chew.
If you are designing a new garden from scratch, however, you should aim to make it no less than 4 feet deep. A 2-foot-wide strip along a fence or deck barely allows for a single row of plants. A depth of four feet or more allows for a difference in plant height between front and back and for enough variety to hold your interest through the season.
In a few years, you may decide to deepen the border to eight or ten feet. Sixteen or 20 feet is not too much if you want to put large shrubs along the back. Should the edges of your border be straight or curved? Straight lines and hard angles suit formal designs, in which borders are given standard geometrical shapes squares, rectangles, circles.
Gentle curves and irregular shapes have a more relaxed, natural, and therefore informal look. Choose a shape that fits your landscape, but don't be afraid to mix and match. Borders close to the house and deck, for example, might be straight-edged, matching the lines of the architecture, while borders along a property line or surrounding a group of trees and shrubs might undulate with the natural contours of the site.
To help visualize the border-to-be, trace its edges with strings tied to stakes appropriate for straight-edged beds or a garden hose which mimics a sinuous edge.
Step back and look at the area from various vantage points and adjust the lines to suit your taste. When you're pleased with the layout of your garden, take a can of spray paint white is easiest to see and, following the string or the hose, paint a line on the lawn or the soil. Then measure the dimensions of your border. If your border has an irregular shape, take multiple measurements so that you'll be able to reproduce the curves on paper.
It's also important to note the relative position of anything that is to remain inside the border--a shrub or a boulder, for example--and the location of nearby shade trees, hedges, fences, or other objects that might affect the amount of light that reaches your garden.
Faced with the seemingly endless variety of plants available in catalogs and garden centers, how do you choose the few you have room for in your garden? Height, flower color, bloom time, and leaf texture should all be considered and we'll discuss each in some detail below , but the overriding concern of the gardener can be summed up in another question: will that plant grow for me?
Plants are living things that have basic requirements for good health. Provide those requirements and your plants will thrive; deny them and your plants will languish or expire despite your best efforts.
No matter how good your design looks on paper, it is doomed to failure if the plants you choose are not adapted to the growing conditions in your border. Because trial and error can be frustrating and expensive, the best ways to discover whether a plant will grow in your garden is to talk with fellow gardeners, read gardening books, and consult plant catalogs.
The chart at the end of this article lists many good garden plants and, along with flower color, height, and bloom time, indicates their sun and soil requirements. If your new garden will be in the shade and you're at a loss for what to grow, we refer you to the list of plants at the end of the article that thrive with little or no direct sun. Most of the plants are available in either the spring or the fall from White Flower Farm.
From the list of suitable plants, make selections according to the basic principles of flower garden design. A single flowering plant can be very beautiful. A grouping of several specimens of the same plant can be impressive.
Combining groups of different plants so that each complements the others is the art gardeners aspire to. Here are a few principles of organization that many gardeners have adopted because they work so well.
Tall plants at the back, low-growers up front. A plant has to be seen to be appreciated, so it makes sense in most borders to put the shortest plants along the edge, long-legged plants at the back, and the rest in between, creating a gradual slope from, for example, Dianthus in front to Coreopsis, Lilium, Phlox, and finally tall ornamental Grasses at the rear.
There is a tendency among new gardeners to fill a garden with individual specimens. The result is a collection of plants that becomes a confused. Apart from shrubs and a few large perennials, such as Aruncus dioicus Goatsbeard and ornamental Grasses, most plants put on a better show when planted in numbers of three or more in irregular groupings called "drifts.
Succeeding drifts are added in overlapping layers to help conceal the joints between them. Planting in drifts means fewer varieties of plants in your border, but those that are represented have much greater impact than single specimens.
A few tips on using color. Color preference is very personal. Combinations of color that cause one person to sigh with delight may cause another to wince. So, while entire books have been written on color theory and why some colors "work" together and others don't, it makes sense to begin by choosing the colors you like and experimenting to arrive at combinations that please you.
Don't be surprised if your taste evolves with time. Changing color preference is one of the many reasons gardening sustains a lifetime of interest. They have the effect of a cool drink on a hot summer day. If your border is near the house or near where you sit outdoors, you might want to choose a color theme in which pastels predominate.
Use them to make a dramatic statement in a pastel border. A single orange Oriental poppy Papaver orientale , for example, can draw attention to a whole drift of cool blue Baptisias. And because hot colors stand out at a distance, they deserve the leading role in a border that is located well away from the house.
Both go well with almost all other colors, which allow them to serve as buffers between warring neighbors. Managing the sequence of bloom. Gardeners dream of borders brimming with flowers from early spring through frost, but most bulbs, shrubs, perennials, and even many annuals bloom for a limited period of time.
Spring-blooming shrubs such as Rhododendrons and Lilacs, for example, are at peak bloom for just a week, two at most, and such popular perennials as Peonies and Iris don't last much longer. For the budding designer, the big question is whether to devote most of the border to a group of plants that flowers simultaneously, for a superb but brief crescendo, or to opt for a less spectacular but longer-running show.
The answer depends on when you look at the border. If you are away on vacation every July or August, then you can ignore plants that bloom then and concentrate on those that bloom earlier and later.
If your garden surrounds a pool that is used only in high summer, you can leave out spring bloomers and fall-flowering Asters and fill the space with annuals, Daylilies, Phlox, and Echinacea.
But if you see your border from one end of the growing season to the other, you won't be satisfied with just one big splash. No matter how much you crowd your border with shrubs, perennials, summer bulbs, and annuals, you'll still be able to mount an impressive spring display if you plant spring-flowering bulbs.
Planted between the crowns of perennials in fall, Narcissus, Tulips, and a host of other early risers will perform magnificently the following spring, while the perennials are just beginning to awaken from winter slumber. The perennials then shoot up and hide the bulb foliage, which withers and disappears as the bulbs enter summer dormancy.
Spring-flowering bulbs are offered in the fall by White Flower Farm. Don't deprive your garden of Peonies and Iris just because they don't bloom all summer. Instead, grow them with plants that do. Annuals and tender perennials such as Gomphrena and Petunias compensate for their short lives by blooming like the blazes all summer and into fall. Many hardy perennials have similarly irrepressible blooming habits.
They keep on making flowers while other plants shine more briefly, then fade to green. See list of long-blooming perennials. There are perennials, annuals, and shrubs that are prized more for their beautifully colored leaves than for their flowers. Silver Artemisias, golden Callunas Heathers , and Designing A Garden Bed Meaning purple Heucheras complement the flowers of other plants when a border is at its peak and offer welcome dashes Garden Decor Stores Near Me Zero of color when blooms are scarce.
A variety of textures brings the border to life. An attractive garden includes a variety of plant forms as well as colors. Contrasting flower and leaf shapes and plant silhouettes provide texture and give a border a dynamic quality even on a calm day.
A garden of daisy-shaped flowers, for example, may be colorful and charming, but add the trumpets of Lilies, the spikes of Liatris, Foxglove or the flat-topped heads of Achillea, and the airy cloud of a Gypsophila, and the composition really sings.
The same diversity is found in leaves. They can be vaguely thumb-shaped, broad and wavy, grassy, needle-like, lacy, or delicately lobed. Combine and contrast them and your border will hold your interest even when there are few flowers to be found.
In the shade, pair the broad, rounded leaves of Asarum with the smaller, heart-shaped leaves of Lamium; juxtapose the finely divided fronds of Ferns with shield-shaped Hostas; or soften the bold, flame-like leaves of Convallaria with the delicate lace of Corydalis.
Plants also have a variety of silhouettes. Many, such as hardy Geraniums, Nepetas, Peonies, and Hostas form broad mounds. Ornamental Grasses resemble arching fountains. Garden Phlox, Buddleia, and tall Asters are Designing A Garden Room Kit vase-shaped.
Ground-huggers such as Dianthus and the shade-loving Lamiums make spreading mats. And Delphiniums and Alceas Hollyhocks throw towering spikes. Once you've narrowed your plant choices and and ruminated a bit on the principles for combining them, you're ready to begin working on a plan.
Purchase drawing supplies. The drawing supplies required are available at most stationery and art supply stores. You'll need a few sheets of graph paper 8. You should also consider investing in some transparent tracing paper, a set of colored pencils, and a compass the sort used for drawing circles and arcs or a plastic template that artists use to draw perfect circles. The tracing paper allows you to doodle without having to redraw the basic outline of the border over and over again.
The colored pencils come in handy when arranging plants in the border by flower color. The compass or template simplify the drawing of accurate circles. Determine a scale. Before you put pencil to paper, you need to determine an appropriate scale for the drawing.
Drawing your border to scale that is, assigning a unit of measurement on paper that equals a much larger measurement of the real border will help you keep plant groupings proportional and help you determine, with a fair degree of accuracy, the number of plants you will need.
The simplest way to proceed is to choose a scale that allows you to fit the entire border on a single piece of paper.
There are 44 one-quarter inch squares running across the long side of an 8H by inch sheet of graph paper. If your border is smaller, you can assign a scale with more squares per foot; if your border is larger, you'll have to use one square per foot or perhaps give each square a value of two or more feet of garden space.
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