Before planting flowers in any part of your yard – be it a bed, walkway, trellis or birdbath – it’s essential that the space be laid out clearly first. Clear boundaries help prevent grass or weeds from taking over and ruining what has been carefully planned as an ornamental garden.
Location
Ideal locations for flower gardens should support the type of blooms you intend to grow – some thrive in full sun while others require shade.
Make the time to inspect your gardening location carefully, noting how the sun hits it throughout the day and which soil type works best; some gardeners prefer loamy-sandy soil while others favor clay soil.
Once you know what your planting site can offer, start compiling a list of blooms. Experienced flower garden designers consider numerous attributes when creating their lists: year-round interest, staggered bloom time and show-stopping focal points are just a few to keep in mind when creating your list. They may also add plants with bonus attributes such as fragrance or pollinator attraction for additional consideration. Often shrubs provide year-round structure while perennials bring summer color with annuals filling out fall blooming space – not forgetting hardscape pieces like trellises or pergolas which add another element to their designs!
Spacing
Make sure that you allow for enough room by consulting the plant labels, and use a drawing tool like graph paper with gin squares or an artist’s drawing board to mark out garden beds – these tools can often be found at stationery or art supply stores.
Consider what height your plants will reach as they mature. A combination of heights adds visual interest, while different flower colors bring year-round hues. Try including shrubs with colorful bark or twisty forms for winter structure, perennials that bloom year after year and annuals that provide easy-repeat seasonal color – plus annuals that bloom again every autumn for added visual punch.
Experienced flower garden designers use plants of differing heights, textures and colors to design cohesive gardens. Repetition of certain colors, shapes or plant species throughout the design adds continuity and unifies it all into one cohesive design.
Height
Plant placement should vary in height for visual interest in a flower garden. Taller plants should go toward the back, yet not so high that they obstruct views from windows and doors, particularly foundation gardens and multiple-sided beds. Shorter flowers should be strategically positioned throughout the bed’s center section gradually transitioning to medium height and finally shorter blooms that serve as foreground plants.
An intentional color scheme adds depth and interest to any flower garden. When selecting hues, try grouping similar shades together or flowers of similar shades so as to achieve a more cohesive appearance. Colors adjacent on the color wheel (such as purple and red) often pair nicely together while flowers with various foliage provide contrast in shape and texture.
Once your planting plan is in place, use edging or other materials to clearly define the boundaries of your flower garden and prevent grass or other plants from creeping in and disrupting it. This will make watering, weeding and maintaining it simpler.
Color
Flower garden design options are virtually limitless. From formal designs with straight edges and tightly packed plants to more natural arrangements of flowing curves and looser groupings of plantings – the choice is all yours, with some basic rules every flower gardener should abide by.
If planting in full sun, select flowers that thrive under direct sunlight; for gardens in deep shade, select plants which do well under cooler, more shaded conditions.
Color can be an extremely powerful force in designing gardens, and its use should enhance or match those found elsewhere in your landscape. Utilize the color wheel and experiment with different hues of each hue; plant perennials that bloom at various times so as individual flowers fade, new bursts of color emerge as you replace them with new blooming perennials.