Repetition is key when designing flower gardens. By repeating specific colors, shapes, and plants over multiple beds in your beds, they create an impression of continuity that draws visitors into them.
Before beginning planning, conduct a review of what grows well in your region and the lighting conditions at your garden site. Also be sure to select an appealing focal point for each of the beds.
Choose the Right Location
Starting a flower garden from scratch or expanding an existing one requires finding an area that works for your plantings. Start by clearing away grass, weeds and debris before placing your new flowers. If planting in an empty bed, amend its soil with plenty of compost so your blooms have optimal conditions to grow and flourish.
Review your USDA growing zone to select flowers that thrive in your yard and take note of your region’s first and last frost dates so they’re planted at just the right time. It can also be useful to have a color wheel handy so you can determine which hues work well together.
Maintain a more aesthetically pleasing landscape by placing plants, colors and textures of equal size throughout the bed – this visual trick creates an appealing symmetry that prevents that messy hodgepodge look. Also experiment with height by arranging taller plants at the back and shorter ones at the front.
Consider Your Lighting Conditions
Proper lighting conditions are crucial in creating the perfect flower garden. A garden planted in the shade may appear dull and lifeless if chosen with incorrect plants; while bright sunny sites allow for spectacular displays of vibrantly hued blooms.
Consider Plant Shape
A flower garden’s design must take into account many elements, including color, texture and height. Perennials often boast various foliage forms ranging from spiky to bushy to fine; you can play up these differences when planning the design of your flowerbed by mixing plants of differing forms together or grouping similar forms close together.
Most often, taller plants should be located toward the back of your bed while shorter plants should be situated closer to its front; exceptions might include alliums, coral bells/heucheras or columbines as edging plants. You could also incorporate shrubs or flowering trees but make sure they do not get lost among a sea of lawn grass.
Think About the Focal Point
Flower gardens can make an impressive statement along a walk or driveway, at the entrance to a house, framing patios and birdbath areas or framing a patio, pool or birdbath area. Before designing one, decide on your desired overall effect whether that means serene white tones, eye-catching brights or even modern black plants as starting points and work outward.
Make the most of year-round interest and staggered bloom times to ensure that when one group of flowers start to fade and die back, new splashes of color are waiting in their place.
Try incorporating different flower sizes and shapes for visual interest and depth in your plantings, such as dahlias, daisies, foxgloves and peonies for example. Also make sure that there is an assortment of foliage types to add texture and visual weight, combining coarse textures like Heuchera with delicate Tulips or tall Lilyturf with wispy Heucherellas as examples of fine textures that add interest.
Consider the Background and Foreground
Your flower garden’s backdrop plays an integral part in its overall aesthetic. Garden photos published in gardening magazines all showcase something that grabs the eye, providing contrast against exuberant blooms – it could be anything from fencing, brick or stone walls, dark green hedges, arbors adorned with climbing roses or hardscape elements like trellises.
Once you understand the sun conditions and selected your focal point, it’s time to begin designing your flower bed. First step should be clearing away grass/weeds/compost from the area prior to creating a map which helps guide planting decisions.
Make the most of the space you have by layering plants to achieve balance in the design. Also try repeating certain colors, shapes or plant species throughout for cohesion – this way even as some blooms fade or die off, others will remain ready to fill their place!