Beginner gardeners may find flower gardens daunting, but with careful planning they can easily create beautiful yet functional flowerbeds.
Before planting your garden design, use ruler and graph paper to sketch its design on paper using ruler and graph paper. This will help you visualize your plans more clearly while making any necessary adjustments. In addition, plan how edging will mark off lawn from bed space.
Pathways
When designing a flower garden, create pathways between your beds and let visitors roam through it freely to appreciate its display.
Pathways come in all shapes and sizes; from simple lawn cuttings to intricate arrangements made up of pavers, bricks, gravel and field stones – as well as anything in between! Terracing may also be required in order to protect soil erosion on sloped paths.
Focal points such as a pergola, old tree, boulder or statue can serve as natural features in a flower garden to add drama. Planting flowers around these features helps draw the eye while providing a great backdrop for other elements like fountains, ponds or water features.
Focal Points
Focal points in your garden can draw the eye and help define its structure, whether that means one plant or multiple ones clustered together as an eye-catcher, or perhaps lighting that highlights cobblestone pathways. A single flower bed could feature such an accent such as one or more focal plants forming an arrangement, creating an eye-catcher in any flowerbed, while accent pieces such as morning glories trellises near ornate front doors or lighting to highlight pathways can all serve to draw people in and create focus points in any flower bed or bed.
If your garden lacks interest year-round due to perennial plants alone, add annual flowers and filler plants as year-round color sources while also providing bees, butterflies and birds with food sources for all year long. The blooms will give the impression of perpetual color while providing essential sustenance for wildlife such as bees, butterflies and birds.
Year-Round Interest
As well as making sure the soil is appropriate for your flowers, you also want to design a garden that looks good all year. This involves selecting plants with staggered bloom times – shrubs for winter color; perennials for summer flowers; and annual flowers to add fall hue.
Experienced garden designers understand how to combine shapes and colors for an integrated effect, but it’s crucial that you select wisely so your garden doesn’t appear chaotic or disorganized.
Ruler-straight lines should only be used in formal gardens requiring high maintenance; when designing easy-care flower beds, natural curves should be preferred. Start by penciling in shrubs (including low-growing evergreens like boxwood), followed by perennials and hardy summer-blooming bulbs before filling out with flowering annuals.
Plant Height
Garden edging creates distinct borders to prevent grass and weeds from creeping onto your flowerbeds, and creates an appealing landscape design feature. Furthermore, garden edging provides a clean finish to the garden’s appearance.
Beginning with ground cover plants like heucheras, erigeron, and lamium can create an informal meadow-like scene. Plant them in drifts or groups for maximum effect.
Next comes layer two – taller herbaceous perennials such as Epimedium x versicolor ‘Sulphureum’ (bishop’s hat) or Sesleria autumnalis; these monochromatic plants create a base layer with subtle hues, which can then be accented by taller seasonal theme plants or structural pieces. Annuals provide year-round interest, providing blooms between layers – keeping your garden engaging throughout its season!
Color
Flower garden color schemes don’t play as integral a role in creating a stunning garden as soil preparation and careful plant selection do, but it does add a nice finishing touch. From low contrast color schemes that seem soothing to high contrast schemes that excite, there are various choices available that add just that finishing touch!
Harmonizing plants and hardscape elements into an elegant landscape is the goal of many gardeners. Lighter colors and natural materials such as wood or stone add an air of serenity and tranquility that adds an atmosphere of calmness and serenity to a garden space.
Start by clearing away plants that don’t provide enough color or bloom at an inappropriate time of year, before considering using the color wheel as a guide in selecting your plant selections – analogous colors (close together on the wheel) can work well when placed next to each other while complementary hues (opposite each other on the wheel) create stunning contrasts in design.