Repetition is key when designing flower gardens. Reusing colors, shapes and plant species throughout your bed creates a uniform look that feels more natural than an unorganized array of blooms.
Flowers come in all sorts of forms, from cushions and mounds to upright and spiky arrangements. Experiment with contrast between textures for extra visual interest.
Sunlight
As you brainstorm flower garden layout ideas, start with an overall goal in mind. Do you envision an elaborate display designed to attract pollinators bees? Or would a low maintenance garden with blooming flowers that quickly refill gaps left by faded ones be more suitable? Answering such questions helps narrow your selection of plants while creating an eye-catching focal point.
Step two of garden design should involve monitoring how your garden will receive sunlight throughout the day and selecting locations which won’t be shaded by trees, hedges or buildings. Most plants need at least six hours of direct sunlight each day in order to thrive and can die when exposed to shaded conditions.
Make use of a tape measure to outline your flower bed on paper using plots. This will help you visualize its layout and will come in handy later when planting the garden itself. Be mindful when choosing plant height, too; aim for an even transition from lower to taller plants as you plant. Incorporating flowers of various shapes and textures for additional visual interest.
Soil
After soil preparation and matching plants to site conditions, much of garden design lies with the gardener themselves. While there are certain unbreakable rules (listed below), experimenting with colors and forms can give flower gardens their own distinctive looks.
Before selecting the site of your garden, take into consideration how much sun, water, and light is available. Unless planting boggy-tolerant species in beds that remain waterlogged after rains or thaws occur.
Sketch your plans by outlining the approximate sizes of each flower bed and their surrounding lawn, noting any steep slopes that might require terracing to prevent soil erosion, as well as any possible edging solutions such as flat spades or half-moon edgers to define and define lawn/flowerbed boundaries. Many gardeners prefer formal arrangements featuring straight edges with plants planted in orderly rows or clusters; others might find more natural, loosely mounded designs more appealing.
Pathways
Step two is to determine where paths will run through your flower garden, depending on its size. This could involve trial and error or simply some careful observation – for instance, border width may dictate whether enough plants fit between it and the path, as well as whether enough space remains for strollers and walkers to access your space.
As with the soil, the conditions and your objectives influence the layout of a flower garden; however, there are some general guidelines most gardeners tend to abide by when designing one. Repetition is key; keeping certain colors, shapes and plant species repeated throughout provides visual cohesion in your flowerbed.
Plants come in all forms and sizes, from diminutive flowers that bloom into cushions or mounds to tall spiky blooms. Playing around with texture and form adds extra interest to flower garden ideas; mixing fine foliage (such as marigolds) with coarse leaves (canna lilies) creates contrast that adds extra dimension.
Focal Points
Focal points draw your eye in and hold it there for an instant, whether that is a plant specimen (like an elegant Japanese Maple) or man-made object like a fountain, garden statue or art work – or even garden furniture, trellises and bird baths.
Focal point objects shouldn’t compete with plants; rather they should enhance them and act to obscure any unpleasant or immovable objects such as utility poles or neighbor’s fence or decks that might otherwise become distracting features of nature.
An effective way to create a focal point in the garden is to place it near where the tallest flowers are planted, which allows the eye to travel easily from flower bed to flower bed and take in more of its design. Or an object can be elevated and raised so it stands out, such as placing an empty urn on a pedestal so it becomes more prominent.