An impersonal flower garden doesn’t make much of an impactful statement. Carefully plan its layout and create visual interest that makes the bed stand out.
Focus on providing year-round interest, considering staggered bloom times when selecting plants. Also bear in mind that flowers come in all sorts of shapes from spires to plumes and daisies!
Location
Location is of utmost importance when creating a flower garden. A bed planted randomly across your lawn looks out-of-place and unattractive, while well-designed beds add beauty and personality to any landscape.
Choose a location with full sun for optimal flower growth; many species thrive under these conditions. Some varieties, however, may do better in shaded or partially shady areas.
Once you’ve chosen a location, clear away grass and other vegetation before marking its boundaries with a hose or spade. Sketch out your garden layout before digging in to help visualize how your plants will develop; aim for layered planting where taller plants create the backdrop while shorter edging plants fill in front to achieve continuous color throughout the growing season – including blooming flowers can help achieve this result.
Plants
At all costs, remember that your flower garden should blend into its surroundings rather than become an island unto itself. Plants scattered across a lawn look unfinished at best and distracting at worst.
Start by sketching the basic outline of your border using tracing paper and pencils available at most stationery stores, followed by considering its color palette and bloom times – for instance if using lilies it would be wise to be aware when they will open so as to pair their placement with perennial plants that fill in any gaps in between blooms.
Carefully consider how a plant’s mature size will impact walkways or get trampled by your mower, and also take note of the plant’s foliage color and texture; sword-like gladiolus leaves provide a striking contrast against fine, lacy textures of bleeding heart flowers and other foliage. Finally, keep in mind that garden designers often utilize odd numbers of identical plant groupings in their flower beds so their gardens feel less disorganized and more balanced.
Edging
As with any garden, flower beds must complement the landscape in which they reside. Don’t allow yours to appear as an afterthought that has just been plonked on top of the grass! Instead, design should focus on complementing its surroundings such as shade trees, stone patios or even birdbaths.
Before beginning to sketch your layout, it is essential that you create a scale. This will enable you to draw borders at an appropriate size and keep plant groupings proportional; additionally, this scale is useful when planning on adding pavers or rock edging as an edging element.
An attractive flower garden should feature many plants displaying their splendor, yet still leave space for quiet spots to add additional annuals, rotate perennials, or plant bulbs when the time is right. Playing around with foliage color and texture combinations can add further visual interest once blooms have died off – try placing marigold clumps next to those with coarse leaves for an attractive contrast in textures.
Backdrop
Flowers are lovely, but we shouldn’t overlook the importance of including other elements in a garden’s aesthetics. The best gardens feature woods, stone or brick walls, fences or some other hardscape elements as backdrops that complement and frame blooming plants in bloom.
Color is also an integral element of an effective garden design, and experienced gardeners know to mix shades of the same hue together as well as those opposite each other on the color wheel, like purple and red. Foliage also adds interest, even when flowers have died off.
At first, the most essential step when planning a flower garden should be its placement within your landscape. A bed that looks out of place or protrudes too far may appear like an afterthought at best and an eyesore at worst. Once you know where you want your bed to reside, all these creative flower garden layout ideas will become easier to implement – best wishes!