How to plan a flower garden bed
How to Plan and Create a Landscape Planting Bed
A bland expanse of lawn can be transformed into an attractive landscape by the addition of one or more garden beds that add color, texture—and overall interest—to your property. A garden bed can take many forms. For example, you might create a simple shrub island consisting of flowering shrubs and perhaps a small ornamental tree as an elegant, understated touch. Or if you want to make a more striking statement, you can fill a planting bed with very bright annual flowers that offer bright color from early spring to late fall. And today, it's perfectly acceptable to use a garden bed for vegetables and other edibles.
But the most popular form is the mixed border garden, which traditionally might contain a small shrub or two, some annuals for long-lasting color, but mostly perennial flowers of various sizes and differing bloom periods. Such a garden is often described simply as a "perennial border." It is remarkably easy to create, and much of the enjoyment comes from the planning.
When to Create a Garden Bed
The physical work of creating a garden bed within a lawn is best begun in the early spring as soon as the ground has warmed enough to be easily worked, but the planning of a garden bed often begins months earlier. Pondering what your garden bed might look like and browsing magazines and books for ideas can be a great way to spend winter days when no garden work is possible.
Planning a garden bed is an excellent activity for new homeowners looking to put a personal stamp on their newly purchased property.
Before Getting Started
The most important step in planting a new flower bed is to visualize the future. While your bed might not look like much when it's first planted, remember that in a few months it will be much fuller, taller, and more colorful. The key is anticipating the heights, colors, textures, and mass of all the various plants. This can be best accomplished if you start early by paying careful attention to other gardens you admire in your neighborhood. A trip to a local arboretum or public garden can also give you ideas. And garden magazines may include planting diagrams aimed at achieving a particular look for a finished garden bed.
If you want to take a chance at creating a garden design that's purely your own, keep these goals in mind:
- Try to include perennials that bloom at different times during the year, so that something is in bloom at all times. While fill-in color can be achieved with annual flowering plants, ultimately your goal should be a fully perennial garden that sustains itself without additional annual plantings.
- Strive for a garden bed that has a backdrop of tall plants at the back that creates a "canvas" for the rest of the arrangement. This is a technique known as "layering." In the context of planting flower beds, "layering" means you put the tallest flower bed plants in the back, the shortest in the front row, and the remaining plants in between. A nicely layered flower bed provides maximum visual appeal when all the plants mature.
- Pay attention to how colors interact. And this is not only a matter of flower color but also foliage color. Avoid colors that clearly clash.
- Consider shape, texture, and form as well as color. A well-designed garden bed will offer variety in several different design principles, not just color. Small shrubs can be an excellent way to introduce textures into a planting bed.
- Remember that you can always change your garden design, moving, deleting, and adding plants as you see fit. Don't worry too much if you don't get it right from the beginning.
Equipment / Tools
- Utility knife or garden shears
- Garden staples
- Garden shovel
- Trowel
Materials
- Plants of differing heights, colors
- Mulch
- Soil amendments (compost, etc.)
- Landscape fabric
The Spruce / Almar Creative
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Choose a Garden Bed Location
The first step is to choose an appropriate yard location for your garden bed. In most cases, a full-sun location that receives at least six hours of direct sunlight each day will give you the most options for growing flowering plants, but there's no reason you can't create a garden bed in a shadier location, provided you are willing to limit your plant choices to shade-loving species.
In general, an area of your yard where grass grows robustly is likely to also support a good garden bed. Avoid areas where tree roots are prevalent, as trees rob the soil of moisture and nutrients and will make it hard to maintain a healthy garden without extraordinary effort.
If your yard soil is poor, it may be necessary to have additional topsoil delivered to create a garden bed that's suitable for growing the plants you want. This will allow you to create a garden bed just about anywhere you want, provided the sun exposure is adequate.
Gardening Tip
In yards with poor soil or bad drainage, a garden bed can be created by having a healthy amount of topsoil delivered, then building a large raised mound or "berm" for your garden. Such a raised berm can also help give a three-dimensional aspect to an otherwise flat, boring yard.
The Spruce / Almar Creative
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Choose a Garden Bed Style and Color Scheme
A garden bed can take many forms and colors, from an "island" where you'll grow various flowering shrubs, to a very orderly cutting garden where you'll grow annual flowers in carefully defined rows for vase arrangements. For most people, though, "garden bed" means a mixed perennial border bed that will feature predominantly perennial flowers with perhaps some annual flowers to provide season-long color. Such a garden may also include a shrub or two to provide shape, texture, and winter color.
Entire books have been written about how to design and arrange a perennial garden bed, but for beginners, there's no harm in simply focusing on the plants you like. One of the great things about gardening is that you can readily change your mind, adding or deleting plants, or moving them around each year, until you find an arrangement and mixture you like.
Unless you're striving for the sort of wild, chaotic look that typifies English cottage gardens, it's a good idea to have a color scheme in mind when planting flower beds. Some people, for example, like to focus on a single color in various shades (a white "moon" garden, for example), while others prefer a mixture of colors. One popular scheme is to fill a garden bed with blue, purple, and yellow or gold flowers. These colors are complementary and almost always work well together.
The Spruce / Almar Creative
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Choose Plants
The real fun starts as you choose the plants to fill your garden bed. This can involve a lot of enjoyable research into the cultural needs and characteristics of various plants. Most important is to choose plants that are appropriate to the USDA hardiness zone of your area. This is usually not a problem if you are shopping at a local garden center, which will stock only plants appropriate to your region. But if you are shopping online, then make sure to choose only plants that will work well in your climate.
Also, pay attention to the cultural needs of various plants and make sure they match your style of gardening. Growing irises, for example, will require that you dig up rhizomes and divide them every couple of years, while daylilies will happily grow with little attention for many years. Some people see gardening as an enjoyable hobby and good exercise, while others want to avoid gardening chores whenever possible—choose your plants accordingly.
Along with plant color, give some consideration to plant shape and texture. A well-designed garden will include plants with a variety of foliage textures, from sword-like gladiolus to the fine lacy texture of bleeding heart. And remember that "green" foliage comes in many hues, from deep blue-green to nearly yellow. You can also kill two birds with one stone by using iris, such as Iris pallida 'Aureo-Variegata'. Its flower provides a purple color, while its variegated leaves inject a touch of light gold. In addition, its large, spear-shaped leaves make for a nice contrast of textures with the other plants.
Finally, give attention to including a variety of plant sizes in your plan. In most garden plans, the back of the garden will include tall, towering specimens, the mid-garden will include moderate-sized plants, while the foreground edging is best suited for creeping, mat-forming plants.
The Spruce / Almar Creative
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Lay Out the Garden Bed
In most regions, active work on creating a garden bed is best started in spring, as soon as the soil is warm enough to be worked. The first step is to lay out the garden bed on the lawn area. This can be done with spray paint, powdered chalk, or by using a flexible garden hose to outline the garden bed on the lawn.
A garden bed can be whatever size you want, but a common mistake is to plan a garden that's too small. Of course, it's always possible to enlarge a garden after the fact, but it's better to create a nice, spacious garden bed right from the start. A bed that's 5 or 6 feet deep and 10 or 12 feet long should be considered a minimum. You can make your garden any shape you want, but most designers advise that an oval or kidney-shaped garden has the best aesthetic appeal.
The Spruce / Almar Creative
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Remove the Grass
If you are creating a flower bed from scratch in an area currently covered with grass, you must first get rid of the grass. One effective technique is to use a standard pointed shovel to cut out the sod in chunks (about 4 inches deep x 10 inches wide x 10 inches long). Then, lay the shovel on its side, with the blade perpendicular to the ground, and pound the sod against the shovel's blade. This removes most of the soil from the sod so that it is not wasted. Dispose of the sod by placing it in your compost bin.
Another popular method is to simply kill off the grass. This can be done with a broad-spectrum, short-lived herbicide, such as glyphosate. Glyphosate effectively kills all plants but then becomes inert almost immediately after contact with the soil. Carefully spray the grass within the garden bed outline, then wait a week or so until the grass turns brown and dies. Then, you can churn up the dead grass with the soil by repeated deep digging. The dead grass adds organic material to the soil and also improves its texture.
Another, more organic method of killing grass is to "solarize" it by covering the garden bed area with sheets of plastic. Left in the sun for two or three weeks, the intense heat will kill off the grass and weeds, as well as soil pathogens. After the grass is dead, simply dig it into the soil.
The Spruce / Almar Creative
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Add Soil Amendments
Virtually all garden beds will benefit from the addition of an organic amendment, such as compost, peat moss, or well-decomposed leaf mulch. Compost increases the soil's fertility, and by working compost into the ground, you'll also be loosening the soil, making it more friable. If your soil type is clayey, add peat moss as an additional soil amendment.
This is also a good time to have a professional lab or university extension service conduct a test on a sample of soil taken from your garden bed. The results of the test will give you valuable information on what nutrients your soil needs and what amendments to use. For example, if you want to grow azaleas, which are acid-loving plants, the soil test may suggest adding agricultural sulphur as an amendment to lower the soil pH.
The Spruce / Almar Creative
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Add a Weed Barrier (Optional)
While not mandatory, many gardeners like to add a weed barrier to help reduce garden chores. The best weed barrier for a garden bed is woven landscape fabric. Unlike the sheets of black plastic often used, woven weed barriers permit air, water, and nutrients to penetrate down to the soil to reach your plants. Later, mulch will go down on top of the weed barrier to hold it down. The mulch will also shield the weed barrier fabric from harmful UV rays as it hides it from view.
In addition to garden mulch, you can use garden staples to hold weed barriers in place. Staples are especially helpful on planting beds set at a slope.
Gardening Tip
The case against using a weed barrier is that over time it prevents organic mulch from breaking down and blending with garden soil. Experienced gardeners sometimes avoid weed barriers, feeling that overall soil health is better if the soil is left exposed to air, light, and organic surface mulches. You might expect that omitting weed barrier will greatly increase your weeding chores, but routinely mulching around plants does a good job of preventing weeds from germinating, even without an underlying layer of weed barrier.
Another drawback of weed barrier is that it can slow the spread of plants that naturally expand by extending rhizomes. Daylilies planted beneath landscape fabric, for example, may have trouble expanding to form larger clumps.
The Spruce / Almar Creative
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Put in the Plants
After laying down the weed barrier, plants are added simply by cutting X-shaped slits in the fabric. Lay your plants down on the fabric, mark their location, then use a utility knife or garden shears to cut the slits. Next, fold back the flaps of fabric, dig a hole, and lower the plant's root-ball into the ground. Pack fill soil around the rootball, then fold the weed barrier back around the stem of the plant.
Make sure to give adequate space for each plant. You should expect that your garden will look a bit sparse for the first season, but it will soon fill in and become more dense.
The Spruce / Almar Creative
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Add Mulch
After all plants are installed, cover the soil or weed barrier fabric with a thick layer of mulch. Landscape mulch comes in many forms, including organic materials such as shredded wood, bark chips, or compost; inorganic natural materials such as crushed rock; and synthetic materials such as shredded recycled tires. Choose whatever material you wish, but be aware that mulches require some ongoing maintenance, such as adding more as the material breaks down or washes away.
Experienced gardeners often opt for an organic mulch that breaks down and adds nutrients to the soil, even though this means regular replenishment. Over the long run, inorganic materials such as crushed rock or shredded rubber can become something of a nuisance.
The Spruce / Almar Creative
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Add a Focal Point (Optional)
If your bed needs a little something extra as a finishing touch, you can add a focal point that puts an exclamation point on your design scheme. For example, a decorative ceramic planter or small birdbath can draw attention. Other options might include a gazing ball, a hanging birdhouse or hummingbird feeder, a small piece of statuary, a small decorative boulder, or a decorative trellis for supporting a clematis or other flowering vine.
Don't overdo it, though. In most cases, a single accent piece is sufficient as a finishing touch for a small garden bed.
The Spruce / Almar Creative
Watch Now: How to Install Landscape Fabric for Weed Control
22 Layouts and Design Plans for a Perennial Flower Garden
How to choose flowers and where to plant them
Reviewed by
Kathleen Miller
Reviewed by Kathleen Miller
Kathleen Miller is a highly-regarded Master Gardener and Horticulturist who shares her knowledge of sustainable living, organic gardening, farming, and landscape design. She founded Gaia's Farm and Gardens, a working sustainable permaculture farm, and writes for Gaia Grows, a local newspaper column. She has over 30 years of experience in gardening and sustainable farming.
Learn more about The Spruce's Review Board
The Spruce / Adelyn Duchala
Some of the most luscious perennial gardens look like they just kind of happen, don't they? Lush cottage-style flower beds overflowing with color, just popping up out of nowhere all on their own, right? Well, not exactly.
Perennial gardens can definitely become very easy and low maintenance over time, but before that magical effortless look happens, there are plenty of plans and decisions to be made. Specifically, where you plant things is almost as important as what you decide to plant.
Here are 22 suggestions and ideas to help you plan the layout and design of gorgeous perennial flower garden.
How to Design a Perennial Flower Garden
There are some specific things to consider when choosing what and where to plant:
- When will this plant bloom, and for how long?
- How much growth (height, spread, bloom size) does it put out during the high point of the season?
- Do its blooms or foliage change color over time, and if so, when and what colors can you expect?
- What different colors are available in this plant's cultivars?
- Does this plant have a desirable fragrance?
- Does it have specific light or soil needs that are different from the plants near it?
- Is it vulnerable to pests, and if so, will it attract pests that might damage adjacent plants?
- Does this plant have flowers that are vulnerable to damage from wind, rain, or heat?
Keep a notebook listing plants you're considering, and then do your research. Read tags at the nursery, and ask for guidance and tips from employees or other gardeners.
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01 of 22
Get the Big Picture
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Look at your garden from a distance and see how the plantings work together. When we work in the garden, we're often "up close and personal" with plants, but designing requires stepping back to get a more comprehensive perspective of your space. This is especially important if you have trees and large shrubs in your landscape—consider the entire impact of your design. Step back to take in the big picture and see how your plantings balance and flow into one another.
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02 of 22
Plant Bulbs for Early Spring Color
@gardenfromscratch / Instagram
You can't beat spring bulbs for low-effort color in spring. But, they only bloom for a few weeks. By planting your spring bulbs (crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips) by your hostas and daylilies, the bulb foliage will be dying back once the foliage from these later season plants starts to emerge. This makes for great use of space and fills in the gaps between seasons of bloom.
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03 of 22
Arrange Plants By Height
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Most of the time, you will want to put taller plants in the back of the bed and shorter ones in front. Exceptions can be plants with very delicate sprays of flowers, or tall slender stems with flowers at the very top, which can go in front even if their stems are taller than the plants they're in front of (like alliums, salvias, coral bells/heucheras, veronica, columbines, bluebells, or forget-me-nots).
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04 of 22
Create Visual Patterns with Color
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Planting to create a pattern of color to draw the eye is a well-known landscape designer's trick. See how the purple foliage of these heucheras creates a dynamic pattern that leads the eye across the garden, and connects them to the purple tones of the Japanese maples. The purple-toned foliage of these heucheras and Japanese maples creates a dynamic pattern that leads the eye.
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05 of 22
Strive for Interesting Shape and Texture
@paintedleafhostagarden / Instagram
Plant strategically to create a lively combination of shapes and textures. Even a simple shade garden can balance the sturdy rounded or pointed leaves of hostas with the delicate textures of heuchera leaves and flowers, airy astilbes, and spiky ferns. Consider also how a plant's texture may change as the season progresses. The delicate airy texture of heuchera flowers (coral bells) is a perfect contrast to the heavier shapes and textures of hostas in this shade garden.
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06 of 22
Try Color Blocking
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Some gardeners like to have a large variety of plants in their mixed perennial beds. But there is something to be said for the dramatic impact of a large area blooming with vibrant color, making your garden into a seasonal show-stopper. This is especially effective with long-blooming perennial flowers like columbines, echinacea, hydrangeas, dianthus, chrysanthemums, etc.
Plant other flowering plants nearby that will add color when these show-stoppers are done; try chrysanthemums or perennial snapdragons in front of your echinacea.
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07 of 22
Design with Foliage
@gardenfromscratch / Instagram
Perennial flowers don't always have long seasons of bloom, so learning which plants have colorful or interesting foliage can help you design a garden that stays rich and interesting through the seasons.
Heucheras come in a rainbow of colors with differently-shaped leaves and do well in sun or shade. Hostas and daphne come in variegated varieties that add visual depth and interest. Silvery tones can come from artemisia or brunnera. The beautifully-shaped leaves of oakleaf hydrangeas and amsonia provide brilliant autumn color.
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08 of 22
Create Colorful Shade Beds
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
There are many perennials that will happily bloom in partial shade, so your shade beds needn't be all hostas and astilbes! Perennial geraniums weave in and out among plants in search of dappled sun, and other colorful part-shade lovers include foxgloves, alliums, irises, heucheras and primroses. See how the purple tones and lacy texture of the Japanese painted fern complement the 'Rozanne' geraniums and 'Millennium' alliums here.
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09 of 22
Time Your Blooms Right
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
One of the biggest challenges in garden design is finding ways to have flowers blooming consistently throughout the season. But, consider how certain plants may have a more dramatic impact than others.
Maybe you want your roses to take the starring role. Maybe your peonies are the pride of the neighborhood. Let those pink David Austin roses shine by keeping other early summer blooming perennials to a minimum nearby, unless you want an all-pink garden, in which case, go for it! With a bit of practice and research, you can plant strategically to showcase certain plants at the height of their bloom season.
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10 of 22
Plant Flowering Groundcovers
@gardenfromscratch / Instagram
Ground covers can be a wonderful way to fill in empty spots and add low-growing beauty to your beds. Some bloom in spring (like sweet woodruff, epimedium, or creeping phlox), some in summer (spreading dianthus), some in fall (like creeping sedums which come in many colors, or peacock plumbago with its bright cobalt blue flowers). Depending on your climate, there are a great many to choose from.
Tip
Be careful with ground covers like vinca that grow matted roots, as these can spread and crowd out the roots of other perennials. But, planting these evergreen plants beneath a tree where not much else will grow adds year-round color. For example, the vivid blue flowers on peacock plumbago make it a gorgeous choice for ground cover.
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11 of 22
Experiment with Contrasting Colors
@plantsplantsen / Instagram
Opposites on the color wheel create vibrant, dramatic contrasts in the garden. Pair purples and yellows, oranges and blues, or reds and greens, including variations like magenta and chartreuse for dynamic color combinations.
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12 of 22
Balance Warm and Cool Colors
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Many gardeners love having a garden that is all cool colors (blues, purples, pinks) while some enjoy vibrant warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges. Having a mix of warm and cool palettes makes for maximum visual appeal. You can mix them together in one bed, or have one section that's cool next to one that's warm. The possibilities are endless and can include both flowers and foliage.
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13 of 22
Choose Easy-to-Divide Perennials
@ladylandscape / Instagram
Perennial dividing is usually a yearly task for the avid gardener. Some perennials will tend to show decreased vitality in their blooming if left undivided, as the roots or tubers may get crowded. Most types of irises need dividing every 3 years, as do daylilies and hostas; all three are very easy to divide. Some plants benefit from once yearly division, such as artemisia 'Silver Mound.' Once you divide them (mid to late autumn is the best time) you can replant the divisions immediately.
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14 of 22
Go For Late-Season Blooms
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Many gardeners find it challenging to keep a vibrant palette of blooms happening through three seasons. Don't neglect to plant late-blooming perennials, especially in spots where other perennials will have stopped blooming for the season. Anemones are a lovely sight in autumn with their delicate pinks and whites fluttering above the flower bed like fairies. The deep blues of monkshood add dramatic color too.
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15 of 22
Add Winter Interest
@paintedleafhostagarden / Instagram
Why stop at three seasons of beauty? Winter can be a beautiful time in the garden, even if you're looking at it from inside a warm room, standing by the window with a cup of hot chocolate. Many evergreen shrubs and trees hold up to the weight of heavy wet snow and create sculptural shapes and a bit of color in the winter landscape.
Consider leaving some plants intact for winter, like tall sedums, that create a lovely shape, then cut back in spring as new growth appears. This snowy garden has beautiful forms and textures from its evergreen and tree plantings.
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16 of 22
Plant in Containers
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Containers are an easy way to add height, shape, and balance to your garden and give you flexibility in terms of placement and adding plants throughout the season. A solid clay pot can offer an earthy feel next to airy, delicate blooms or the spreading branches of shrubs. You can also choose brightly colored pots to add to your garden's colorways.
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17 of 22
Incorporate Frost-Hardy Color
The Spruce / Peg Aloi
A number of perennials will keep blooming after a light frost, including late-season chrysanthemums and perennial snapdragons. Such plants can provide much-needed color and form later in the season. These football mums keep their form and color even after a light frost in November.
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18 of 22
Add Flowering Shrubs
@thepsychgarden / Instagram
Flowering shrubs can be colorful centerpieces in your perennial beds. They bloom at different points in the season, so plant them where you want seasonal impact. Azaleas and rhododendrons in spring, weigelas and hydrangeas in summer, Rose of Sharon through fall, etc.
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19 of 22
Plant for Autumn Color
@plantsplantsen / Instagram
Plant perennials that flower in autumn (chrysanthemums, snapdragons, sedums) but also plan for foliage shifting to rich autumn color and plant accordingly. There are many plants that provide bright and earthy colors in autumn: Japanese maples, ferns, amsonia, hydrangeas, heuchera, ninebark, and fothergilla are but a few.
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20 of 22
Don't Forget Deadheading
Barry Winiker / Getty Images
Deadheading is vital in the busy summer season. Some plants that offer thrilling blooms need frequent deadheading to stay fresh-looking. One good example is the day lily (hemerocallis): the blooms only last one day but there are always new ones about to open; plucking off the dead/drooping flowers makes the most of the blooming time.
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21 of 22
Choose Long-Lasting Blooms
@ladylandscape / Instagram
You don't have to sacrifice planting your favorite short-blooming flowers for the sake of having a lush perennial garden. Plant the briefest blooms between long-lasting perennials like purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) and catmint.
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22 of 22
Plant Annuals that Act Like Perennials
The Spruce / Peg Aloi
Annuals like zinnias, cornflowers, and cosmos will often reseed every year, becoming a reliable "perennial" flower. Many of these colorful annuals are heavy with nectar and beloved of pollinators. You can collect the seeds to plant in spring (direct sow after last frost date), or just let early annuals like cornflowers reseed themselves.
Tip
The great thing about perennials is that if they're not ideal in one spot, they can be moved to another. And when they grow larger, you can divide them and plant more! Remember to observe how plants do after they're planted: they are the best teachers and will tell you if they're content.
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How to arrange the beds on the cardinal points
With the advent of spring, many summer residents begin to think about how to plan the plot in order to get the maximum yield on the one hand and convenience on the other. A good passage should be organized for plantings for watering, loosening, fertilizing, pruning, etc. The same dilemma can arise in the summer, when you need to quickly organize a garden bed for any crop.
Beds around the world
Read on dacha6.ru:
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Content:
- In which direction to make beds in the garden
- How to determine north-south in plot
In which direction to plant beds in the garden
- Ordinary beds with low-growing plants are best placed in a north-south direction. This rule should be especially taken into account in shaded and low-lying areas.
- High beds, as well as ordinary beds located on light dry soils on the sunny side of the site or on higher ground, are best located from east to west. Plants in this case will shade the aisles, which means that more moisture will remain in the soil.
- If the plot has a slope, the beds should be made across the slope.
How to determine the north-south of the site
You should also determine which parts of your site receive how much sun. To do this, use the main picture for this material:
- The southern area of the site, marked in green, receives maximum sunshine throughout the year. Heat-loving plants are best planted here.
- The central yellow plot is also suitable for growing most garden crops. Moving across the sky, the sun will evenly illuminate every part of this territory. On some ridges, it will actively shine in the morning, on others - in the afternoon. Thus, each plant will have a sufficient amount of time to be in direct sunlight.
- The northern part of the site with the least amount of sunlight is highlighted in red.
Of course, all this division is very conditional. Your northern part will be the southern part for your neighbor. Focus, first of all, on objects and large plants, which can set off individual plantings of , taking into account the movement of the sun.
Be sure to consider the region of your suburban area. When placing beds from north to south, plants will receive maximum sunlight, but if in the Kuban this can cause them to burn out and dry out from an excess of sun, then in central Russia it will be the best option.
Also do not forget that there are sun-loving, shade-loving and shade-tolerant plants.
© Ilya Vladimirovich |
Another gardener
How to plan a garden on a small plot
If you cannot boast of a large summer cottage, but really want to set up a full-fledged garden, our article will come in handy for you.
Any owner of a country house wants to have a garden bed with fresh herbs and vegetables at hand, even if the plot is very modest in size. Fortunately, thanks to some tricks, it is possible to set up a garden that will bring a good harvest even in the most cramped conditions - there would be a desire. We tell you how!
Experiment with the shape of the beds
It is not at all necessary to set aside half of the summer cottage for a traditional vegetable garden when you can resort to non-standard agricultural practices. For example, vertical beds take up much less space, and their yields are often higher.
We have already written about the African garden in bags, which allows you to get a good harvest even on poor soil, because it is much easier to buy quality soil to fill several bags than to completely replace the fertile soil layer on the site.
In addition, many plants can easily be grown in containers. All this will allow placing an impressive number of vegetable crops on 4 acres.
Combine a vegetable garden with a garden
Even on the smallest plot, you want not only to grow onions, cucumbers and potatoes, but also to set aside a corner for a flower garden and berry bushes. A good compromise is an ornamental garden that combines a garden, a vegetable garden, and a flower garden.
Fortunately, many vegetable crops and herbs look very beautiful and fit well into landscape design. For example, why not include a bed of greens or cauliflower in your flower garden?
The main requirement of an ornamental garden is a beautiful design of the beds. For example, fences can be made from colored glass bottles, and the beds themselves can be made in the form of a mandala. There are a lot of ideas for creative design of the garden.
Choose compact crops
Naturally, if you want to grow tall peppers and tomatoes, a tiny bed is a must. But what prevents you from planting undersized varieties of these same crops on your site? They take up much less space.
Prefer early-ripening varieties
Another trick that will help you make more efficient use of space in a small garden is to grow early-ripening vegetables in multiple batches. By the time you harvest your first crop in the first half of summer, you should already have seedlings ready for a new batch. Depending on the climate and weather conditions, two or three crops can be harvested from one garden per season.
Plant compacted
Crops like tomatoes and potatoes take up a lot of space in the garden, but only at the end of the growing season.