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How to plan a flower garden layout


Flower Bed Design - How to Design a Garden Bed

Gardens should always be considered highly personal works of art. As in any kind of art, taste will vary greatly with every person having a different opinion of what constitutes beauty. I think understanding basic design principles, is important for two reasons. First, if you know the rules you can break them in an intelligent way. Second, it helps give you a comfort level that what you design won't be a complete disaster. However, in the end the only thing that really matters is that you love your garden - your opinion is the most important one. 

There are two basic types of garden beds; island beds and borders and two basic styles of gardens; formal and informal. We will start by covering the two types of beds and then move onto the two styles.

A border is anchored by a backdrop and I think these beds are easier to visualize than island beds, at least for me, since the background will help define the size of your new bed. The backdrop might be a house, a hedge row, a fence, or anything else that gives you a fairly solid background. Borders are viewed from only one side.  

A flower border is generally, but not always, long and narrow. How deep your bed needs to be will partially depend on how long the bed is. The proportions of the bed are important. A short bed doesn't need to be as deep, a 3 foot by 8 foot bed will look right at home. A longer bed will need more depth, if possible. A 12 foot by 100 foot bed will look proportional. 

Most home gardens are more likely to have beds that fall between 5 and 50 feet long. In this case depth should range between 3 and 6 to 8 feet deep. Any bed that is deeper than 4 feet (you can only reach so far) will need to have access to the interior of the bed for weeding and other maintenance purposes. Paths or stepping stones are common ways to provide access. Here are some examples of borders:

The photo on the left shows a narrow border at the Missouri Botanic Garden, in the center is a border along my front porch, and on the right is a great orange-toned border.

Island beds, on the other hand, are not anchored by a backdrop and can be viewed from all sides. They often have a center anchor. This anchor isn't necessarily right in the middle.  It can be offset to one side for an asymmetrical look. Center anchors can be anything from a tree, shrub or large perennial to a piece of statuary or a large container, even a bench or trellis/arbor can work as a center anchor. 

Island beds tend to be more round, square, rectangular or amorphous. They are rarely long and skinny. As with borders, their length and width needs to be somewhat proportional, so longer beds need to also be wider. Island beds can be small, a mailbox planting for instance, but are more often large. Since island beds can be reached from all sides; only beds larger than 6 to 8 feet across will need access for maintenance. Here are some examples of island beds:

The photo on the left shows an island bed with a tree as the anchor, the structure on the right is open so you can see this bed from all sides. The photo was taken at the Boerner Botanic Garden in Hales Corner, Wisconsin; a great garden if you get a chance to visit. In the center is a butterfly wing shaped bed taken at the Michigan State Children's Garden. The photo on the right shows a series of small island beds that use mailboxes as their anchor. The photo was taken at the Missouri Botanic Garden. 

In general, plants in borders are arranged with tall plants (taller than 2 to 3 feet) placed in the back, mid-size plants (10 inches to 2 to 3 feet tall) in the middle, and short plants (less than 10 inches) in the front of the bed. It is best to use groupings or drifts of plants for a natural feel. Look at the border planting plan below. Tall plants are in brown, medium-tall plants are in blue, medium-short plants are in teal, and short plants are in dark green. Note that the plants are grouped rather than in rows.

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The other thing to consider when planning your plant placement is that it is often best to use groupings of at least 3 of the same plant together. One plant alone often does not have enough impact, where a grouping of 3, 5, 7 or more will have good impact. Odd numbers tend to look better than even numbers. This is especially true of smaller plants where groups are necessary to have impact. Short plants can be used in long narrow plantings to create borders on the edge of a bed.

There is an exception to the plant 3 or more plants rule. In general, if a plant is large enough, think shrubs or large perennials, it can hold it's own without being grouped with other plants. Usually, only back of the border plants can stand alone. Scroll back up to see photos of borders.

Island beds work on the same principles as borders, but rather than having the taller plants in the back. The taller plants are in the middle of the bed or centered on the anchor plant.  In the design below, the bright blue dot is the anchor, the brown are the tall plants, the pink are the medium plants, and the dark blue are the short plants. 

 

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You will note that the plants are grouped in drifts with the taller plants in the middle of the bed and then getting progressively shorter as you get toward the edge. Your design doesn't need to be rigid, you can see above that some medium sized plants come to the edge of the bed and some short plants are right next to tall plants. The tall to short progression is simply a rule of thumb, not a hard and fast rule. Scroll back up to see photos of island beds.

Let's talk now about the two styles of garden. Gardens generally are either formal or informal. Formal gardens tend to use distinct geometric shapes for their layout; circles, rectangles, triangles or long straight lines. Plant spacing, color, and layout are all very precise. Here are some examples of formal gardens:

On the left is a circle knot garden, in the center is a formal garden with lots of color, but very geometric shapes, and on the right is a formal garden with a clipped boxwood hedge to create the form of the beds. All of these photos were taken at the Missouri Botanic Garden.

Informal gardens tend to use curves and free flowing forms. The color combinations are more relaxed and varying plant heights will mingle together. I think most home gardens tend to be this type. Here are some examples of informal gardens: 

The photo on the left is from the Ball Seed Company garden in West Chicago, Illinois and shows, more or less, a wildflower meadow. The center photo is from the Boerner Botanic Garden and shows a curving walkway bordered by colorful plantings. The photo on the right is from The Champaign County (Illinois) Master Gardener Demonstration Garden and shows a great informal garden using bright colors.

Learning the types and styles of gardens and the general principles of plant placement will help you design gardens for your own home. To learn about using color in your garden click here. Of course, once you design a bed you have to actually dig and prepare it. For more information on actually preparing your bed for planting, click here.

*Planting plans developed by the University of Missouri Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program.

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22 Layouts and Design Plans for a Perennial Flower Garden

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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.

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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:

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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Expanded clay Artificial stone

Layout of flower beds and flower beds in the country - is it so scary?

Many of you, for sure, often doubt your own abilities, and the design of a summer cottage is no exception. Having solved complex tasks with building or repairing a house, planting or putting in order a garden / vineyard / garden, and having reached an item on the list of works called “flower bed”, along the way, having seen enough of numerous photos of chic designer flower beds, you suddenly give up.

“How to plan a flower bed, who will do it at all, well, it’s definitely not going to work out for us, and therefore we’ll just plant some flowers, and sooner or later they will bloom and will delight everyone,” such thoughts appear in the head, if not every second, then every third summer resident. You may be very surprised, but there is nothing terrible and especially difficult in this. The main desire! And it, the desire to arrange a lovely flower garden, filling it with your green friends, apparently, is there.

So, the planning of a flower bed should begin with deciding on the type of flower garden that you would like to see as a result. If you decide to limit yourself for the first time to flower borders along garden paths - it's one thing, planting plants of the same type and color in the shape of a circle is another, trying to do something more complicated is a third. Having become acquainted with the types of flower beds, and there are a sufficient number of them, you can choose what you can afford.

How to plan a flower bed - let's get started!

What grades did you have in drawing and drafting at school? The skills learned in these lessons will be useful to us. The fact is that we will start planning a flower bed in the country by drawing a diagram of our future flower garden. For example, you decide to break it around a small tree growing in front of your house. Such a flower bed is called near-stem, in terms of diameter it is recommended to make it so that it is convenient to take care of, that is, no more than 1.5-2 meters. Draw a circle on a piece of paper.

Which flowers do you like the most, are they annuals or perennials, what month do they bloom and how long do they bloom, which plants go best with each other? Would you like to divide the already drawn circle into sectors or draw a few more circles inside? After answering these questions for yourself, try to draw it on paper, marking your future plants with the appropriate color. Just be careful with the abundance of bright colors and combinations of shades - it is better to alternate rich and calm.

There is a rule to consider when planning flowerbeds and flower beds: plants in the center are planted the highest, and the closer to the edge, the lower and lower. The last row may well play the role of a circular frame for your flower bed, if it is on the lawn. What else you need to think about at the stage of developing plans is the use of all kinds of decorative elements that will be used in the direct formation of a flower garden. They can be both purchased and made by hand, located on the same plane and at different levels in height.

An extremely simple, but effective and popular way of dividing a flower garden into zones are flowerbeds made from car tires. Some ideas have been used for many years, while others can be called know-how.

You have decided on the applicants for places in your flower garden, the color scheme suits you, the plan has been drawn, but some doubts remain: what if it doesn’t work out? Resolutely reject them! Firstly, this is your idea, and if the embodiment still does not suit you, you can easily change it by carefully transplanting the flowers in a different way, and secondly, you have chosen your favorite flowers, how can you not like them on you planned flowerbed?

Plan for planting flowers in a flower bed - do it yourself!

If the stage of drawing a plan and agreeing with family members is already behind you, if a place for a future flower garden is chosen, then it's time to start work. From the place where the future flower bed will be located, we will carefully remove the top layer of soil, about 15 cm. Now you need to provide drainage, for this, fill in a thin layer of fine gravel or, for example, expanded clay - everything is exactly the same as with planting home flowers.

The next step is to fill in the crushed soil, immediately fertilized, in the same place, but in such a way that there is a small hill in the center, and it disappears towards the edges. We will water the earth abundantly and let it stand for a couple of days. If both you and the plants are ready for planting, then proceed. Remember that in the center we must plant tall flowers: panicled phloxes, dahlias, gladioli, chrysanthemums , etc. , and further downward, ending with smaller ones: nasturtiums, marigolds, calendula, etc.


During the planting process, it is important that the wind does not disturb your plans for the formation of the flower bed. For example, you can solve this problem like this: put a small bottomless shape, round or rectangular, in the right place, pour the earth inside, pour seeds there, sprinkle it with earth on top and, removing the mold, calmly take on the next section. The wind is no longer a problem.


After planting the flowers, it's time to start framing the flower garden. A small decorative fence, purchased or made by hand, will look very impressive around it, the latter will certainly be much nicer to you. You can pour a 15-20 cm ribbon of colored gravel around the flower bed or lay out artificial or natural stones. Decorative figurines of fairy-tale heroes or animals, perhaps, will add mood to the flower garden. In general, do not be afraid to fantasize and believe that everything will work out for you!