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22 Ideas for Perennial Flower Garden Designs

How to plan a gorgeous perennial flower garden layout

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 tend to be a result of well-designed perennial garden ideas, taking into equal consideration where and what to plant. Read on to find 22 suggestions and ideas on how to layout, design, and plant a perennial garden that is visually appealing, becomes low-maintenance over time, and thrives in its space.

How to Design a Perennial Flower Garden

There are a few broad steps to consider when choosing a plant and deciding where it will go in your garden.

• Step 1, Zones: Learn your planting zone so you can then begin to choose appropriate perennial plants.
• Step 2, Sizes: Know how tall the plants you choose will grow and spread over time. What is the mature size of the plant? It helps to know this information so you can choose plants of differing heights to group together in your garden design.
• Step 3, Blooms: Learn about each plant's bloom time and how long it will flower. You want to include plants that flower throughout the season so you will always have color. Choose plants with flowers that can stand up to your area's weather because some plants might be too vulnerable to damage from wind, rain, or heat. Also, consider fragrance—some plants have surprising malodorous scents, such as the yellow alyssum, which does not smell sweet like its cousin.
• Step 4, Colors: Know whether the flowers you choose will have blooms and foliage that change color over time. If they change, when and what colors should you expect? Check the plant's cultivars for different colors you'd prefer in your design.
• Step 5, Habitats: Does the plant you want have specific light, soil, or water needs that differ from surrounding plants? For example, black cohosh and bleeding heart do best in perennial shade gardens, but not in full sun. Group plants with similar watering needs. For example, if you are planning a xeriscape garden, don't include a perennial plant like astilbe which needs the type of moist soil that drought-resistant types do not. Learn what pests and diseases may afflict the plant or any adjacent plants.
  

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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.

• 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.

• 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).

• 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.

• 05 of 22

  Strive for Interesting Shapes and Textures

  @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.

• 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.

• 08 of 22

  Create Colorful Shade Beds

  @thepsychgarden / Instagram

  Many perennials 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.

• 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.

• 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), and 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.

• 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.

• 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 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.

• 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 three 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.

• 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.

• 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. Think about adding perennial ornamental grasses into your garden design for winter texture. This snowy garden has beautiful forms and textures from its evergreen and tree plantings.

• 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.

• 17 of 22

  Incorporate Frost-Hardy Color

  The Spruce / Peg Aloi

  Many 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.
  

• 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, for example.

• 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. Many plants provide bright and earthy colors in autumn. Japanese maples, ferns, amsonia, hydrangeas, heuchera, ninebark, and fothergilla are but a few.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 by pollinators. You can collect the seeds to plant in spring (direct sow after the 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.

FAQ

• Staggered planting or succession planting is popular with vegetable growers; by sowing seeds every week, you can harvest them weekly. This same concept can be applied to flowering plants by planning successive blooming over an extended period. As one group fades, another planting group blooms, and this pattern continues during the growing season.

• Plant flowers after the threat of frost is gone. Each region's last frost date varies. The ground must be thawed and workable. You can get perennial flowering plants in the ground in early fall in the North and late fall in the South.

• The depth of your flower bed depends on the types of plants you put into the ground. If you don't want to limit yourself, plan on a minimum depth of 12 inches, although 6 inches is adequate for many plants. Also, consider soil needs. If the plants you use require good drainage, you might need to plan on adding a porous layer of compost or mulch, which adds several inches.

• In general, you'll want tall plants in the back (or in the center of an island bed), medium height in the middle, and lower plants in the front.

• A large shrub can be the centerpiece of a perennial flower garden. Or plant perennial flowers and smaller shrubs as blocks of color. Strive for a repeated pattern and height-appropriate rows to create harmony in your perennial garden.

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20 Free Garden Design Ideas and Plans

1

Patio Garden Bed

Chiyacat//Getty Images

If you're constructing a new patio, create a planting bed as part of the patio to define the space and make it feel more like an outdoor room.

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2

Ultimate Kitchen Garden

Illustration by Michael A. Hill

Say hello to the potager of our dreams, designed by renowned gardener Jon Carloftis. Overflowing with amazing edible plants handpicked by some of the nation's best chefs, this brings new meaning to farm-to-table dining because it's your own backyard!

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3

Perennial Garden

© Frédéric Collin//Getty Images

Why plant new flowers every year? By incorporating perennials, which return for many years, you'll be able to build a garden that will need little care from you to bloom.

Find the best perennial plants.

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4

A Glorious Kitchen-Garden Plan

Illustration by Michael A. Hill

When faced with Linda Lipsett's 30-by-90-foot plot, garden designer Chris Fischer got crafty with organization. He denoted three prominent portions—a large middle area surrounded by two smaller sections—and adorned each with raised beds for better soil quality control.

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5

Vertical Garden

JillLang//Getty Images

Sometimes the only way to grow is up! Vining plants add interest and also can provide screening and privacy on a deck or patio. Vines in pots work just as well as those planted in beds.

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6

Foliage-Filled Garden

Illustration by Allison Langton

Sean Conway's got nothing against flowers, but it's the garden designer's way with foliage that makes his Rhode Island spread sing.

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7

Herb Garden

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Even if your space is limited, you can grow herbs right outside your door. Assemble a collection of pots and plant the herbs that you use most often, as well as some varieties that are less familiar to you (you may discover a new fave!). Plant both annual and perennial herbs for a good mix year after year.

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8

Crevice Garden

Illustration by Michelle Buchard

How about perking up that drab Zone 5 to 8 patio or terrace with a sundial and some compact flowering plants? All you have to do is remove a few of the pavers and plant a few sprawling perennials.

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9

Rose Garden

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Every garden needs roses! And they're not as fussy as you might suspect. New shrub types are hardy and more disease-resistant so they're perfect even for beginners.

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10

Water Garden

Illustration by Michelle Buchard

This small water feature is suitable for a Zone 6 to 9 residential garden in the city or suburbs, where it could be placed on a deck, terrace, or patio.

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11

Bark Appeal Garden

Getty

Does your garden lack color during the leafless season? Trees and shrubs with interesting or peeling bark make a great addition to your landscape.

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12

Cottage Garden

Illustration by Michelle Buchard

This Zone 5 to 8 garden integrates charming old-time annuals and perennials, herbs, and flowering shrubs to produce a simple, informal display that provides plenty of flowers for cutting.

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13

Shade Garden

Chiyacat//Getty Images

14

Fall Cutting Garden

Illustration by Michelle Buchard

Nothing dresses up a home like fresh flowers, and growing them yourself is a fun bonus. This small raised-bed cutting garden will provide cut flowers for weeks and weeks.

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15

Spring Bulb Garden

Rosemary Calvert//Getty Images

Nothing's more refreshing after a long, dark winter than greeting spring with bright and cheery flowering bulbs. Plant them in fall for a show next spring. You also can plant in pots if you have limited space.

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16

Fall Decorating Garden

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Tired of having to buy all the items you need to craft natural seasonal decorations? Why not take some space in your garden and grow your own autumn plantings?

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17

Fragrant Garden

wilatlak villette//Getty Images

A garden should enchant you on many different levels. Engage all your senses by planting a variety of fragrant flowers and shrubs.

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18

Porch Border Garden

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Forget about boring foundation plantings. Dress up your front yard with a mixed border of annuals, perennials and shrubs.

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19

Raised Planter Garden

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Limited space or poor soil? A raised bed solves the problem, and you can grow ornamentals or edibles in these containers.

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20

Round Evergreens

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Round evergreens are so much fun! They add character and whimsy to any garden and are an essential spot of year-round color.

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Erin Cavoto

Erin Cavoto is the Editorial Assistant at ThePioneerWoman. com, covering food, holidays, home decor, and more.

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Arricca SanSone writes for CountryLiving.com, WomansDay.com, Family Circle, MarthaStewart.com, Cooking Light, Parents.com, and many others. She’s passionate about gardening, baking, reading, Polish pottery, vintage cookbooks, and spending time with the people and dogs she loves.

Flower garden plan, do it yourself - landscape design

In previous articles, we conducted preparatory studies of the site for the planned flower garden (determining the illumination of the site and soil composition) and chose the plants that we will plant (selection of plants for the flower garden).

Today we proceed directly to the creation of a flower garden or flower bed on paper, that is, we are preparing a plan for a flower garden .

Contents

1. Determining the dimensions of the flower bed
2. Determine the distance between plants
3. Determine the planting site

Determine the size of the flower garden

To do this, we determine the size of the future flower garden. They can be limited by the walls of buildings, fences or paths. And they can be set by you if you create a flower garden, for example, on a lawn.

After measuring directly on site, we transfer the measurements to paper. To do this, it is best to use millimeter paper or you can take a regular one, in a box. It is more convenient to take a scale of 1:100 (one cell measuring 1 cm by 1 cm corresponds to 1 m2 of a flower garden). If the flower garden is small, the scale can be increased to 1:50 (one cell of 1x1 cm corresponds to 0.5 m2 of the flower garden).

Determine the distance between plants

For further work, we need to determine at what distance the plants from the list prepared by you are planted. The distances needed for good growth and flowering of a particular species are usually indicated in the planting information. In the future, I plan to compile a table indicating the distances for planting all the plants indicated on the site.

In order not to waste time searching for the necessary information, you can go the other way. For large perennials, look at the description of the height of the plant. And we plant them at about half the height, that is, if the perennial is 120 cm high, then the distance between these plants should be 60 cm. For medium-sized (up to 50 cm) and small ones, this distance will be greater, approximately equal to their height. And for ground cover plants, that is, those that spread strongly, covering the soil with themselves, the distance during planting should be increased by 1.5-2 times. For example, with a ground cover height of 20 cm, the distance between individual plants should be 30-40 cm.

Determine the planting site

Then on the plan we mark the planting site of a large accent plant with a dot. If this is a single shrub, then draw a circle around the point, the diameter of which corresponds to the diameter of an adult plant. We also do with one large perennial or several. Then we mark out the planting along the border of the flower garden. And finally, we place groups of perennials between those already marked, while taking into account the distance at which plants are planted from each other. Between plants from different groups, the distance is determined by adding them for each group (that is, if in one group you need to plant at a distance of 30 cm, and in another - at 25, then there will be a distance of 55 cm between the extreme plants of these groups). Each plant is marked with a dot. We mark groups of identical plants with a colored pencil according to the color of flowers or leaves. Each group is assigned a number, and in the footnote to the drawing it is indicated which plant is included in this group and in what quantity.

As a result, you will have a flower garden plan ready for transfer to the site. Congratulations on the successful creation of the flower garden!

Flower garden plan and design stages

Heading: Landscaping of a personal plot, flower beds with their own hands

Published on 08.02.2016 · Comments: 0 · Reading: 7 min · Views:

5837

The end of the design phase of flower garden design is its modeling on paper or computer. The plan gives an idea of ​​the shape and dimensions of the flower garden, its location on the ground, the background, the structure, the plants used, their layout and numbers, and, if necessary, the garden accessories and small architectural forms used. Russian gardeners have long understood the need for this stage of work. Even in the guide of Vasily Levshin, published in 1826, we read: “For the occupation of these (flower beds - notes ed. ) in decent order, they should have their plan with the designation of the places where where to plant or sow.

In the absence of significant practical experience in designing complex flower beds consisting of a variety of plants, it is advisable to plan it on a certain scale. For large flower beds, the scale should be at least 1:50.

This means that one centimeter reflects 50 cm of flower bed space on the plan. It is better for a novice designer to design a flower garden or its fragment on a scale of 1:10. This means that 1 cm on the plan of the flower bed will correspond to 10 cm of the flower bed in the space of the garden. Therefore, 1 m of a real flower bed on a scale of 1:10 will correspond to 10 cm of the designed flower bed on the plan. With this scale, it is easy to determine the areas that plants will occupy in the designed space of the flower garden. For a fragment of even a very large flower garden, this is a very real scale. Replication of flower garden fragments can be done on a different scale, for example 1:25. This means that one meter of a flower bed will correspond to 4 cm on the plan. A 10 m long flower bed on the plan will be shown 40 cm long.

There are a variety of techniques and conventions used in practice to draw up plans for flower beds. The following page provides options for symbols for drawing up plans. You can find a number of examples of conventional notation from various authors. The plan can be presented in black and white graphics, you can paint the plan with watercolors or make it a computer version. The main thing is that everything is clear and understandable. I know from experience that the use of very bright colors in the plans of large flower beds distracts from the perception of the content of the project, and possibly in flower garden designs for urban gardening, when it is necessary to reflect their real colors.

The plan of the flower garden is accompanied by a description of its idea, goals, limitations, features, a list of necessary plants, their grouping, determination of approximate quantities and estimates. For flower beds created for the purpose of continuous flowering, it is desirable to include in the documentation set several of their plans (not necessarily on a scale) indicating the grouping of plants and their flowering calendar.

Variants of symbols for the plan:

1. Deciduous trees.
2. Coniferous trees.
3. Topiary deciduous plants.
4. Topiary cut conifers.
5. Free-growing deciduous shrubs.
6. A group of coniferous shrubs.
7. Free growing deciduous shrubs and small trees.
8. Solitarily growing coniferous shrubs and small trees.
9. Free growing deciduous shrub hedge.
10. Sheared hedge of deciduous shrubs.
11. Sheared coniferous hedge.
12. Individual accent herbaceous plants.
13. Bulb plants.
14. Creepers on supports.

The result will be a reduction in the possible assortment of plants to a specific list and the determination of the mutual arrangement of plants in the space of the flower garden. We fix the final result on the plan.

Let's consider in more detail the stages of concretization of the flower garden project.

Written fixation of the conditions of the garden
and flower garden

Clarification of the location of the flower garden,
of its form, size, points of view
and structures 9000 Determination of the goals that we
,0005 must achieve in process
design

Specification of the main idea of ​​creation
Flower man

Project restrictions ~ financial, technological, agrotechnical

Determination of the maximum
Flower heights, the main accent
Plants

,0002 Working

000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 with flower garden background

Working with flower garden foreground

Analysis of the internal space
compositions

Refinement of the flower garden

The place of the flower garden, its functions, specific points of view of its implementation always allow you to clearly define its structure and correctly select plants for its implementation. In this case, a perspective is formed in the space of the pergola at the focal point - the sculpture. So the background is very important. In this case, these are varietal mock oranges and park roses of Canadian selection. The base of the sculpture is decorated with plants of the longest decorative effect. This is a combination of bulbous, Fortune's euonymus "Emerald Gold" and Thunberg's barberry "Bagatelle", contrastingly shaped by a haircut. Garden of the first year. There is no full background for this season yet. June. Moscow region.

Written fixation of garden and flower bed conditions. It may not be necessary to reflect all the results of our research in the accompanying documentation, but some language should be recorded in writing. These include a description of the location of the flower garden and its features that will affect the selection of plants: in the shade, in the sun, on a slope, in a clearing, in a forest, you should also indicate the close standing of groundwater, the presence of strong winds, etc.

Clarification of the location of the flower bed, its shape, size, viewpoints and structure. If a flower arrangement is being created for the entire garden, this must also be specified. The form of flower beds is determined in accordance with their purpose, functions and structure-forming principles of organizing the space of the garden. The main mistake at this stage is planning small or too narrow flower beds that are not proportional to the space in which they are located. A narrow flower garden will not allow you to create a spectacular volume that is well readable in the space of the garden. The specific place determines the structure of the future flower garden.

If it is a flower garden or flower gardens that you can move around and the viewpoints are constantly changing, then we will create either an island flower garden or a flower garden with an open structure. A balanced ratio of the area occupied by plantings and the plane of the lawn will be very important. An exception may be a shady garden, where ground covers and their combinations act as a lawn.

Shade flower bed next to a dry masonry retaining wall. Small astilbes, primroses, stonecrops, ferns, periwinkles, etc. feel great here. June. Aprelevka, Moscow region

A one-way view flower garden, the decorative effect of which is maximum in the second half of summer and autumn.

Increasing the width of the island flower bed allows you to balance its structure.

The height imbalance in this case is due to the wrong choice of the plant for the foreground.

Work with the background of the flower garden: selection of background plants, linking them with the background of the composition. For example, adding vines, shrubs and very tall perennials to create an advantageous backdrop for a flower garden with a pulpit structure. We analyze and improve the background for island mixborders. The best background is foliage, preferably not ornamental, but neutral, with various shades.

Working with the foreground of the flower garden: working out its contour, turns and angles, taking into account the space that will be required for plants that are carriers of style, color, idea. For garden flower beds, it is important to achieve a clear contour; spots of foreground plants should not be small. It must be remembered that the smaller the plants, the more they are planted. A typical mistake when creating a more or less wide flower garden is the use of winter-green, but disproportionately small plants in the foreground - tenacious, soddy phlox, stonecrop, saxifrage, small primroses, thyme, etc.

Tall miscanthus are versatile plants in the background of a flower garden. Against their background, various combinations of plants of the middle and foreground look great. Beginning of August. Greenwood Park. Smolensk region.

An example of an island flower garden with correctly arranged height transitions. The flower garden looks voluminous, has a clear structure. August. Meshcher.

This example also shows that the angle of transition of the heights of the mixborder plants is quite sharp, which indicates the correct selection of heights. In the second half of summer, accent plants are veronicastrums, loosestrife, mullein, stonecrop. August. Smolensk region.

The front border of the flower bed should be clearly legible and decorative as long as possible. This is very important for cottage style gardens, especially if the owners live there all year round. Therefore, plants from different groups are used here - bulbous, coniferous, perennials of different flowering periods, annuals, roses of the corresponding groups, etc. Garden of the second year of life. August.

In conclusion, we analyze the resulting composition of plants in terms of flowering, color and other significant characteristics in order to achieve the set goals. To do this, it is possible, and sometimes very useful, to build 2-4 plans. On them we hatch neutral and background plants that do not change during the season. For the rest, we paint over the groups blooming in a certain period with the appropriate tone, and check for compliance with the tasks set. For a flower garden of continuous flowering, you may have to build 4 plans - for May, June, mid-summer and late summer - early autumn. For a flower garden with maximum decorativeness, a 5th plan is added, reflecting the decorative effect of pre-winter, winter and early spring.

In order for the flower garden to look properly structured, perform its functions and be decorative until the calendar reconstruction (usually every six to eight years), it is necessary to choose the right distance between plants.

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