Choose the Right Flowers
The best flower garden designs incorporate several types of blooms, including long-living perennials, short-term, but beautiful annuals, seasonal bulbs, ornamental grasses, and vines. Before you begin your flower garden design, know how different garden plants perform in the garden. Consider what they can offer for color and texture, and their limitations.
Choose Your Flower Garden Design Style
The next of the successful flower garden tips is the need to identify a design style. Whether dictated by your home’s architectural style or your personal preferences, your garden’s style can also help you set parameters for size and design. Different flower garden design styles lend themselves to different types of plants. For example, a contemporary-leaning landscape may be more rigorous in material selection and flower bed shape. On the other hand, a cottage-style garden encourages exuberance and a mix-and-match approach.
Determine the Garden’s Shape and Size
Flowers can be arranged in beds of almost any shape and size, from expansive rectangles to petite corner beds. To get an idea of how your flower garden will fit into the rest of your landscape, use a garden hose to define the edges. Walk around the bed. Check to see if you can access the plants that will be in the middle. Will you need a walkway? Try to look at the proposed garden bed from every viewpoint. This is by far one of the most important flower garden tips.
Select Flowers
Once you have decided on your garden design, shape, and size, it’s time to put your plant research into action. Consider focal points, flower sizes, year-round interest, bloom time, and color combinations. Use the internet to assist with your research, or contact your local plant nursery for guidance.
Supply a Focal Point
Every garden bed, no matter how big or small, needs a focal point. Focal points give the eye a place to start before moving on to the rest of the flower bed. That may mean anchoring your large bed with boxwood shrubs on the corners and a flowering shrub in the middle. You can also consider planting a mass of a single flower type in the center of a skinny border.
Evaluate Plant Height
You will also need to consider height before making plant selections. For example, if your garden is a border along the house, the tallest plants will need to go in the back. They shouldn’t be so tall that they block windows or doors. If your flower garden design is an island, the tallest plants should go in the center. Some shorter plants also suffer when shaded by taller plants, so take individual flowers’ needs into consideration.
