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Flower beds serve as a decoration of the local area, garden or park. Properly designed flower beds simply attract attention, they are an island of bright colors, but, in addition, they also perform an important function – they help to divide and organize the space on the site. Landscape designers are engaged in the design and decoration of flower beds, and this business is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. It is necessary to carry out accurate calculations, engage in drawings, colors, take into account the characteristics of the plants included in the flower garden.
It is not at all necessary to pay professionals – it is quite possible to arrange a flower bed with your own hands. And to make it easier, beginners are encouraged to choose perennials and draw up simple diagrams.
What are the flower beds
Flower beds can differ not only in shape, but also in content, and the shades of flowers, the height of the plants, and the period of their flowering are different – all this should be taken into account by the gardener during the execution of the scheme.
A schematic representation of the future flower garden is necessary in order to:
- properly organize the space on the site;
- take into account the size and shape of the free space allotted for the flower bed;
- choose the most harmonious composition of flowers of various shades;
- correctly distribute the flowers inside the flower bed and along its contour, taking into account the height and branching of the plants.
Among other things, a flowerbed diagram depicted on paper and colored with colored pencils will help visualize the picture and understand how a real flower arrangement will look like.
The shape of flower beds can be of several types, the most popular are:
- Modular flower beds – a group of plants combined into one composition with elements of the blind area, garden paths, steps, small architectural compositions, such as garden sculptures, artificial ponds, and other decorative elements.
- Mixborders are a combination of a variety of plants, flower beds of this type are made in a free form, their size is also unlimited. Most often, rectangular elongated mixborders decorate garden paths or hedges.
- Tapeworms must have at least one common feature: the shape of the inflorescences, the shade of the plants, the height of the cover, the variety of flowers. Such repeating flower beds with a common feature should be in close proximity to each other and be clearly visible, otherwise the tapeworms will not be perceived as a single composition.
- Rabatki are more strict flower beds. They should have clearly defined contours, the ratio of their width to length is 1:3, and the ridges are filled with solid colors or simple geometric patterns. It is the ridges that most often border the paths of the garden, they are also used to divide large flower beds into zones.
- Borders have a small width (up to 50 cm) and are distinguished by plants of small height. Such compact flower eyeliners are used to limit the larger elements of the flower bed.
- Rockeries also called rock gardens, because both plants and boulders are used in their design.
- Rock gardens differ from rockeries in that only plants inherent in the flora of the Alps or other undersized and compact flowers are planted in them.
For example, you can opt for a mixborder or a modular-type flower bed (as in the photo).
Composing composition
Making a flower bed of perennials is good, first of all, because such flowers do not have to be planted annually, moreover, most perennial flowers are not whimsical and tolerate cold winters well.
That is why it is enough for a beginner to draw a flowerbed diagram once, transfer it to the site and fill it with flowers, after which you can enjoy the beauty of the plants arranged in the composition for several years.
A flower bed of perennials with your own hands, as already mentioned, should be as simple as possible. For beginner gardeners, such simple flower arrangements are suitable:
- Isle. It is a flower bed of a round or oval shape, located on a free plot of the garden. Often such compositions of flowers fill wastelands – places without trees and other vegetation. The borders of the island’s flowerbed may well be fuzzy, slightly blurred. This flower garden does not have to be divided into sectors at all – the flowers on the island can be placed freely, the main thing is that they are combined in tone and height. Basically, the flowering island is filled in several tiers: the tallest plants (80-150 cm) are planted in the center of the circle, then they are bordered with flowers of medium height (from 40 to 70 cm), and the borders of the island are outlined with undersized flowers, the height of which does not exceed 30 cm The same compact bushes can fill the empty sections of the flower bed, formed after planting all the flowers of the composition. It is also possible to design a flower bed in the form of an island close to a fence or a building, only in this case, it is a semicircle in which the background is filled with the highest flowers, and low-growing plants are planted forward (a sample is shown in the photo).
- living fence performed near hedges or on both sides of the garden path. To design such a composition, different types of flowers are planted in the form of a line, the width of which can vary.
- Illusion – This is a composition that resembles a natural landscape. The most popular embodiment of such an idea is a flowing stream. So, flowers (usually blue and blue shades) are planted in a flower bed in the form of a snake, tightly placing the plants to each other. “Coasts” are created from colors of a contrasting shade, placing them along the contour of the “channel” of the stream (shown in the photo below). For such a composition, you need a lot of space, so it is better not to use the illusion in small areas.
- Cover or carpet is a continuous layer of flowers of the same height. Most often, plants of the same species are used for such flower beds, but different shades of flowers are chosen. From the side, the flower bed-carpet looks like a fluffy and voluminous bedspread.
- fantasy pattern in the shape of a heart, a large flower, a letter or an inscription is considered a more complex composition, because the effectiveness of such a flower bed depends entirely on the quality of its execution – the borders of the flower garden should be clear, only in this way the viewer will appreciate the designer’s idea.
Flowerbed of perennials for beginners
Having decided on the type of flower bed, with its size and location, they proceed to the direct implementation of the idea. And for starters, you need to draw your flower garden on a large sheet of paper. After the drawing is done, it needs to be colored with colored pencils, choosing shades that suit each other.
An even simpler way is to use two contrasting colors. It can be blue and yellow, red and white, and so on.
In recent years, the color scheme of flowerbeds of the ombre type has become increasingly popular. This is when one shade smoothly transitions into another. Another way of combining colors is called a gradient. Perennials for such a flower bed should be selected especially carefully, their shades should be pastel, so the transition boundaries will be extremely smooth. An example of an ombre-type perennial flower bed can be the following transition of tones: terracotta, pink-peach, pink, pale pink, cream. A novice gardener can only pick up perennials with flowers of a suitable shade.
Perennials are divided into many groups, but their main division is according to whimsicality. This is what should primarily worry a novice gardener – what kind of care will be required for flowers from one flower bed.
After all, if some perennials require shade, others grow only in the sun, others need to be watered every day, and for the fourth, excessive humidity is destructive, the flower bed will simply die, and there will be no talk of any beauty.
All perennials are divided into three main groups:
- unpretentious perennials suitable for almost any flower beds. These plants are undemanding to light, watering, soil composition – they grow in any conditions. Another important characteristic of unpretentious perennials is that flowers do not have to be planted annually and they tolerate frost well without shelter. All that perennials need: watering during the dry season and forming bushes in the spring. This group includes such flowers: geranium, acolyte, brunner, gelenium, mallow, chistets and stonecrop, doronicum, poppy.
- Moderately hard-working perennials they are not particularly capricious, they do not need daily care, but the gardener will have to take into account the growing conditions of such plants (illumination, soil type, irrigation schedule, fertilizers). And yet, perennials from the second group need to be transplanted and divided at least once every two to three years. These include gentian, arabis, cornflower, clematis and armeria.
- The most difficult perennials are included in the third group and need regular care, compliance with growing conditions, and the constant attention of the gardener. Such flowers often get sick, attract insect pests, and do not tolerate cold. Such “sissies” include chrysanthemums, gladioli, roses, bulbous flowers, dahlias, begonias, hyacinths and others.
When choosing perennials for your flower bed, you need to give preference to plants from the same group, then caring for the flower garden will be as simple as possible, and the flowers themselves will feel comfortable.
Making flower beds from perennials
The plan has been drawn up, the scheme is there, the flowers have been bought – it remains to plant the plants in the soil. To begin with, the selected area is cleared, stones and plant roots are removed. Then the soil must be fertilized with complex fertilizers and dug to a depth of about 40 cm (shovel bayonet).
Depending on the composition of the soil on the site, it is necessary to perform drainage or, conversely, take measures to retain water (which is necessary on sandy soils, for example). For drainage, peat, coarse river sand, small pebbles are used, these materials are poured in a 5-10 cm layer on the bottom of the area under the flower garden. Clay or black earth can be used as a water retainer.
The height of the flower garden should be at the level of 10-15 cm, so that during precipitation the water does not stagnate in the flowers and does not harm them.
Now the earth is leveled with a rake and the flower garden scheme is transferred to the surface.
This can be done with a wooden peg or lime powder. Now it remains to plant the plants in the flower bed, trying to do it as carefully as possible, following the drawn plan.
When planting flowers, do not forget about the tiers of the flower bed. In addition, the gardener must understand that perennials grow more than one season, so young plants need to be left room to grow.
Results
Finally, it should be noted that it is very important to select perennials that have approximately the same flowering time. After all, a flower bed with blooming buds and dried flowers located nearby looks more than untidy, and the composition will be spoiled.
Beginners should keep this in mind and choose perennials for their garden that bloom in spring, summer, or fall. Although today there are many species of plants that continue to bloom all season: violets, pansies, roses, evergreen shrubs and ornamental grasses.
Photos of flower beds of perennial flowers will help the novice gardener decide, and do not forget that it is better to start simple.
