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Even if the main purpose of the land in a summer cottage is the cultivation of vegetables and other edible fruits, flowers still bring aesthetic pleasure. It is rare for summer residents to do without flowering and ornamental plants in the yard or garden. Most often, people organize flower beds. A flower bed in the country with your own hands for beginners is a troublesome business, but it brings incomparable pleasure.
The scheme of the flower bed and the choice of colors for it
Each flower bed begins with a plan, an idea. What matters is the size, location, chosen style and color. You can not arbitrarily plant the plants you like and hope that the flower garden will please the eye. Plants should be carefully selected according to the similarity of their preferred conditions. Light-loving and shade-loving flowers, those that love moisture and those that prefer arid soil, will not be able to grow nearby. A very important role in the choice of plants is played by the place – sunny or shaded, the type of soil, since different flowers prefer different living conditions. There are a lot of questions to think about before picking up tools and planting plants.
The location often determines the shape of the flower garden. If it is supposed to be a piece of land measuring 1,5 – 2 m near the wall, where the sun shines most of the day, then it would be best to plant low annuals (like petunias) on the edge. Behind them, plant taller flowers or lush ornamental greenery, which will become the second tier of the composition, and plant climbing plants near the wall that will climb up it. A flowerbed for beginners should not be too difficult, but people with experience can make a multi-tiered structure near the wall, planting it with hanging, climbing or creeping plants.
If the flower bed is located in an open area, equally visible from all sides, then the arrangement of flowers will be different. The classic three-tier design will look like this: the tallest plant is located in the center (preferably not one, but a group), around it are medium-sized plants (they create the main background), low ground cover frames the flower bed. You can plant the entire area with annuals of the same height, choosing a color scheme. Mono-flower beds planted with flowers of the same type and color look very impressive, for example, red tulips or white daffodils blooming in spring, scarlet poppies blazing in June.
Narrow long flower beds located along the paths should not be planted with very tall plants, their height should not be more than 20 cm. Moreover, they do not have to be flowering, they can be ornamental plants with beautiful multi-colored leaves, even vegetables, for example, ornamental cabbage which becomes more beautiful in autumn. It is easy to get confused by the possible variety of shapes, colors and their combinations. And I also want to choose plants in such a way that they please the eye from spring to autumn. All this can be done if you plan very carefully. It is better to draw diagrams on paper, marking the place of each type of plant, then it will be easier not only to purchase planting material, but also to plant. There are a huge number of schemes for beautiful exquisite flower beds, you can create an almost infinite number of them, but it is better for beginner flower growers to stop at one thing, try out, maybe, a simple but effective flower bed.
Video “A selection of options for summer cottages”
Video selection of various decorative options for flower beds for summer cottages.
How to get the best effect from a flower bed
It is better for a beginner florist not to grow seedlings of annuals, this should be done in early spring, when daylight hours are still short, which means that additional lighting will have to be arranged – all this is very troublesome. It’s easier to buy seedlings. You can, of course, sow the seeds directly into the ground, but then you have to wait a long time for flowering. If you plant small plants in a flower bed, they will grow quickly and are already pleasing to the eye even before flowering.
Most often, summer residents arrange flower beds where annuals are adjacent to perennials, but you need to remember that most perennials bloom only in the second year, and every year it becomes larger and more beautiful. When planting in May-June, you need to leave free space between plants, it will definitely disappear in 2-4 weeks, when all plants grow to their maximum level.
Plants of each species need to be planted not one at a time, but in small groups – so they will look much more spectacular. There is no need to aim for too much variety of species, the main thing is to choose plants with taste so that they look good and can grow in the same conditions. To make the flower bed look good, you should not try to make it too colorful. It is better to focus on 1-2 primary colors and their shades. Monochrome flower beds look beautiful – they collect flowers of the same shade, but different in height.
So that the flower bed has a finished look, and the weeds do not pester it too much from the outside, the border will be highlighted with special plastic blanks or improvised materials – bricks, planks, stones or plastic bottles. The border tape does not allow weeds to move to the flower bed, while creating a rather beautiful fence for the flower garden. The invented schemes are first drawn on paper, and then the markings are transferred to the ground and filled with plants.
Regular or irregular types
Regular flower beds always have a clear geometric outline. They are often found in city parks and squares, more often even in squares. Their distinctive feature was the simultaneous flowering of all plants, usually annuals. Usually bulbs begin flowering, then they are dug up at the end of flowering and a flower bed is planted with other plants. Beautiful, but somewhat formal, they are hardly suitable for summer cottages.
Irregular flower beds do not differ in such severity of forms, they can be multi-level, bright annuals on them are perfectly combined with perennials. Flower beds of this particular type are most often found in summer cottages. They can be made very diverse and amazing. There are many developed schemes for such flower beds, but all the same, each amateur grower creates something of his own, different from what has already been invented before.
A few examples of flowerbeds for beginners
A very simple flower bed is the central one, it consists of separate circles. The central circle can be planted with dark-leaved cannas, cannas with lighter green leaves can be planted around them, the next circle can be filled with gnafalium with decorative leaves, and the outermost circle should be given to snapdragons. This is a very beautiful perennial flower bed for beginners.
The Viennese flower suggests a flower bed in the form of a six-leaf. The center should be planted with white levkoy, the border around them should be made of forget-me-nots, and violas or levkoy should be planted along the outer edge. It will be very interesting to experiment with annuals, for example, you can sow different flowers in the same place every year and get flower beds completely different from each other. Garden petunia, winged tobacco, sea cineraria, Damascus nigella – these flowers will look great in one flower bed.
Non-blooming annuals, such as broom kochia, hybrid coleus, lagurus, castor bean, will look great. Separate flower beds are formed from them, and they can also be used to dilute and shade flowers in flower beds. Of the perennial ornamental plants, the hosta is well-deservedly popular. A very simple, but invariably beautiful flower bed will turn out if the dominant tall plants are blue delphiniums (3 pcs.) And red panicled phloxes (2 pcs.). They need to be planted first, next to them you need to plant a purple geranium (5 pcs.), And along the very edge – a yellow cuff (8 pcs.). If such a flower bed is located near a fence or a house, so that it will not be visible from all sides, then tall plants are planted at the far edge, and towards the viewer they should go down. If the flower bed is visible from all sides, then tall flowers are placed in the middle.
Video “Useful tips for summer residents”
Video instruction with useful tips for summer residents.
