Landscape design is not just about chaotically planted plants. To make your garden original and beautiful, you can create in your garden compositions of flowers and plants, for example, mixed boards. A mixed border is a mixed flower bed, usually having an elongated shape. Mixed borders come in many forms. Depending on the season of blooming, mixed borders can be divided into spring, summer, autumn, and winter and those, t a t are continuously blooming.
Where to plant a mixed border?
First of all, it is necessary to choose a place on which the mixed border will be located. It should not be under the sun, direct rays are not tolerated by all flowers. Don’t choose for a mixed border a windy and unprotected area; drafts and sharp gusts can damage inflorescences or even stems.
You can place the composition near the front of the house, along the garden path, near the fence of the plot, along the edge of the terrace, or directly on the lawn. Don’t forget to consider the angle of view so that the composition can be seen in its entirety and from exactly the angle you have planned. When choosing a suitable location, take into account the size of the mixed border, as well as the growth of flowers.
To plant a mixed border in the garden, it is not enough to simply choose your favorite plants and plant them in one bed. Here are the suggested steps to do it:
- Designing. To begin with, select suitable plants and make a detailed scheme of their placement. As the basis of the composition, you can use shrubs that will play the role of a kind of “skeleton”. They are planted at equal intervals sufficient for growth. For example, you can use conifers for it. Next, plant medium-growing perennials such as geicheras, cineraria, wormwood, sagebrush, and sedge. Then you can plant bulbs and annuals: crocuses, primroses, daffodils, or tulips. The next step is about planting low-growing plants (sage, blackbriar, cuff, marigold). Preparing a planting plan (design) takes time, so be ready to spend several days with it instead of gambling casino online.
- Preparing the soil and the plants. Be sure to fertilize it and loosen it.
If you have purchased ready-made seedlings, then you can move them into the ground. If it is planned to grow from seeds, then start it in advance, so that by the beginning of flowering all plants are already in the soil. Place the plants at approximately equal distances from each other, taking into account the size and growth characteristics, so that there are no voids, they will worsen the appearance.
How to select plants for a mixed border?
The selection of plants should be carried out taking into account the following important points:
- Features of flowering. Ideally, you want to create a continuously blooming and “long-lasting” composition. The best way to do this is to use perennials. But try to pick them in such a way that they bloom in turn. Then the buds will gradually change, and the composition will not spoil and will not seem empty and not filled. To disguise the lack of flowers in certain areas, you can use abundant and long-blooming annuals.
- Size of plants. It is worth considering not only the height but also the lushness of the sprawl so that the plants do not overlap each other and do not mix, it will look sloppy and can harm the flowers.
- Features of plants. Do not plant near plants that require complex and radically different care, you simply can not provide it. So it is desirable to choose and use to create a composition of flowers that grow in approximately the same conditions. And to find them out and not make a mistake, in advance and carefully study the information about each plant.
- Color scheme. When selecting plants, it is important to take into account their shades, because they must be combined, so that the mixed border does not seem motley. You can choose two or three successfully combined tones, such as red and yellow, lilac and pink, blue and yellow. In any tandem, you can introduce the universal white. Also, try to create a monochromatic composition of different shades of the same color.
- Concept or style. Do you want to develop a unique design? Then choose a concept or style.
To create a mixed border with your own hands delight the eye from the end of spring to the beginning of fall, and provide the right care for it. Here are some tips to follow when creating a mixed border:
- Remove weeds so that they do not prevent plants from growing normally.
- Water the mixed border regularly, but do not allow the soil to overwater and moisture to stagnate.
- If you can not make a mixed border planting plant yourself, then use a ready-made one.
- It is not necessary to make the mixed border multi-level, all plants can be located at approximately the same level. But then they should be low and few, otherwise some specimens will go unnoticed.
- To find interesting ideas or use someone else’s, you can look at photos in magazines devoted to gardening or flower breeding.
Create a chic mixed border in your garden and enjoy its beauty!