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Making flower bed with his hands givesthe ability to make a flower garden that best meets your dreams and fantasies. It also helps to feel the plants, to understand their needs, to join the world of flora.
The initial stage of creating a flower arrangement is the design, the correct location of the plants in the flowerbed. They should not only look and be harmoniously combined, but also not interfere with each other. As a sample, you can use photos of beautifully designed flower beds that fit the architectural buildings located on the site.
The first step in the design of flower beds
The most important step in the design of flower beds is the correct selection of plant material. This takes into account:
- Climate and microclimate of the region .Some perennials are sensitive to spring frosts and can die. Others may die during the winter, even if they are warmed. For example, flowers for flowerbeds in the Mediterranean style, or the style of "Provence";
- Lighting area : some ornamental plants can not stand direct sunlight and get burned. Others without a direct sun do not plant generative( flower) buds, and therefore do not bloom;
- Composition and soil acidity .Plants, calciferous, preferring a pH above 7, will not be able to grow normally on acidic soils, and vice versa: cotton grass, heather, sundew, rhododendron do not tolerate alkaline soils;
- Abundance of precipitation and the possibility of regular watering .This is especially important for plants with large but not fleshy leaves - they have a very large evaporation surface and therefore a large loss of water.
When making flowerbeds with your own hands, you can correct some factors, or make them more suitable for certain plants.
Stones or tiles next to the flower garden will contribute to an increase in temperature in the flower bed by 3-5 degrees.
Plants that are afraid of the direct sun can be planted in the company of the larger light-loving representatives of the plant kingdom, for their protection.
The structure and acidity of the soil can be changed by adding those or other components.
Compost and sand will improve the condition of heavy substrates.
Organics will help enrich poor sandy soils, and lime will reduce acidity in acidified soils.
Decor and accessories when designing a flower bed on the site
How to make a flower bed in front of the house to fit into the environment?
Add interesting touches to the flower arrangement. Often, it is decorative details that give the flower garden a particular style. A positive point in the design of the beds in the country is that as auxiliary elements of the composition, you can use old or unnecessary things. Leaky buckets, wooden barrels, cart wheels, an old car or bicycle frame, clay pots, logs, snags, stumps, and more. As an element of a country-style flowerbed, you can use a wooden fence, or a wall of a log house.
Flowerbed design with stones is not an aging classic
You can select stones as a separate element for decorating a flowerbed. This material is so diverse in appearance, size and structure that is suitable for the design of any flower beds.
Stones used for:
- The creation of specific flower gardens - rock gardens and rockeries;
- Edging flower beds from annual or perennial plants;
- Creating an interesting accent on a flower bed( for example, a rounded boulder covered with bright green moss);
- Contrast between smooth green live leaves, bright colors and a rough gray or brown stone surface;
- Protecting the space between plants from weeds( use small stones, pebbles, gravel);
- Preservation of moisture in the soil and reduce evaporation( similar to mulching);
- Decoration and creation of patterns of colored stones, which complement the beauty of colors( using gravel of different shades).
When making flowerbeds with stones, it is necessary to take into account that perennials will grow. Large, beautiful boulders( so-called solo) should not be placed too close to each other. Small pebbles, on the contrary, look more beautiful in groups.
Which plants to choose when making flower beds
When choosing plants you need to consider not only the flowering period( spring, summer, autumn), but also the duration. For registration of beds in the country it is desirable to use up to 50% of long-flowering plants. That is, those who, after the withering of some flowers, develop new buds on the same plant. For example:
- remontant roses;
- silverweed;
- lavender;
- Echinacea;
- chamomile;
- agastahe;
- Dahlia;
- Coreopsis;
- Yarrow.
These plants bloom from summer( June or July) until autumn or until frost.
