We equip a flower garden on the site – choose the best option
This WordPress post is all about equipping a flower garden on a site. It explains the best options for selecting flowers to use for the garden. The post highlights some key advantages of having a flower garden, such as adding color and beauty to any site as well as improving air quality. It also provides tips and guidance on how to select the best flowers for the specific site and its environment. The post emphasizes the importance of considering key factors like soil type, climate, and water needs when selecting flowers to ensure that the desired goals are achieved, and that the garden flourishes beautifully.
In this article, we will tell you what types of flower beds exist today, list their main features and characteristics. We will figure out which plant is suitable for each of the options for arranging a flower garden, as well as what style of landscape design each of them is suitable for.
Before proceeding to the description of the types of flower beds, we immediately note that they are all divided into two large groups:
Regular flower beds. They differ in strict forms, symmetry, they are equipped according to a pre-drawn up plan. Such flower beds are not so common in summer cottages, as they require constant care, in particular, formative shearing of plants. In addition, it is quite difficult to create such a composition with clear lines, based on the principles of classicism..
Irregular flower beds. More natural, simple and relaxed. They do not require daily care, therefore they are more popular among summer residents.
A striking example of a regular flower garden – an indispensable element of creating a garden in the French regular style
Border
A border flower garden is a continuous narrow strip of plants of the same species. Curb width should not exceed 60 centimeters.
Additional materials are not needed to equip the border – it is created using the plants themselves and most often serves as the finishing touch to the entire composition. With the help of a border of a narrow strip of the same colors, separate zones of the site are often divided, they frame paths or lawns. Border flower garden is widely used in different styles of landscape design
Borders of tulips, daffodils, phloxes, delicate pansies, forget-me-nots, small carnations, marigolds, daisies, petunias, undersized varieties of asters look beautiful. Flowers can be of different shades, but always of the same type – this is one of the features of the border
Flowerpot
A flower garden in a flowerpot, wooden tub, decorative vase, flower pot or some other container is one of the most popular varieties used for landscaping areas without open ground, for example, terraces or patios.
When arranging a flowerpot, the main thing is the choice of the “container” itself. It can be both inexpensive plastic flowerpots, and such wooden tubs. Flowerpots can be found both in an ordinary garden near the village house, and in the park in the English style
The choice of plants for a flowerpot garden depends on the volume of the selected container. So, a lush petunia will look great in a tall decorative vase, pansies and colorful violets in a small low flowerpot, a tall decorative bush in a massive tub
Flower bed
A flower bed can be safely called the most widespread option for arranging a flower garden. It has a clear geometric shape – round, square, rectangular or oval. Usually, flower beds rise above the site and are framed by a border of flowers or various materials. The average area of a standard flower bed is two to three square meters.
When arranging a flower bed, special attention is paid to the design of its borders. This can be a regular paving curb, a wooden fence, bricks, decorative plates, or even an old tire. Fertile soil should be poured inside in order to raise the flower bed above the level of the site and stand out from the surrounding space. Flower beds are almost an integral attribute of all styles of landscape design, as they differ in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and also provide a wide selection of plants.
The choice of plants for a flower bed is limited, in principle, only by the imagination and wishes of the owner. It can be a variety of color combinations. Traditionally, lower plants are planted at the edges, tall ones – in the center of the flower bed. Often such compositions are complemented by MAFs, for example, garden figures.
Rockery
Rockery is a flower garden on the area of which plants are combined with natural or artificial stone. Such stone-flower arrangements are very popular today, since they do not require constant care, are unpretentious and compare favorably with ordinary flower beds..
When arranging rockeries, the main building material is natural or artificial stone. The stones will also serve to decorate the borders of the flower garden, and highlight individual zones, and decorate the central part. At the same time, the stones should differ in shape and texture. Rockery will look harmoniously in an English landscape style, in a Japanese or Chinese garden
Evergreen coniferous shrubs, such as dwarf thuja and juniper, are excellent for rockeries. As for flowers, it is better to prefer hyacinths, wild violets, crocuses, Siberian irises. Don’t forget about ground cover plants, in particular mosses, saxifrage and phlox, which will take their place in the crevices between stones.
Rose garden
A rose garden is a flower garden dominated by the “queen of flowers” - a rose. Roses in such a flower garden can be of various types, shapes, shades and sizes, such a variety can become the main highlight of the rose garden.
Usually, when arranging a rose garden, additional materials are not required – only the plants themselves. However, if you choose tall climbing roses, you will need a reliable support for them, for example, a beautiful wattle fence, a metal frame, or a decorative stand. The rose garden can become a bright decoration of a baroque garden, but it will also look great on a regular summer cottage that does not pretend to be a certain style of landscape design
Any type of rose is suitable for creating a rose garden – from lush exotic floribunda to graceful dwarf polyanthus varieties.
Mixborder
The mixborder, as the name implies, is a real mix of plants, a multi-row flower garden in which various flowers, conifers and ornamental shrubs are harmoniously combined. Mixborders can be rectangular or irregular elongated..
The mixborder can be located in the center of the lawn, along the path or country house, to separate different parts of the garden. Such flower beds usually emphasize the boundaries of the plots by themselves, so they do not need additional fences or borders. Mixborders are widely used in different styles of garden decoration
A mixborder is always distinguished by a wide variety of plants. The first strip is usually occupied by low flowers, for example, nasturtiums, and in the background, taller ones, in particular, Siberian irises or flowering shrubs.
Rabatka
Rabatka is a flower garden in the form of a ribbon with a width of 50 to 150 centimeters, the length is limited only by the size of the site itself. Most often, such blooming stripes are placed along the path; they are often found in parks and squares. Sometimes in the bed, stripes of flowering plants are combined with geometric shapes..
Unlike a curb, which also usually runs along garden paths, a rabat consists of several strips of plants. Such flower beds do not need additional borders, it is quite simple to equip them – the main thing is to break the beds correctly and plant seeds or purchased flowers. Traditionally, there are three strips of different plants in a rabatka, but sometimes their number can reach 5–8. The rabatka will look good in a park in a regular French style, as it has clear shapes.
For arranging a rabatka, it is better to choose flowers such as irises, petunias, carnations, geraniums, sedum, forget-me-nots, asters, peonies, ageratum, decorative sunflowers and violets. When choosing flowers, you should be guided by the time of their flowering (it is good when the plants bloom at the same time), color range and height
Front garden
The front garden is a flower garden set up in a fenced area in front of the house. As the real face of the site, the front garden can be of different sizes and shapes, but without fail it has clearly defined boundaries in the form of a fence, curb or hedge. The length of the front garden is always limited by the adjacent wall of the house.
When arranging a front garden, first of all, you should take care of the fence. It can be a low fence made of wooden boards, an openwork lattice, a high solid fence made of a metal profile – it all depends on the characteristics of your site, the desire to hide from the prying eyes of passers-by, or, on the contrary, flaunt a beautiful, well-groomed front garden. The design style of this corner of a summer cottage or a personal plot can be very different – from rustic to minimalistic
For the front garden, you can choose absolutely any plants, depending on the chosen design style. For the rustic – the usual chamomile, lilies and petunias, for the tall – lilac and thuja, for the minimalist – delicate lilies of the valley and bonsai
Alpine slide
Alpine slide, like rockery, is a flower garden in which plants are combined with stones. However, unlike rockeries, an alpine slide rises above the site to a height of at least one meter. In addition, if it is stones that play the main role in rockeries, then plants dominate on an alpine hill, and stone blocks are given a secondary role.
The rock garden can be placed both on a flat area and on a slope. The main thing when arranging it is the correct choice of stones. The most commonly used sandstone, travertine and shale. You can create an alpine slide in different styles, since there are several varieties of such a flower garden, for example, an alpine lawn, a mountain slope or a rock cliff
On the territory of the rock garden, plants can be planted both in large groups and separately. Geranium, saxifrage, lavender, carnation, Japanese maple, rosemary, dwarf roses and azalea are good choices.
Decorative vegetable garden
This type of flower garden originated two hundred years ago in France. The ornamental garden is a garden with vegetables, spices, herbs and ornamental plants, fenced with a living border of flowers. The result is both a beautiful and useful composition at the same time – a flower garden and a vegetable garden – two in one.
When arranging a decorative garden, special attention is paid to convenient paths, because you will have to regularly harvest and take care of the beds, so you should ensure an approach from all sides. Low fences or boxes can be used to delineate the boundaries of such an area. This is not to say that the ornamental garden belongs to a certain style of landscape design. Rather, it is part of an ordinary suburban area, the owners of which decided not only to grow vegetables and herbs for their family, but also to decorate the territory at the same time
In an ornamental garden, you can grow all kinds of vegetables, for example, neat heads of cabbage, herbs, spices. And for framing the beds and creating borders, chamomile, oregano, wood mallow and cornflower are suitable
Country flower garden
Such a rustic flower garden implies the presence of any thematic attributes, for example, an old cart or a wheel from it, a broken stool or a cast iron for a Russian stove – that is, objects that emphasize the main focus and style of the composition.
The size and shape of a country flower garden can be very different. We advise you to start with the choice of the main part, for example, such an old wheelbarrow or cart. The rest depends on your imagination. As a fence for such “village” flower beds, either a wattle fence or a low wooden fence without frills and unnecessary details is used
For a country flower garden, simple and unassuming plants that are typical for your region are suitable. Chamomile, mallow, phlox, tiger lilies, marigolds will look great – all those flowers that will remind you of the front garden in front of your grandmother’s house
Modular flower garden
A modular flower garden is one of the most fashionable trends in landscape design. It is a strict composition based on the repetition of the same element of a certain shape and size, that is, a module. Typically, these repeating pieces of flower garden are squares or rectangles, but there may be other options..
When organizing a modular flower garden, you should first divide the territory into separate areas of the same shape and size. The space between these modules can be decorated with sand, paving slabs, gravel, pebbles, pieces of ceramic tiles, marble chips, or sowed with lawn grass – just to highlight the boundaries. Thanks to their strict repeating shape, modular lawns are widely used in regular French gardens and manicured English parks.
For modular flower beds, low creeping plants are usually chosen, for example, daisies, violets, nasturtiums, farbitis, marigolds and amaranths. Ground cover plants are also suitable – arabis, periwinkle, alpine and feathery carnations, yellow and green bryozoans, as well as primroses
Flower clock
In this case, we are not talking about a flower bed, where plants are planted in the shape of a dial, but about a flower garden where plants are collected that open or close every day at the same time – each flower at a certain hour. Thus, looking at such a flower garden, the owners will see: aha, the marigolds have blossomed, so now it is nine in the morning.
Of course, for greater clarity, you can arrange a flower garden in the form of a dial with arrows. But this is already a regular flower bed, which you will not find in an ordinary summer cottage – this is a task for professionals. So just collect plants on one flower garden, about which you know exactly what time they open and close – you will be perfectly oriented even without a wristwatch, working on the site. In addition, the flower garden clock will allow you to surprise your guests – in fact, how did you know that it’s seven in the evening, if you didn’t even look at the screen of your mobile phone?
When choosing plants for flower hours, remember that, for example, a bindweed opens daily at eight in the morning, a field carnation at one in the afternoon is already closed from the heat, forget-me-not closes at five in the evening, and a daylily at seven
Solitaire flower garden
The solitaire flower garden can be called one of the most concise design options for the site. Such a flower garden is a lonely, rather large and noticeable plant, in extreme cases – a small group of three or four equally tall flowers.
Arrangement of a solitaire flower garden requires almost no effort – just choose a free space on the site and plant a suitable plant. This version of the flower garden does not require a fence, no boundaries, or the presence of MAFs, and at the same time is widely used in a variety of styles of landscape design.
Flowering shrubs are perfect for a solitaire flower garden, for example, broom, panicle hydrangea, delphinium. You can also choose a lush bush of peonies or roses, a lily, a group of irises, an ash tree or rudbeckia
Most owners of backyard plots, planning to set up a flower garden, imply the arrangement of an ordinary flower bed, without even knowing how many types and options modern landscape design offers them. Now that you are familiar with the varieties of flower beds, we are sure that your site will acquire another decoration, it will become more original and bright.
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A striking example of a regular flower garden – an indispensable element of creating a garden in the French regular style
Additional materials are not needed to equip the border – it is created using the plants themselves and most often serves as the finishing touch to the entire composition. With the help of a border of a narrow strip of the same colors, separate zones of the site are often divided, they frame paths or lawns. Border flower garden is widely used in different styles of landscape design
Borders of tulips, daffodils, phloxes, delicate pansies, forget-me-nots, small carnations, marigolds, daisies, petunias, undersized varieties of asters look beautiful. Flowers can be of different shades, but always of the same type – this is one of the features of the border
When arranging a flowerpot, the main thing is the choice of the “container” itself. It can be both inexpensive plastic flowerpots, and such wooden tubs. Flowerpots can be found both in an ordinary garden near the village house, and in the park in the English style
The choice of plants for a flowerpot garden depends on the volume of the selected container. So, a lush petunia will look great in a tall decorative vase, pansies and colorful violets in a small low flowerpot, a tall decorative bush in a massive tub
When arranging a flower bed, special attention is paid to the design of its borders. This can be a regular paving curb, a wooden fence, bricks, decorative plates, or even an old tire. Fertile soil should be poured inside in order to raise the flower bed above the level of the site and stand out from the surrounding space. Flower beds are almost an integral attribute of all styles of landscape design, as they differ in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and also provide a wide selection of plants.
The choice of plants for a flower bed is limited, in principle, only by the imagination and wishes of the owner. It can be a variety of color combinations. Traditionally, lower plants are planted at the edges, tall ones – in the center of the flower bed. Often such compositions are complemented by MAFs, for example, garden figures.
When arranging rockeries, the main building material is natural or artificial stone. The stones will also serve to decorate the borders of the flower garden, and highlight individual zones, and decorate the central part. At the same time, the stones should differ in shape and texture. Rockery will look harmoniously in an English landscape style, in a Japanese or Chinese garden
Evergreen coniferous shrubs, such as dwarf thuja and juniper, are excellent for rockeries. As for flowers, it is better to prefer hyacinths, wild violets, crocuses, Siberian irises. Don’t forget about ground cover plants, in particular mosses, saxifrage and phlox, which will take their place in the crevices between stones.
Usually, when arranging a rose garden, additional materials are not required – only the plants themselves. However, if you choose tall climbing roses, you will need a reliable support for them, for example, a beautiful wattle fence, a metal frame, or a decorative stand. The rose garden can become a bright decoration of a baroque garden, but it will also look great on a regular summer cottage that does not pretend to be a certain style of landscape design
Any type of rose is suitable for creating a rose garden – from lush exotic floribunda to graceful dwarf polyanthus varieties.
The mixborder can be located in the center of the lawn, along the path or country house, to separate different parts of the garden. Such flower beds usually emphasize the boundaries of the plots by themselves, so they do not need additional fences or borders. Mixborders are widely used in different styles of garden decoration
A mixborder is always distinguished by a wide variety of plants. The first strip is usually occupied by low flowers, for example, nasturtiums, and in the background, taller ones, in particular, Siberian irises or flowering shrubs.
Unlike a curb, which also usually runs along garden paths, a rabat consists of several strips of plants. Such flower beds do not need additional borders, it is quite simple to equip them – the main thing is to break the beds correctly and plant seeds or purchased flowers. Traditionally, there are three strips of different plants in a rabatka, but sometimes their number can reach 5–8. The rabatka will look good in a park in a regular French style, as it has clear shapes.
For arranging a rabatka, it is better to choose flowers such as irises, petunias, carnations, geraniums, sedum, forget-me-nots, asters, peonies, ageratum, decorative sunflowers and violets. When choosing flowers, you should be guided by the time of their flowering (it is good when the plants bloom at the same time), color range and height
When arranging a front garden, first of all, you should take care of the fence. It can be a low fence made of wooden boards, an openwork lattice, a high solid fence made of a metal profile – it all depends on the characteristics of your site, the desire to hide from the prying eyes of passers-by, or, on the contrary, flaunt a beautiful, well-groomed front garden. The design style of this corner of a summer cottage or a personal plot can be very different – from rustic to minimalistic
For the front garden, you can choose absolutely any plants, depending on the chosen design style. For the rustic – the usual chamomile, lilies and petunias, for the tall – lilac and thuja, for the minimalist – delicate lilies of the valley and bonsai
The rock garden can be placed both on a flat area and on a slope. The main thing when arranging it is the correct choice of stones. The most commonly used sandstone, travertine and shale. You can create an alpine slide in different styles, since there are several varieties of such a flower garden, for example, an alpine lawn, a mountain slope or a rock cliff
On the territory of the rock garden, plants can be planted both in large groups and separately. Geranium, saxifrage, lavender, carnation, Japanese maple, rosemary, dwarf roses and azalea are good choices.
When arranging a decorative garden, special attention is paid to convenient paths, because you will have to regularly harvest and take care of the beds, so you should ensure an approach from all sides. Low fences or boxes can be used to delineate the boundaries of such an area. This is not to say that the ornamental garden belongs to a certain style of landscape design. Rather, it is part of an ordinary suburban area, the owners of which decided not only to grow vegetables and herbs for their family, but also to decorate the territory at the same time
In an ornamental garden, you can grow all kinds of vegetables, for example, neat heads of cabbage, herbs, spices. And for framing the beds and creating borders, chamomile, oregano, wood mallow and cornflower are suitable
The size and shape of a country flower garden can be very different. We advise you to start with the choice of the main part, for example, such an old wheelbarrow or cart. The rest depends on your imagination. As a fence for such “village” flower beds, either a wattle fence or a low wooden fence without frills and unnecessary details is used
For a country flower garden, simple and unassuming plants that are typical for your region are suitable. Chamomile, mallow, phlox, tiger lilies, marigolds will look great – all those flowers that will remind you of the front garden in front of your grandmother’s house
When organizing a modular flower garden, you should first divide the territory into separate areas of the same shape and size. The space between these modules can be decorated with sand, paving slabs, gravel, pebbles, pieces of ceramic tiles, marble chips, or sowed with lawn grass – just to highlight the boundaries. Thanks to their strict repeating shape, modular lawns are widely used in regular French gardens and manicured English parks.
For modular flower beds, low creeping plants are usually chosen, for example, daisies, violets, nasturtiums, farbitis, marigolds and amaranths. Ground cover plants are also suitable – arabis, periwinkle, alpine and feathery carnations, yellow and green bryozoans, as well as primroses
Of course, for greater clarity, you can arrange a flower garden in the form of a dial with arrows. But this is already a regular flower bed, which you will not find in an ordinary summer cottage – this is a task for professionals. So just collect plants on one flower garden, about which you know exactly what time they open and close – you will be perfectly oriented even without a wristwatch, working on the site. In addition, the flower garden clock will allow you to surprise your guests – in fact, how did you know that it’s seven in the evening, if you didn’t even look at the screen of your mobile phone?
When choosing plants for flower hours, remember that, for example, a bindweed opens daily at eight in the morning, a field carnation at one in the afternoon is already closed from the heat, forget-me-not closes at five in the evening, and a daylily at seven
Arrangement of a solitaire flower garden requires almost no effort – just choose a free space on the site and plant a suitable plant. This version of the flower garden does not require a fence, no boundaries, or the presence of MAFs, and at the same time is widely used in a variety of styles of landscape design.
Flowering shrubs are perfect for a solitaire flower garden, for example, broom, panicle hydrangea, delphinium. You can also choose a lush bush of peonies or roses, a lily, a group of irises, an ash tree or rudbeckia
What are the different options available for equipping a flower garden on the site and how can I determine which one is the best choice?
Which flowers would be the best option for a beautiful and vibrant garden?
What are the options available to equip a flower garden?