Flower beds are the most common landscaping features. They create visual appeal, variety, and a sense of flow in your yard, when they’re done right. Properly done, a flower bed ensures that your gardening efforts aren’t wasted on a large, high-maintenance space. Instead, you have designated, special areas that can be features dotted throughout your yard.
Flower Beds Come In Many Shapes, Sizes, and Types
A flower bed could be anything from a simple border area to a show-stopping feature that also has pottery or hardscaping. Some flower beds we’ve seen are simply bordered by plastic edging. Others are structures with brick or stone borders. They can be freestanding in the middle of your yard, or flush against a wall of your house. You might want flower beds to feature a certain bloom, or be open to trying anything that will look nice and stand up to the weather.
Flower Beds Conserve Your Maintenance Levels
In any case, a proper flower bed will create a safe space for flowers to grow and thrive. Flower beds should protect against encroaching species of plants, and provide fertile, well-watered soil for sensitive species. By restricting your flowers to specified patches in your yard, you can keep maintenance to a minimum, and make it much easier to weed, fertilize, mulch, and water.
Group Flower Beds With Other Projects
Although your flower bed could be a freestanding structure in the middle of your yard, or a border decoration for your landscaping project, it can also be coupled with other projects and features. For example, flower beds that are incorporated into and bordering a water feature, rock garden, retaining walls, or an arbor can be especially effective in making your garden look like a lush, blooming oasis.
Elements of a Beautiful Flower Bed
- Proper soil: Sometimes it’s best to dig a space for your flower bed and fill it with pre-mixed soil to pamper more delicate species.
- Good planning: Placement of your flower bed may determine whether or not it will thrive. Think about the overall design of your yard, as well as the sun levels and water access.
- Protective edging: Edging ensures that the flower bed keeps its aesthetic, and that the flowers are protected from encroaching plants.
- and of course, well-tended flowers.
