What is a mixborder?

In modern landscape design, a mixborder is a flower garden of various types of plants planted in groups, having an oblong shape.

When creating mixborders, they most often try to use perennial plants, sometimes diluted with annuals. Also sometimes used coniferous and deciduous trees and shrubs, a variety of lianas.

Rockery is a landscape composition with a predominance of stones. Stones play a dominant role here, plants go into the background, they only set off, create visible accents.
Unlike the rock garden, which is usually erected on a hill, rockeries can be located both on flat ground and in terraces.

Watch the video: Mixborders of perennial flowers and conifers

The mixborder can be used as a divider of the park area into sectors, they can decorate the entrance to the garden, decorate the slope, decorate the garden path.

There are two types of mixborders: those that are visible from all sides, and those that are designed for one-sided decoration.

Mixborder styles

Lugovoi. Reflects the romance of the mountain and meadow landscape. Meadow grasses and various cereal crops are used in their creation.

English. There is a strict style in the design. The clarity of lines, the severity of forms and the restraint of colors are the main features of such a flower garden.

Rustic. A variety of bright colors, lush flowering, the range of plants consists mainly of local crops.

Vegetable. They create a mixborder design from various vegetable crops, choosing the color of leaves and flowers. It also has a functional meaning, because in autumn gardeners can collect their bonus — a crop of vegetables.

Color design

It is important for a novice gardener to choose the right color scheme for plants. Having considered numerous photos of mixborders, you can choose for yourself the most acceptable color scheme that will meet your desires and tastes. Here it is important not to overdo it with a variety of shades, to harmoniously place color spots.

For a harmonious combination of color shades, it is advisable to choose no more than 4-5 colors. To help a novice designer in choosing shades, a color chromatic circle can serve. Using it, it is easy to determine the contrast of colors and their compatibility.

To create the most harmonious composition, mix warm colors with warm colors, and cool colors with cool ones.

Mixborder placement

First of all, you need to choose a place for the future flower garden. It should meet the purpose of the mixborder — to decorate the edge of the terrace, create a natural fence around the perimeter of the garden, decorate garden paths or be located along the wall of the house. The ideal place for such a flower garden is a site where both light and shadow are present in equal amounts.

When choosing a site, it is necessary to take into account the length of the future flower garden, the existing restrictions — the height of the windows, the distance from the viewpoint, the distance between the track and the mixborder.

A place for a flower garden should have an acceptable level of humidity, a sufficient amount of light and shade, as well as sufficient soil fertility.

Mixborder design should be created in accordance with the main style of the garden in which you are going to place it.

Creating a mixborder

First of all, you need to draw a mixborder scheme, taking into account the characteristic features of such flower beds. There are several rules for creating mixborders.

Plant height. To prevent the upper part of the flower bed from being lost during the review, position the flower bed so that the height of the tallest plant does not exceed half the distance from the viewing point to the flower bed.

A clear border of the mixborder. To achieve clear boundaries, use colored stone chips or tree cuts, you can also use paving slabs or beautiful stones. You can plant a border of perennial undersized plants.

Plant plants, remembering their height in adult form. Plant high ones closer to the center, low ones — closer to the edge of the flower bed.

Don’t overdo it with an abundance of different types of plants. It is better to use 3-4 decorative types than to create excessive spotting.

When planning a mixborder, give up too straight, strict lines. The flower garden looks more elegant, smoothly curving in natural beauty.

How to choose the right plants

When choosing plants, it is necessary to take into account the type of mixborder. It depends on whether you want to create a contrasting color scheme. There is a polychrome (in which several different colors are used), or a monochrome mixborder (created from several shades of the same color).

To create a mixborder of perennials, consider the space that plants will grow into as adults. You do not need to plant perennials tightly, but rather supplement the voids with annuals, which will temporarily fill the empty spaces.

Starting with the tallest in the center of the flower bed, plant the plants in tiers. You can use irises, astilba, phloxes, daylilies, cereals — feather grass, maned barley, ozhika. Geranium, echinacea, coreopsis, lobelia will add spice.

Choose plants that will give the flower garden a natural naturalness, naturally fit into the design and decorate your mixborder. Do not forget about the green background, against which flowering plants will look advantageous. As greens, use hostas, cineraria, geyhera.

For the lower tier of such a flower garden, you can use verbena, alyssums, stonecrops, awl-shaped phlox, thyme, leucanthemum, lobelia or petunia, as well as many bulbs — crocuses, snowdrops, dwarf tulips.

When creating a shrub mixborder, place the tallest plants in the background. Flowering shrubs can make up the middle tier: Japanese spirea, Japanese chaenomeles, forsythia, elderberry, mock orange, and shrubs with decorative foliage — cotoneaster, white derain, barberry will beautifully decorate the mixborder.

The lower tier will be decorated with creeping plants — Cossack juniper, different types of ivy, creeping types of cotoneaster.

A coniferous mixborder can be created using dwarf species of pine, spruce, fir, spherical or cone-shaped arborvitae for the middle tier, which lend themselves well to pruning. For the lower tier, pick up creeping conifers — Cossack juniper, cedar dwarf, Japanese tuevik.

A rose mixborder looks unusually regal, but requires special care. Roses need pruning, so plan your garden size so you can reach the most distant plants.

For the winter, roses need to be covered, protecting them from freezing. To do this, you need to provide a shelter system. You can use metal arcs covered with a film or spunbond.

How to care for a mixborder

Rules for the care of the finished mixborder:

• Provide watering on time.
• Remove weeds in a timely manner.
• Sometimes add fertilizers to irrigation, both mineral and organic preparations. This will increase the vitality of plants, add beauty to flowering and disease resistance.
• Protect heat-loving plants from frost.
• In time to carry out sanitary, therapeutic and rejuvenating pruning.
• Timely take measures to combat diseases and pests.

Guided by these rules for creating and caring for a mixborder, you can not only decorate your garden with a flower miracle, but also surprise your friends with the beauty of ornamental plants in your flower garden.

Mixborder photo