Terrain Rules

And this is not a fairy tale, but first of all, you need to decide on the style of your own plant creations and work out several tasks for the future landscaped area. The elements must be coordinated both among themselves and, accordingly, with the terrain and the environment, for example, buildings and buildings.

Flowerbeds and flower beds in the dacha are visual decorations of the master’s house and, therefore, visually continue its facade. On a site outside the city, a gardener of any experience and skills will be able to form a small «paradise» by making a share of diligence and adhering to the following recommendations.

Unity of perception

A complete view of the garden is formed by taking into account the many landscape elements. It means that rare bushes scattered over the «hundredth» of even the most luxurious flowers will not create a pleasant impression. Such a “work” will look empty and sickly, will not cause a feeling of a finished composition, will not bring the desired admiration.

It is better for the owner to choose for ennoblement one area that is most successful for viewing and deal with it with all care.

The tasks of beautiful flower beds are to bring aesthetic pleasure with their attractiveness and create an atmosphere of harmony and comfort. It is easier for an amateur to cope with this in one small corner than in a vast area, if any.

Growth placement of plants

The next tick in the strategy is the growth placement of plants. As you and I know, ornamental flowers vary greatly in stem height. Tall plants should be placed further from the edge of the flower bed, or near the hedge itself, depending on how your flower garden will be located.

Then come plants that grow to medium size, and stunted flowers are placed near the border of the flower bed. Such a construction will provide all tiers with the light of the sun and, no less important, human attention. The so-called soloists of the flower bed, flowers of medium height, are usually perennials and can boast of a bright eye-pleasing bloom, and the high central and creeping marginal greenery serves as a frame.

Do not make the color scheme too colorful, select only a few bright accents that soften their colors and leave the rest of the floral background cold.

The structure of the flower bed

Key point number three is the structure of the flower bed. It will be useful to transfer the planned forms of flower beds from your head to paper, which will make it easier to work out the images of plant compositions in the best possible way. Before the actual construction and design of the flower bed, you should think over and draw its plan on paper.

Consider where it is best to place flowers depending on your windows, the view of the yard from the house, paths or the entrance gate. Also, do not forget that you are only drafting, and with living seedlings, in reality, everything can turn out a little or completely differently.

Maybe great ideas will arise right on the go? Try to create several flower beds, which, thanks to their varietal composition, will be able to delight you all season in turn, if you painstakingly pick up blooms that are replaced by one another.

And do not forget that someone has already done all the hard work for us — in specialized magazines or on the Internet there is always ready-made markup to your liking.

Refinements for beginners

The simplest is the design of the central flower bed described above. Quite interesting, as an option, is a perennial flower garden, which, due to its practicality, has the largest number of planting layouts. Ornamental plantings of coniferous shrubs, which do not require serious care and are pleasing to the eye with their unchanged appearance all year round, are also fabulously popular.

The only thing these plants will «ask» for is the acidic environment of the soil. Such plantings, with proper care, will help the site look well-groomed and beautiful for many months in a row from year to year.

To create a flower bed of continuous flowering, you will need to take note of the following things:

• Annuals, perennials and also shrubs should be included in the composition of the flower bed;
• Select plants with similar temperature and watering requirements;
• Exclude easily breeding and «aggressive» species, for example, poppy and periwinkle, respectively.

Further, the gardener, who is thinking over a flowerbed of continuous flowering at their summer cottage, should enumerate the participating species in the form of a list. The final list depends on the size of the flower bed, and the generosity of the planting of each flower presented here is better to be preferred to their diversity.

The flower bed will be perceived not so colorful, and looking at it will bring a more harmonious impression. It would be best to «copy» ready-made designs of flower beds you like from a photo on the Internet or a thematic magazine — you will already know what you are striving for and how your work will look at the end.

The resulting list of plants should be divided into two parts according to their growing season. It is good if the bulbous plants are in the first one, which will quickly fade in the spring and will receive a replacement in the form of annual plants, for example, a petunia that grows luxuriantly in place of the bulbous ones.

All reliable perennials will remain in the second group. From plants of one year of flowering, choose unpretentious ones: asters, marigolds, dahlias, nasturtiums, petunias.

Preparation of the site for decorating it with flower beds is recommended in late summer — early autumn. The dug-up soil should be allowed to settle and after a couple of weeks, bulbs and rhizomes of perennials should be planted, next spring annuals should be planted in the form of seedlings and strictly counted specimens. And only after a year of waiting, your flower garden will open in all its glory, when the perennials are well rooted in the soil.

Regarding the arrangement, traditionally the shape of the flower bed is taken oval or at least rounded, the area is chosen sheltered from the scorching sun and wind. Large flower beds are preferred to smaller ones more often, but this is a matter of your taste and design.

The soil is cleared of weeds, the turf is removed and fertilized, black soil and sand will be a very good addition, loosening and drainage of future flower beds. If you want to arrange a slide, then increase the height in the center of the flower bed by adding another half a meter of earth, and to the edges — a smooth descent to a decimeter.

Photo of flower beds