Original design solutions and professionally made floral designs can only be found in city gardens, parks or historical places. Hiring specialists to create flower beds on 6 acres is expensive, so you can make flower beds with your own hands. Their forms are varied. Each gardener comes up with his own solutions for arranging the garden. What shapes of flower beds are used, the materials used, how to quickly bring the idea to life - is described in the article below.
DIY flower garden in the country for beginners: basic rules
I won’t reveal a big secret that before you come up with your own idea for a flower garden and start actually working on it, you need to study a little theory, or rather the basic rules for creating a flower garden. Let's start with this.
Determining the location of the flower garden
For a flower garden you need to choose the most advantageous place from a viewing point of view. You are not going to just admire its beauty yourself. The flower garden should become the center of attention, the highlight of your summer cottage. Therefore, it must be visible from several directions.
A flower garden is a place where it is pleasant to be, experience positive emotions, relax your soul, and enjoy the beauty of nature, created, among other things, by your hands.
Illumination of the place for the flower garden
The illumination of the chosen place is of great importance for the future flower garden.
Of course, some plants can grow in partial shade, but many flowers will not be able to reach their full potential in low light. As a result, you will not be able to get a fragrant flower garden.
A well-lit area is an area where sunlight is present for 5 hours or more.
An area illuminated by sunlight for 3-5 hours is considered partial shade.
An area illuminated for 2 hours or less is shady.
Moisture permeability of soil for a flower garden
The presence of moisture in optimal quantities is vital for most plants. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze and adjust the soil composition as necessary.
If the soil is sandy, then you need to add compost, which will increase the moisture capacity of the soil.
If the soil is clayey, then, on the contrary, you need to add sand in order to increase water permeability.
Shape and area of the future flower garden
You need to decide on the shape and area of the future flower garden based on the capabilities of the summer cottage, your imagination and taste.
The shape of a flower bed can be either regular geometric or arbitrary.
It is worth choosing a geometric shape if it is combined with other elements of landscape design. For example, straight garden paths.
Flower beds of arbitrary, oval, curved shapes look no less impressive. They are closer to the natural landscape. If you approach their creation creatively, the result can be impressive.
Plant placement plan
You can, of course, trust your taste and plant the flowers you like at random. But this is not entirely the right approach.
You need to draw up a plan for the flower garden and, in accordance with this plan, select and place flowers.
Make a list of flowers that you would like to plant in your flower garden.
You should try to choose flowers of different flowering periods so that your flower garden pleases you with its magnificent appearance for as long as possible.
Some plants do not like prolonged exposure to bright sunlight. Therefore, it is better to place them on the north side of the flower garden.
Based on these considerations, place the plants on the flower garden plan you drew.
Don't plant plants too close to each other. Keep in mind that they will grow and become crowded. The flowers will begin to suppress each other.
Creating a continuous flowering cycle
When making a flower bed of flowering perennials, it is important to take care of the correct change in the order of budding of plants. With the right approach to the selection of components, it is easy to ensure continuity of the flowering cycle.
Varieties are selected in such a way that the flowering sequence is observed one after another. It is not difficult to find seedlings that will provide gradation from May to October.
Beautiful combination of flowers in a flower bed
You can, of course, randomly plant plants in a flower garden, regardless of the color of their flowers. Such a motley picture will perhaps be more reminiscent of a natural landscape. But this is unlikely to be the best option, unless, of course, you are creating something like a rock garden.
It is more logical to plant plants in the flower garden that match well in color, as well as in the original shape of the leaves. This allows you to create successful compositions.
Here is an example of a successful combination of some plants in a flower garden:
- phlox and lilies;
- phlox and rudbeckia;
- echinacea and sedum;
- phlox splayed and subulate;
- phlox subulate and iris;
- peony and lupine;
- peony and catnip;
- bluebell and foxglove;
- dicentra and corydalis;
- hakonechloa and hoofweed;
- astrantia and filipendula.
As an example of creating a flower garden at your dacha with your own hands, I suggest you watch this video.
Low-growing specimens
Beautiful flowering plants with a height of up to 40 cm include:
- Aquilegia;
- Balsam;
- Carpathian bell;
- Dwarf aster.
All these options are not demanding on lighting and prefer abundant watering. At the same time, plants do not need a scrupulous choice of soil type and do without frequent fertilizing. This unpretentiousness is convenient for those who do not expect to spend a lot of time caring for the flowerbed.
How and how to decorate a flower garden at your dacha with your own hands
In this case, I do not mean the plantings of the flower garden, but its outer edging, that is, the border.
Low-growing plants can be used as a border. This method is quite common.
You can also use various building materials or ready-made garden products to create a border.
DIY stone flower beds
The most common and, one might say, solid material for creating flower bed borders is stone. It can be either a processed rectangular stone or a natural stone in its natural form.
The stone can be laid on cement mortar, or simply laid if it has a decent mass.
A border laid on mortar is, of course, stronger and more durable. But if you suddenly decide to remodel the flower garden, it will be more difficult to do so.
Treated stone, like decorative stone, may not be cheap, but natural stone can cost you almost nothing. It can be found on river banks, in quarries, in gravel warehouses, and so on. Each locality has its own possibilities for this.
Here are some more examples.
Flower beds made from scrap materials
If you have the desire and imagination, then making an original design for a flower bed or flower garden will not be difficult. There are many options for this that require virtually no cost.
I don’t see the point in this article to describe in detail how to design flower beds using improvised means, since I have already written a good article on this topic “Do-it-yourself flower beds in the country - 70 best options.” I highly recommend reading it.
Preparing the object
After selecting the design of the perennial flower bed, markings and soil preparation are carried out. The soil in the area of the object is pre-loosened. The territory is divided into segments using strings on pegs.
After this, they dig a hole in the ground, which will serve as a landing trench. Drainage is placed at the bottom. In wet areas, you can additionally protect the surface using a film that is placed along the lower edge of the pit.
Examples of the best flower beds for a summer residence
As they say, it is better to see once than to read five times. Therefore, let's look at the most successfully implemented flower beds. Maybe you will like some ideas and you can implement them at your dacha.
tall plants
Interesting options with a height of up to 80 cm are:
- Gladioli;
- Geranium;
- Astilbe;
- Delphinium;
- Daisies.
The choice depends on the level of illumination of the area. Chamomiles prefer an abundance of light, Delphinium and Geranium are unpretentious, and Gladioli and Astilbe love shade. Optimal specimens are determined individually.
Conclusions and wishes
In this article, we briefly discussed the question of how to design a flower garden at the dacha with your own hands for beginners, watched a video on creating a flower garden, and photos of interesting options for flower beds. I think there was something useful for you in the material presented.
In the presented examples there are no “cool” flower beds that are difficult to implement. After all, the article, judging by the title, is intended for novice flower growers and landscape designers.
Of course, when planting and decorating a flower garden, it is advisable to have some basic knowledge of floriculture and landscape design. But it’s equally important to just do it with your soul and be creative. And then everything will work out for you!
Best regards, Alexander Tkachenko.
Benefits of planting perennials
Perennial flowers for a flower bed will not delight you with continuous flowering, but with the correct selection of different specimens, you can achieve an ideal sequence. The choice in favor of regular type plants is also justified by the following advantages:
- do not require annual planting;
- are resistant to adverse weather conditions;
- do not require complex care.
Such plants are easy to plant and divide. A beautiful flowerbed with minimal intervention is guaranteed for a long time.
Advice from an experienced gardener
To create a high-quality flowerbed with your own hands from perennials, you should follow some tips that have been put into practice more than once:
- When forming a planting on a site, there is no need to be afraid to create plant compositions that are original in form and execution.
- Medium- and tall-growing perennial plants are perfect for growing in row conditions.
- It is worth choosing plants so that the flowerbed has a wave-like color from early spring to late autumn and is not empty.
- You should definitely pay attention not only to flowering plants, but also to those whose foliage is colored in unusual shades.
- It is necessary to plant several plants of the same variety at once so that when they grow, they create the effect of movement.
- It’s worth playing with contrasts and mixing colors, textures and plant varieties without fear.
Types of compositions
Flowerbeds of different types are made from perennial plants. They are performed in one of two options:
- Regular composition. A geometric pattern is visible, and all the flowers bloom at the same time.
- Irregular composition. Such flower beds are more popular because the plants in them do not bloom at the same time. This allows you to enjoy flowering for a long time.
