A Home Garden

By Charlie Reese

Whether you've just moved into a house with no landscaping whatsoever, or if you just want to do a remake on your existing garden, the secret to success in a good flower garden design is in careful planning. Depending on the amount of space you have to work with, it may take a few seasons to get the garden filled out, but it's certainly doable. It's well worth your time to think long and hard before you forge ahead and start breaking ground. Here's how to make the most of your flower garden design, a design you'll be happy with for many years to come.

First you must decide what style of flower garden pleases you most. For example, you might like a neat and orderly garden, with what real estate agents refer to as 'curb appeal'. Maybe what suits your personality best is the cottage style flower garden, with blooms in a variety of heights dotting your landscape. If your passion is cut flower arrangements, a cutting garden may be the answer. If you have a large garden area, your dream flower garden design may consist of large drifts of flowers, with winding pathways and secret gardens to be discovered along the way.

Once you've settled on the style you find most pleasing, you're ready to begin the flower garden design process. Go online, or to your local library, to find books which offer comprehensive pictorial depictions of various flower garden styles. You'll learn how and why particular placement of plants and various elements of garden design make that style work. You'll also get plenty of ideas on which plants lend drama, seasonal color, as well as factors such as drought tolerance that might influence your choices.

It's been said that variety is the spice of life and this is also true in a good flower garden design. You want to integrate an assortment of garden features to lend variety to the landscape. For example, flowering trees, such as the flowering cherry and magnolia can add grandeur and elegance as a backdrop to your flower garden. Placement of shrubs along garden pathways can serve as a privacy screen in certain sections of the garden. If your land is basically flat, you can add interest by making a berm, a raised and rounded area which tapers off at each end. Planted with a few perennials, you can have a really eye-catching display.

Pathways, with stepping stones planted with a small ground cover, might wind through even a small stretch of garden, ending at a garden bench surrounded with fragrant flowers for a quiet, relaxing reprieve from the world.

Ornamental grasses are other elements of a flower garden design, which evoke a serene feeling when planted alongside a drift of Russian sage, with its beautiful, graceful purple flowers.

Daylilies, Alstromeria and Agapanthus are longtime favorites in the summer flower garden, with good reason. The displays are bountiful and little maintenance is required. If you live in an area with acid soil, consider integrating azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons into your flower garden design for a spectacular showing in spring. Daffodils which naturalize, multiply on their own, dividing and spreading over the landscape. If you can, shoot for four season color. It all depends on how cold your winters are.

Today's garden software makes creating a flower garden design a snap. You can also preview how your garden will look over time, as it fills out and matures. It's all in careful thought and planning. That's the secret. - 20607

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