A well-designed flower bed can breathe new life into drab garden corners and improve your home’s curb appeal. And the best thing is, you don’t need to be a gardening pro or break the bank to create a flower bed design that looks lush and vibrant through the changing seasons.
Whether you’re looking for landscaping ideas for the front of your home or brightening up a bare spot in your backyard, here are seven DIY landscape design tips that will help you create an eye-catching flower bed that’s brimming with the plants you love.
1. Pick perennial plants.
Annual plants often have bright and fantastically showy flowers that attract attention. But these short-lived plants are usually more demanding than perennials, and annuals need to be repurchased every spring if you don’t allow them to self-sow.
Starting flower beds off with perennial plants that are winter hardy in your area can make your beds much easier to maintain, and it should save you money too. For even easier upkeep, look for perennials that are native to your area, and only add annuals here and there for a little touch of color. Native plants are particularly well-adapted to local climates, weather patterns, and pests, and many native plants can retain their colorful good looks without any supplemental water, fertilizer, or fuss once they’re established.
2. Plan for the season.
Some plants bloom in spring, and others in summer. But if you want to create an all-season perennial flower garden that stays in bloom from spring through fall, make sure your flower bed ideas include plants that bloom sequentially at different times of the year.
Planting spring bloomers like daffodils and tulips with summer-flowering phlox and fall favorites like asters or goldenrod will keep your beds colorful during the warmer months. But you may also want to look for some winter-interest plants with striking bark or long-lasting berries for some cold season color. Choosing a few repeat bloomers, like ‘Encore’ azaleas, ‘The President’ clematis, ‘Passionate Returns’ daylilies, or any of a number of salvias that bloom more than once in a single season can help too.
3. Choose a focal point.
Well-designed gardens need a focal point to add structure and draw the eye in. Front doors and walkways are often used as focal points in landscaping, but flower bed designs can also be centered around some well-placed garden lighting, a large rock or hardscape element, or a striking specimen plant. Large foundational plants with bold lines, like arborvitae, or flowering plants like lilacs and weeping cherry make excellent focal points—especially when they’re surrounded by lower-growing flowers with complementary colors and bloom times.
4. Try layering.
Layering plants with different textures and varying heights can also create a more complex garden design and make flower beds look more intentional. To achieve this, select a large foundation plant or several taller backdrop plants, and then fill in around these larger plants with some medium-height perennials or shrubs. Finish up by planting lower-growing flowers toward the front of your garden and then edge your flower beds with rocks, bricks, or small ground-covering plants to bring it all together.
5. Plant in drifts.
“Drift planting” is a simple gardening technique that involves growing three or more of the same type of plants together in a cluster or “drift.” In the wild, plants rarely grow solo and the drift planting style can give flower beds a more natural feel while intensifying flower colors. Best of all, planting in drifts makes gardens more attractive to pollinators and it can encourage more hummingbirds and butterflies to visit.
6. Play with color.
Flower beds bursting with bright colors demand attention, but too many colors in a small space can feel overwhelming. That doesn’t mean you need to stick to a monochromatic palette, however. Consider choosing a primary flower color that you love or that complements the colors of your home and use that color and a color wheel to choose the best plants for your flower bed design.
For example, pink, purple, and blue flowers usually coordinate beautifully, and bright reds, oranges, and yellows blend together nicely as well. But if you look at a color wheel, you’ll see that reds also complement greens, blues complement oranges, and yellows complement purples—and there are even more color combinations to try! If you want to take garden color even further, consider how your flower beds look at night and choose a few plants with white flowers or silvery leaves that will show up after dark.
7. Add mulch.
Once you’ve chosen and planted your flowers, there’s just one thing left to do: Add mulch.
Not only do mulches insulate the soil and keep plants from wilting on hot summer days, but mulch also makes garden beds look more finished, and it can help flower colors pop. For best results, look for natural, un-dyed mulches, like wood or bark mulch and pine straw, and add a layer of mulch to your beds once a year in spring or fall to keep it looking fresh!
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