Backyard and Garden Makeovers by Billy Bristol - HTML preview

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Designing Flower Beds

Many people who are new to designing flower beds will testify that designing plant beds can be a bit intimidating at first. The best way to take away the intimidation factor is to gain knowledge by performing some online research. Additionally, visit some communal or local gardening spots and look over a great number of shrubs and other types of plants.  Take time to read the tags of the plants you view and ask the nursery attendant the best way to care for the plants you are most interested in.  You might even share some of your gardening design ideas with him or her and see how the nursery horticulturist processes the information provided and what advice is resultant. The smaller grower generally can provide good information to you relative to plant care.

Before embarking on the project, plan dimensionally for the area you wish to create. As far as planting trees, include accordant to region possibly some trees or plants that do not shed their leaves in the fall, and other trees that shed their leaves prior to cold weather. Within this mix, include perennial flowers to jazz things up a bit as well as some interesting grasses. When you design your garden ensure the plants you select can not only favorably co-exist together, but also that the design of what you include in more formalized settings has good balance.

In order to make the view most pleasant, plant in uneven numbers and plant across the bed. If you plant a shrub in one particular spot and then another shrub in a randomly-selected area this makes for a disorganized appearance.  You are better off to run your plants across the bed since the eye likes to view things from side to side. Also if you take one or two species of plants from one flower bed to the next one this will produce a nice visual appearance. An ornamental plant is a good selection for employing a dash of color. However, before you plant anything read up as to how big the tree or plant will become upon maturity and then plant it in the appropriate location.

Many persons prefer the evergreen shrub since it does not shed its leaves and adds some color even during the bleakest periods of the cold winter months. Another suggestion is to create island beds within your backyard.  The plants provided here must add some dimension without causing obstruction.