Making a flower bed

Do you have any tips for making a flower bed? I have read up on it in a couple of books but any other advice would be gratefully recieved. Our garden is just turf and a few pots/ hanging baskets at the mo. I want to make a small flower bed against the garage wall. Probably about 1.5 meters long wide - no idea how deep I should make it. whether to make it raised or not. what to edge it with??? We are going to get the garden landscaped next year but I would like to have a little patch to play with now. Any ideas for what to plant -I like green bushy type plants and colourful flowers. Our ground is very hard and full of rocks so any tips on digging it out? The wall faces south.

Thanks

 

i would suggest you go to the library and get out eight books on garden design. then just flick through until you see something you like, there are so many different types of borders narrow wide, straight, curved and its down to personal preference

you probably wont find exactly what you want but it will let you find out what you like best and you might choose some elements from one picture and some from another , you could also look at the edgings used and see what you prefer, bear in mind the lawn maintenance, do you want a flat edge you can mow up to or a different sort?

its such fun planning the garden

good luck

loopy

 

If you're just looking for something to 'play with' (a lovely expression), before next year's landscaping, I wouldn't really worry too much. Decide where you want your bed to be, lay out a bit of string on the ground if it helps and just start digging!

I've created a couple of very small new beds this year and, if it helps, this is all I did.

Use a lawn edging tool to define the edge of your 'patch', or failing that an old kitchen knife, and just cut through the grass and down into the soil. Getting rid of the grass can be quite hard work, I used a spade and just turned over small bits at the time, (ie grass side down) and left it for a couple of days to let the soil dry out a bit. Once the soil was dry I went back, picked up the 'clods' I'd dug, knocked off the dry soil then divided this waste grass and roots between my various compost bins - if you don't have a compost bin/heap yet, perhaps you could stack this 'spoil' somewhere to rot down and have some compost for next year.

Once you've cleared the grass off, you can fork the ground over removing stones/rocks or whatever as you go. I think most people agree that a bed needs to be between 18" and 24" deep and you could save yourself quite a bit of digging by making a raised bed and filling it with some topsoil - but in view of your landscaping plans, I'd feel that was a bit expensive for just this year. My suggestion would be to dig down to say 12" (or one spade's depth) and, if you can get it, dig in either some well rotted manure or good compost.

As you say your ground is hard, I'm guessing its possibly a clay soil you've got, so you might find that any digging out of new borders would be made slightly easier by soaking the area first. I'm afraid that while clay soil is very fertile, it's also a swine to work with - rock hard in summer, sticky in winter - and (even once you've been landscaped) you will need to work in as much compost as you can beg, borrow or make. An influx of topsoil will help, although it is only part of the answer, but keep adding the compost and it will, slowly, get better.

As for what to plant. Well, if the bed is south facing you're spoilt for choice, choose anything which likes a sunny position and don't worry if the ground isn't perfect yet, plant things in pots of compost and sink the pots into the ground to hide them, (you'll also be able to move them once the landscaping is done if you so wish) then why not put some bedding plants between the pots, and lastly sprinkle some cut-and-come-again salad leaves in there too so your patch can be both pretty and productive.

Personally, I wouldn't bother to edge it with anything - just have a shallow 'trench' at the lawn edge, only about 2" - 3" deep and gently slope the earth away from the grass.

 

Wow thanks for the advice. I am really excited about starting it off. I will let you know how it goes - may do a bit of digging up today :-)

 

If it's not too difficult you could always dig deep and put the turves which you dig out grass side down then replace the soil on top ( I do this regularly since I have no compost bin ).

Plant what you like is the best advice I can offer but be aware that some pklants like to spread themselves about so you might follow Fidgetmum's advice and keep the plants in pots for this year.

 

Thanks guys - well a quick update we spent all yesterday digging out a 32 x 65 inch rectangle for my bed. We dug about 8 inch down - sifted all the big stones out - mixed in some horse manure and horticultural sand and compost. I have now covered it over to keep the cats off whilst I decide what to plant. I've pretty much decided that whatever we do to the garden I'd like to keep this bed there as we did it from start to finish I have 2 Lady Boothby fushias which are still in pots at the mo - I'm wondering whether these would climb well at the back of the bed? I can fix a trellis to the wall or should I keep it in a pot and use one of those frame things so I can move it if we decide. If these will work in the bed what else can I plant with them? Will Lavender go in front or will it grow too big? I have a Hidcote - a dwarf one (according to the label!) in a pot at the mo which I could plant in. Is it worth asking for some advice at my local garden centre for what will go well together in that size bed?

 

Hi there, I'm a bit late to this thread I think, but what you have done already sounds fab :gnthb:

I started to build our garden last year, and have mounded beds, which look lovely when things start to grow. Admittedly at first they looked like sandcastles but it does add some height, and you can see everything you plant, as long as you have a rough idea of how tall things will get at their full height. This is still a head ache every time I get a new plant, as I have to research it through google to get the fact right. I have found that sometimes plant labels are not wholly accurate.



You'll have to excuse the untidiness of the garden when I took this pic - we (the Royal we!) are doing a lot to it at the moment and therefore hoses and wheelbarrows were out at the time. But I keep snapped a few pics while I was out there, so we can see how it changes throughout the year. I have nearly finished planting out this bed, just a bit of a bare area at the top where I have some lavetiera to go in, but grown them from seed so just letting them get a tinsy bit bigger. I have made sure that the tallest things are at the back and then the stuff around the edges is various middle sizes - if the bed is slightly mounded up towards the back, the odd bit of difference in the sizes won't matter because it is graduated.

 

good look with the borders last time i dug one of those at my house i went straight through a cable wire just lucky i didnt have to pay for the repaire

www.oak-trees.co.uk
www.leyland-landscape.co.uk

 

Thanks for all thr advice. I am going to try & get to the
Garden centre tonight after work to buy a few plants. Just one
More question. The soil I've put in the bed (after digging it all out)
isn't compacted down so when u stand on it it sinks a bit. Should I tread it all
Down before I plant it? I thought so but my hubby said it would be better with
The air in it?

 

No leave it with the air in it! It will drain better, and be easier to work and plant in.