Flower Garden Design Essentials

* Grow flowers to impress,
* Compare flower gardening styles,
* Discover the natural beauty of flowers.

Flower garden designers on TV often talk about the designs that have made their name. But they don't seem to convey the principles of their art or educate novice gardeners. Indeed, their regular advice is to break the rules but - don't let that fool you.

Because they are gifted in their craft and frankly there's much more to designing a flower garden. You'll find some help with a few examples of mistakes below.

So this free information is accumulated by personal experience and research rather than training in garden design. And it's here to help you develop a beautiful organic floral garden display of your own.

Flowers For House & Home

>  Flowers & vases >  Choose Cut Flowers >  Flower Growing

Don't read the following as rules, but as guidelines to help you save time and avoid mistakes.

You'll also find links to information on the garden qualities of select plants, how to grow your own flowers, where to buy your plants and more... ... There's a guide to 8 flower gardening themes on this link, these links are to flower seeds and seed mats, and tips on container gardening and patio gardening are here. But the essential pointers to constructing a beautiful garden are contained below...

Cheer Up And Make It Big With Flowers!

In an average garden the flowers look sparse, thin and weedy. Because one of the biggest mistakes that suburban flower gardeners make is in not growing enough flowering plants.
(If your flowers look weak only because they are not growing well, then check this out on growing flowers - coming soon) or look below to grow more flowers...
And then you can balance attractive / lively with space / calm - see more below.

You get out what you put in. But the average garden doesn't get much attention. Although this doesn't actually make sense. Because the more impressive and long lasting your plants are, the less work you need to do in continual planting and weed control.

Decorative Flowers

This style of gardening appears rather like a necklace you might wear. Decorative flowers can be very attractive and mark out the lines of your garden. But sadly they are all too short-lived. The flowers in this picture will soon be gone for another year - leaving nothing.

This summer flower necklace > wraps around a spring flowering shrub.
If you enjoy the formality of annual decorative flowers then take a look at patio gardening and container gardening on these links.

Essential Lessons For Flower Garden Design

• Set Your Style With A Unifying Theme: Shape, texture, color, plant architecture should be carefully combined in each area,
  While contrasting shapes can also work together, you should avoid mixtures that lack cohesion,
• Set an overall theme with repeat planting of one kind of plant - try these unifying themes... Find 8 illustrations of flower garden themes are here.

• Divided leaves such as ferny leaved plants,
• Bold large leaved plants,
• Upright narrow leaved plants,
• Unifying flower themes: star shaped flowers of different sizes, flower shades of blue, black, or silver - see contrasting themes below,

• For contrast: - fill spaces between the major theme plants with contrasting plants set in groups,
• Do plant in sufficient numbers - it creates impact and sets the scene,
• Avoid straggler individual plants that have no relationship with your theme,

• Contrasting flower themes: group flat-topped flower heads next to spiky flower heads... bright yellow flowers against dark foliage...
  

• Consider the space for planting and the scale of your plants:

Small flowers would be lost among Ivy leaves on the left...

• Scale flower and plant size to size of the area being planted,
• Will small plants be overpowered by large plants?
• Will large impressive flowering plants overcrowd the space available?
• Spaces are important to create calm and rest,
  but you can create spaces with low growing, fine textured foliage or miniature plants of various shades,
• Lawns work to both set-off colourful flowers and give rest to your eye,

• Shape Your Garden Space: - upright flower spikes work better alongside straight edges, while rounded flower heads, broad leaves and mounds blend well with curved edges,
  
• Upright plants can be used as focal points or repeated to create alignment and punctuate the distance,
• Short flowers should not be hidden behind taller plants but they can effectively be framed behind taller plants to accentuate the impression of depth and calm space,

The Seasonal Flower Garden - Timing Your Display

Views on the herbaceous border

1. Masses of Blazingly Attractive Flower Colour: Your flowers won't last all year. So one approach is to group them into an attractive seasonal display. You need to choose plants that have a long flowering season - perhaps taller later flowering perennials.

However, these flower beds seem empty out of season, so you could arrange several of them to be at their best in different seasons.

2. Ever Changing Always Interesting Eternal Flower Borders: You could choose a mix of flowering plants to provide gradual change throughout the year. This approach would be preferred to support hummingbirds, bees and butterflies in an organic garden.

3. For The Best All-Time Flower Beds: Mix shrubs and perennials. Many shrubs flower early while others provide autumn and winter leaf or stem color. Shrubs provide structure, texture and rest to balance the bright summer flowers.
   
   Take special care with height and shape. Remember the appearance will change as your perennial flowers grow around your shrubs. And you can leave space for flowering bulbs and to plant annual flowers.

Ground cover plants are better than bark mulch for continuous cover and filling vacant space in an organic garden.

So why not enjoy the perfect all season garden - The Eternal Garden.

Find 8 garden themes for your flowers on this link.

Examples To Compare
Different Flower Garden Themes

Formality As You Enter

At the garden entrance formality helps to point visitors in the right direction. Formality is increased by high contrast, and regular planting. Formal plantings also fit well with buildings.

The Informal

English Cottage
Garden Style >>

There's virtually no arrangement to a cottage garden. Many flowers will be self-seeding. Spikes of Delphinium and Lupin, sprawling Sweet Pea, and the spreading leaves of Bergenia and Rhubarb are all very much at home together. Herbs and vegetables are unashamedly grown in any odd place.

For the English Cottage Garden the natural variety of flourishing plants in no particular order is what sets the style. They usually include culinary and medicinal herbs as well as fragrant and edible flowers.

Tall Herbaceous Border - the formality here depends on spacing, alignment and plant architecture.

Beautiful while it lasts and even better mixed with shrubs to prolong the season. And this herbaceous border remains attractive when viewed from a distance.

Notice how easily bright yellow attracts your attention. And so in smaller flower beds the yellow flowers could be reduced in number to become a focal point.

Flower Garden Design Is Limited Only By Your Imagination

Here are some more themes that you could develop in your garden.

• The Secret Garden: a small corner hidden by screens or hedge within which there is a surprising space for growing flowers,
• The Patio Garden: use this space for eating, relaxing and socialising in your garden - find more on patio gardening here,
• The Knot Garden and Parterre: a formal arrangement that uses neatly trimmed hedges or coloured flowers to divide the garden space,
• The Play Garden: gardening can be exciting for children and you can design it safely without stings, thorns, poisonous berries or water, so they can hide, find things, play, and grow their own flowers,

• The Gnome and Fairy Garden: pure romance, pure magic... you can use ornaments, mirrors, wind chimes, with lights, fairies and garden gnomes, water and wood carvings of mushrooms, toadstools and animals to make a totally magical effect in your garden.

And that's just for starters... look at some unusual flowers and at your favourite flowers and use your imagination. You'll find 8 illustrations of floral gardening here.

Flower Garden Design For Organic Gardeners - remember

• Grow as much as possible,
• Grow plants that flower early and late in the season and, aim to keep your garden in flower all-year-around. You'll find winter flowers here.
• Select plants that provide fruit and seeds for birds to eat,
• Prefer single flowers over doubles and hybrids,
• Use ground hugging cover plants in vacant spaces and to smother weeds,

Flower Garden Design In Your Country >>    >>   Click flag to jump to your country selection:

Check out >  Arbours & Arches >  Seasonal Garden >  Garden Plants from these links.

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Check out >  Yard & Landscaping >  Gardening Flowers >  Trellises, Pergolas & Arches from these links.

• Click this link for Stacks and Stacks to help your garden.
  

Find more information on
the-organic-gardener.com:

How to handle cut flowers for vases and decoration, Select flowers for a winter garden here, Go to town with friends and family in your patio garden, How to grow a successful garden with containers, Flowers for an organic garden are here. Select flower bouquets... for your home & loved ones here,

How to select flowers for your garden 1 to 4 of 8 themes, More select flowers for your garden - themes 4 to 8, What to expect when you buy plants, The main page for growing your own flowers is being updated, try here. Tips on designing an organic garden,

• ALSO on The Organic Gardener find:-
  organic gardening suppliers in your country from here.
  
  

My Neighbour's Flower Gardens

• Do you run a gardening website - with information to interest my visitors? To set up exchange links from/to suitable pages - click here.
  
  
• Home Of The Organic Gardener
  

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