Unless you’re an old hand at creating gardens, you probably find the very suggestion of flower-bed design intimidating. Just remember that flower-bed design is simply a process that encourages you to take the time to thoroughly think through what you plan to do before you actually start. Good design happens automatically when you arrange all the various building blocks (which we provide here) into a satisfying layout.

There’s no one right way to design your garden. Don’t let anyone (not even us!) impose his or her own views and prejudices on you. Your garden should be uniquely your own, reflecting your personal taste. The design advice that we provide is meant to serve only as a guide, not as a set of rules for you to follow. (For more on landscape design, click here)

Designing For Success

Forget everything you’ve ever read about design theory. You have a built-in sense of what feels right to you — which is all that really matters. Mistakes are inevitable, but flower-garden foul-ups are among the easiest and least costly landscape disasters to remedy. To get an idea of how you want your flower garden to look, do the following:

• Make a file or a notebook to keep track of your observations. Note what about each garden appeals or doesn’t appeal to you.
• Visit public gardens, take a critical look around your neighborhood, sign up for garden tours, or watch garden shows on television.
• Write down any particular flowers that catch your fancy, noting what you like and dislike about the flower. If you don’t know what a particular flower is, knock on the gardener’s door and ask. Gardeners are generally flattered and pleased to discuss their gardens.
• Keep visual records. Take some snapshots of the best ideas you find to study at your leisure. Look through magazines and cut out inspiring illustrations or make color copies from books. Remember that plagiarism doesn’t apply to garden design. You can copy whatever you like!

After you compile all this information, you’re likely to notice trends emerging:

• Formal: Neat and orderly, the formal garden relies on strong visual lines. Formal gardens are frequently based on geometric patterns and often divided into parts, with each part a mirror image of its opposite. Color and form are usually repeated regularly within the formal design. A rigidly formal design can be quite labor-intensive — every dead or stunted plant leaves an obvious gap, interrupting the line or grid pattern.
• Informal: The popular cottage garden style embodies the rustic, unaffected, informal garden. If you like to color outside the lines, you’re probably more comfortable with an informal garden design. The informal design feels refreshingly free from rules and order, but it works best when you thoughtfully arrange it to create a subtle balance between the various colors and forms of the flowers. The informal gardening style is much like natural make-up. The goal is to appear less studied and fussy, but not to let nature have its way unrestricted.  ....read more