by Amelia Emery

Created on: August 28, 2010

Having a yard that lacks flower beds can look very bleak and sterile unless you are trying to compete with the local baseball field for the best green grass award.  But for most of us, a little color breaking up the field of green is a welcome addition.  Creating a flower bed and incorporating it into your garden is a great way to add something new and exciting in the form of new plants, a new garden ornament or birdhouse and just getting outside and having fun. 

 Creating a flower bed from scratch will bring you intimately close with nature through the processes necessary for making your new part of garden.  Of course, there is a bit of hard work at the beginning stage and that involves digging up the grass.  Before you actually slice your shovel through the sod, make a pattern of where this new bed is going to be with either the hose or some string or even drawing the lines with spraypaint.  If you are digging up grass during the driest months of the year, watering the grass the night before will make digging much easier as the soil will be moist and allows the roots of the grass to stay clumped together rather than breaking apart when you shovel it up.  After your pattern has been made and the grass has been removed, it is time to decide whether ammendments such as compost or more topsoil need to be added to the freshly exposed soil.  If something needs to be added, do it now before you add your plants. 

Planting your new flower bed is the most exciting part.  Depending on where this new bed is in relationship to sun exposure will help you decide the right kind of plants to add.  Annuals are a great choice for those who are looking to create a big bang of color that will go from spring to the first hard frost in fall.  A perennial bed is also a great idea for those who don’t want to replace plants every year and can depend on a mixture of plants that will perform year round.  If the bed is large and situated in a space where there is room, planting larger shrubs or a small tree along with the smaller annuals and perennials is a great way to have a sort of foundation or backbone to the bed.  

When everything is in its place, add a bark mulch to cover the exposed soil.  This will not only look nice and fininshed but will help keep weeds down, keep the soil moist and cool in the summer and gradually decompose thus adding nutrients to the soil.   

Creating a flower bed is fun and rewarding.  Just remember that you can always change the shape and size if you want to and add or subtract plants.  Enjoy it!

Learn more about this author, Amelia Emery.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.