Your plants may all be doing well and yet your garden is missing the aesthetically appealing look you’d hoped to achieve. Before you undertake work-intensive moving and replanting of your garden’s plants, use the tips below to establish order with borders throughout your garden.
Make a list of different options for more clearly delineating sections of your garden such as the use of stone borders, metal fencing, or natural borders in the form of boxwoods or low-growing grasses. Price out what each type of border would cost you for the spot you envision using to avoid unnecessary expense.
Avoid making one or two plants a section when you’re considering a border since bordering every plant can be just as confusing and chaotic as having too few borders in your garden. Think more in terms of beds you’d like to border or a grouping of plants that you’d like to border rather than individual plants.
Use paths as a guide for borders. You don’t have to border an entire bed if that bed has a side that touches a path in your garden. Instead, consider adding framing for your path with the use of natural borders that can be inexpensively planted along the entire path such as lariope grass which grows quickly and easily and can provide natural guidance for where your path leads.
If you’re considering adding a gravel pathway to a section of your garden, choose a spot that is relatively flat and free of flooding during wet seasons to avoid washing away gravel. You’ll also want to make sure that you do not choose white gravel if the path is in the shade in order to avoid green mossy growths on the white gravel stones that can make them look old and unkempt.
Remove borders that aren’t working in your garden such as plastic fencing that falls down or comes undone frequently, and consider using that border treatment elsewhere. Replace those borders with a new type of border that you believe will better delineate the space.
If your garden has lost plants during the year, remove the dead plants and adjust borders. You can still use mulch or soil to freshen up the appearance of a specific spot in the garden even after you’ve removed a dead plant.
Consider adding inexpensive containers to establish borders and to mark off sections of your garden. One bush can be changed into a garden feature through the use of several containers that have different plants.
Consider adding annuals as a border during specific months to add color and depth to your garden. Whether you choose to add pansies in cooler weather or petunias in warmer weather, you can brighten your garden bed and add seasonal variation for a fairly reasonable price.
Replacing, adding and maintaining garden borders along pathways or around different sections of your garden can provide your garden with an aesthetic boost that requires minimal work and maintenance. Use the suggestions above to incorporate new border ideas into your gardening efforts.