How to Make Your Flower Bed Border Look Natural

Graceful curves make flower beds look more natural.

Nature doesn't draw straight lines, and neither should you when you're creating a border for your flower bed. Flower beds with straight borders look formal and unnatural. The best way to make your flower bed border look natural is to give it curving, sweeping edges such as the edges found in nature.

Things You'll Need

• Garden hose
• Shovel

Instructions

1. Mark a curved border for your flower bed by placing the garden hose on the ground in front of the flower bed to form a graceful, curved edge. Experiment with different curves until you find one that looks natural to you.

2. Plunge the shovel into the ground along the line of the hose, pushing down on its handle to pop out sod to define the edge of the curve along the entire length of the flower bed.

3. Remove existing sod, rocks and other vegetation between the curved line and the flower bed. Plant low-growing flowers in the newly exposed soil.

Tips & Warnings

• To make the plants in the flower bed look more natural, plant flowers in irregularly-shaped drifts of five, seven or nine plants.

• If you include large rocks or boulders in your landscape, bury the bottom of the stone and leave at least half of the top exposed.

• Mulch your flower beds with dark, natural compost. Dark mulch looks more natural than light or dyed red wood chips.

References

• University of Arizona Extension: Flower Bed: Planning the Flower Border
• University of Illinois Extension: Gardener's Corner - Designing Flower Beds