How to Landscape a Garden and Lawn with Curves

Adding curves to your garden is more complex than just shaping the garden bed. When you plan the landscape of your garden or lawn think above the ground. Visualize the wave you create using plant heights, color, and size at the beginning, peak, and end of each season. Plan your landscape with these curves in mind. Copy "Mother Nature" she will appreciate the compliment.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Several long ground sticks or rods 48"
• Gardening Magazines
• Internet research
• Tape
• Imagination

1. 
    
   Shaped garden beds soften the look of lawns.

   Garden Bed
   Plan the shape of your garden bed by laying out a hose, sculpt the shape you want. Create a circular garden to highlight a feature, patio, or tree. Serpentine to separate a garden bed from the lawn or encompass a patio. Add rounded corners to soften an entrance area. All these shapes will add ground level curve to your garden and lawn.

2. 
    
   Move your garden curves above ground level.

   Plant Height
   Choose various height plants for top line appeal. If you have not chosen what plants to use try this technique for a visual aid. Find pictures with names of the flowers and bushes you like. Research how well they grow in your environment to make sure the plant can reaches its full size. Tape the picture to a stick at its mature height and place it in the garden leaving plenty of room around each to show maturity size. Look at the top line of your stick garden, do you see a pleasing wave over the top heights of your sticks. If not, rearrange your plan until you do. If you have a unique feature you want accented in the yard, utilize taller plants to draw the eye upward, or lower plants to draw the eye down for highlighting this feature. Tall bushes and plants make a great end point for some gardens and lawns, a way of defining your space

3. 
    
   Mid level curve appeal

   Plant Shape
   Having a variety of shapes can create an appealing mid-level curve. Consider what the foliage looks like before, during, and after it blooms. Choose self shaping plants for easier gardening.

4. 
    
   Schedule a symphony of color.

   Flower schedule
   Make sure that at least 50% of each height plant has a similar flowering time. Do this by either duplicating your plants in different areas or find other plants that bloom at the same time and are the same height. If you add a large letter to your stick garden that indicates the month it blooms - such as A Aug, J July, j June you will be able to organize the curves to your garden more fully.

5. 
    
   Graceful end of garden season.

   Fall Foliage
   When the garden dies back or hibernates until next year keep in mind which plants add a soft reversal to the landscape. Add more of these plants to your garden to give it a graceful end to the gardening season.

6. 
    
   Be bold with fewer items.

   Garden Accents
   Use garden lighting to bring the curves with you into the night. Plan the lighting just like your garden with various shapes, heights and textures to bring your garden and lawn alive at night. Buy a large enough 12 volt converter box to handle multiple outputs and multiple units of lighting, your local hardware store will have someone to help you choose . Use soft spot lighting, and limit the number of down lights for walkways.
   Use garden art sparingly. Choose large and dramatic structures with large and dramatic plants. Use peek-a-boo pieces with ground cover or small plants. Don't overwhelm your plants with art. Let nature give it's natural curve to your landscape.

Tips & Warnings

• Create a mock garden before you buy plants.
• Ask Friends and Neighbors for transplants on plants you love.
• Take time to design your outdoor living space.

Resources

• eHow Home and Garden Topic Guide.
• Garden Growth
• HGTV.com landscaping

[waters]

on 6/19/2009 Good information on how to landscape a garden and lawn with curves.