How to Design a Four Season Flower Bed
Everyone has seen beautiful flower gardens in spring and summer, but not everyone has seen autumn and winter flower gardens. A four-season flowerbed may sound impossible. With a little planning and preparation, however, you can be the envy of your neighbors year-round. Making careful plant selections, especially considering bloom time and your U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Plant Hardiness Zone, is essential to achieve this goal. Gardeners in Plant Hardiness Zones 1 and 2 may find it very difficult, if not impossible, to locate winter-blooming plants suitable to their zone. A four-season flowerbed may be out of the question in those zones, which have harsh and cold winters. People in the warmest zones, Zones 9 through 11, can choose from a huge array of winter-blooming plants. A four-season flowerbed in Zones 3 through 8, which encompass the bulk of the country, requires more planning and preparation but is within reach. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Decide the placement, size and shape of the four-season flowerbed. Use a tape measure to help with the size.
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Determine how much sunlight the flowerbed receives at different times of the day. Understanding whether the bed receives full sun, full shade or something in between will help with plant selection.
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Draw the flowerbed on graph paper with a ruler to ensure it is drawn to scale. You can play around with the shape of the bed until you find exactly what you like.
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Choose plants suitable for your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone to ensure their survival in cold months. Select plants that vary in size, texture, shape and bloom time. Hellebores, camellias, edgeworthia, viburnum tinus and witch hazels bloom during the winter months and are perennials, living more than three years. Planting autumn- and winter-blooming annuals, which live for one year, will add a burst of color from autumn to early spring; examples include pansies, digitalis and dianthus. Do not forget that foliage comes in a wide array of colors and can play the same role as flowers in the garden. Burning bush, variegated ajugas, variegated euonymus, heuchera, blue fescue and yucca each can add four-season interest. Bulb plants such as crocus, snowdrops, daffodils and surprise lilies also can add a boost of color during the cold seasons. The unusual peeling or smooth bark on birches and crape myrtles also add winter interest. Also select plants based on how much sunlight they need and how much sunlight your flowerbed receives.
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Mark the plants' placement by name on the scaled graph paper drawing of your flowerbed. Place tall plants in the back of the flowerbed and shorter plants and groundcovers in the front of the flowerbed.
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Tips & Warnings
Reference books and the Internet are valuable resources, but do not forget your area's nurseries for advice on choosing plants. Your county's Extension agent can guide you in plant selection as well.
Landscape design templates can help to make a professional-looking landscape plan.
Research and find plant varieties that can live through the minimum temperatures in your area.
As part of designing and planning your flowerbed, find out who to call to locate all underground utility lines.
References
Resources
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