How to Design and Prepare a Flower Bed

A well-prepared flower bed not only looks good but promotes good drainage, has plenty of nutrients, makes watering and weeding a snap, and discourages disease and pests.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Compost
• Garden Rakes
• Garden Spades
• Garden Trowels
• Plants
• Rototillers
• All-purpose Flour
• Pencils
• Sketchbooks

1. Choose a spot for the bed and walk around it. Visualize plants of different shapes and sizes. Consider their needs for sun and shade. Make rough sketches.

2. 

   Sketch a plan of the bed you want to plant. Tall plants should go at the back of a bed that's adjacent to a wall or fence and in the middle of a bed that will be viewed from all sides. Plants that need frequent attention, such as pruning, grooming or spraying, should go where they can be reached without your crushing other plants.

3. 

   Sprinkle household flour to trace the outline of your prospective flower bed. If you don't like the way it looks, brush the flour away and start over.

4. 

   Use a trowel or small shovel and cut along the flour lines you've just made.

5. Have your soil tested, or test it yourself with a home kit, and amend as necessary. A local nursery can recommend the best amendments to use.

6. Control severe weed problems by mowing and then spraying the area with a nonselective herbicide, following directions carefully, especially regarding how long to wait until planting. Or, as a nonchemical alternative, mow the area and then dig it up or till it. Then let it set for at least two to three days to allow annual weeds seeds to germinate. Hoe or till it a second time.

7. Spread 3 to 4 inches of compost and any other soil amendments over the top of the area you intend for the bed, grass and all.

8. Till or dig up the soil to a depth of at least 8 to 10 inches, up to 24 inches if you're planting perennials.

9. Toss out any chunks of sod or tufts of grass that appear on the surface.

10. Rake smooth with a ground rake, and you are ready to plant.

11. 

    Install edging, if desired. Edging isn't a must but does help keep out grass and some other weeds while creating a neat appearance.

Tips & Warnings

• There's no need to limit your bed to a rectangular shape. Flower beds can be any size or shape you wish.

• Unless you've got a budget big enough to buy full-grown perennials, the plants you put in the ground now will look very different in a year or two. Leave room for them to grow. You can fill in bare spots with annuals.

• This method for creating a new flower bed works only if the soil is reasonably good. In areas with very sandy or very clay-laden soil, raised beds are your best bet. Or if you don't mind the work, dig out and dispose of the young roots push through soft, uncompacted soil much faster than through compacted soil.