Planning a perennial bed is about more than just selecting the perennials. Bed borders, decorative elements and accompanying plants need to be planned and of course the flower color must be taken into account. Below you will find out how to plan your perennial bed correctly.
How do you plan a perennial bed correctly?
When planning a perennial bed, you should consider site conditions, bed borders, color design, plant arrangement, companion plants, decorative elements and covering the soil in order to create a harmonious and easy-care bed.
You should ask yourself these questions when planning your perennial bed
Before you start creating your perennial bed, you should measure, record and plan it carefully. To do this, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- What are the site conditions on the bed? Is it in the sun or in the shade? What about the soil quality?
- What should the bed border look like?
- Do you want a colorful flower bed or do you want one or two colors to dominate?
- How should the plants be distributed on the bed? This is especially important if they are different sizes.
- Do you want to beautify your perennial bed with other plants such as trees or grasses?
- Should decorative elements decorate the bed? If yes, which ones?
- Do you want to cover the soil in your perennial bed?
1. Site conditions
The local site conditions indicate which plants can be planted and which cannot. Three factors are important:
- Sunlight: sunny, partially shaded or shady
- Nutrients in the soil: nutrient-poor or nutrient-rich
- Humidity: moist, normal or dry
While there is usually not much that can be changed when it comes to sunlight, you can enrich nutrient-poor soil with compost and water dry soil frequently, but moist soil, for example near a lake, is difficult to dry.
With these criteria in mind, you can make your plant selection.
2. Bed border
A bed should be separated from the rest of the garden - for visual reasons and so that the plants do not spread beyond the bed. Field stones, bricks or even wooden elements can be used for bordering the bed.
3. Colors in the bed
Perennial beds can be colorful or you can let one or two colors dominate. In a noble rose garden, for example, a perennial bed in pink or white tones looks very pretty. You can find an overview of different perennials and their flower colors in our instructions for creating a perennial bed.
4. Planning the arrangement of the perennials
Large perennials or larger companion plants such as shrubs should be planted in the middle of the bed or at the back edge if the back part of the bed is bordered by a wall or fence. Medium-sized plants are placed in front of it and smaller perennials or ground cover plants are planted in the front area. When planning, be sure to consider the final size of your perennials.
5. Companion plants for perennials
Perennials are perennial, but usually not wintergreen. Most perennials retreat into the ground in winter and the foliage dies off. If you want to have something green on your bed in winter, you can plant wintergreen trees such as boxwood or evergreen barberry or wintergreen grasses such as miscanthus or evergreen sedges on the perennial bed.
6. Decorative elements
Colorful windmills, funny clay figures or even stone structures, roots or zinc figures are often placed in the colorful perennial bed. Water elements such as small fountains or even a watercourse are particularly beautiful, although unfortunately a bit expensive.
7. Cover the Earth
It is advisable to cover the soil at the end to prevent weeds and reduce moisture loss. Mulch or gravel are popular materials for this.