The typical garden bed is rectangular, or at most square, and has clean borders. If that's too boring for you, try out completely different shapes: curved stripes, triangular beds or semicircular planting areas - the effect will be different immediately!
What flower bed shapes are there?
There are different shapes of flower beds, such as round island beds, curved strips, triangular, half-round, quarter, L-shaped and U-shaped or O-shaped beds. The bed design should match the style of the garden and the house.
Round beds
Round beds, so-called island beds, are perfect for marking the center of a larger area. Therefore, round flower beds fit wonderfully in the middle of a lawn or as the median of an ornamental garden to which all paths lead. Round beds can be viewed from all sides and therefore invite you to skilfully showcase special perennials. Place tall plants in the middle of the bed, while the perennials become lower towards the edge. In this way, the eye always has an unobstructed view of the plants. By the way, if the bed is created in the middle of a lawn, you should definitely use curbstones (€29.00 on Amazon) - otherwise the grass will soon grow into the bed.
Curved shapes
Gently curved, narrow or even wider bed strips attract everyone's attention. Such beds look particularly impressive when they are laid out on a larger lawn area and run through it in a snail or wave shape, for example. Strip beds should only be planted with a few species, otherwise they will quickly appear overloaded. Three to five different, coordinated and alternately planted perennial species have the best effect.
Other shapes
In other garden areas, however, it makes sense to create the following bed shapes:
- semi-circular or triangular beds: in front of boundaries such as walls, fences, hedges or the house wall
- quartered beds: fit wonderfully into right-angled garden corners
- L- or U-shaped beds: perfect for edging a terrace or seating area
- O-shaped beds: as a narrow, round strip that breaks through a lawn
Semi-circular or triangular beds do not need to be created individually; instead, for example, you can simply create several triangular or triangular ones along a fence instead of the usual rectangular bed strip. Create semicircular beds next to each other. The free spaces can be covered with stones or grass, and a dead straight path leads past them.
Tip
The shape of the flower beds and their design should match the style of the rest of the garden and of course the house. A strictly linear Japanese garden, for example, does not fit in with a country house in the English cottage style - or with a farmhouse from the 19th century.