Creating Beds and Borders
Expert Landscape Designers Tips for Garden Success
A gardening book that highlights garden planning, design, plant selection and special techniques shared by some of the top gardeners in America.
This gardening book is Creating Beds and Borders published by Taunton Press in cooperation with the Fine Gardening magazine for use of their original articles. A compilation of several articles and techniques first featured in the magazine, Creating Beds and Borders is sure to win a place on gardeners' book shelves.
Garden Design Success Tips
The first section of Creating Beds and Borders covers garden design strategies that will help gardeners plan their landscape beds and borders. See tips to keep beds and borders cohesive and unified throughout the garden, floating island bed designs and suggestions, or learn how to use foliage both fine cut and bold together for more garden interest.
Great Border Plants: Garden Shrubs, Perennials and Annuals
This section is helpful to gardeners because it discusses specific plants to use in a variety of bed or border situations. For example, one article talks about using edging plants to create clean lines around a bed. Another article is by Erica Glasener and discusses using flowering shrubs to create focal points and bright spots of interest in a mixed border situation. Creating Beds and Borders discusses how to use annuals to brighten up a perennial border since many gardeners are unsure how to combine the two. Learn how to use fine cut foliage and lacy flowers to add a delicate look to your garden design and some do's and don'ts of shrub placement. The last design tips article in this section is by Judith McKeon who shows us how roses can be added to the garden and combined with perennials – both old garden roses and more modern roses as well.
Special Gardening Techniques for Mixed Beds and Borders
The third part of Creating Beds and Borders shows gardeners some specialized techniques to use in garden design, preparation, remodeling and maintenance. Barbara Blossom Ashmun shows us an easy way to prepare the soil for a bed or border that doesn't require deep digging or tilling. Another garden designer teaches how to use curves in defining the outline of a garden bed to draw the eye and create movement in the landscape. Tracy DiSabato-Aust explains how to treat perennials to pruning and dead heading at certain times throughout the growing season to encourage multiple flushes of blooms on the same plant so there will always be something blooming in the landscape. The last two articles show us how to start a border from seeds or how to remodel an old, established garden bed and take divisions from existing plants while transplanting others to new areas.
A Gallary of Gorgeous Gardens
The last section of Creating Beds and Borders is a feast for the eyes as gardeners will get to peek through several designer gardens. See how to keep year-round interest with a four season garden or have a beautiful landscape design in wet, shady soil. Whether your garden is in a hot, humid southern climate, a dappled shade area or you want to build your borders as raised beds there are tips and visual examples for you of plants to use in a variety of situations.
