Flower gardens of free combinations, known to most gardeners as mixborders, are some of the most popular elements of landscape design. They became widespread due to the fact that even a novice gardener can create a mixborder of perennials, and it will be possible to enjoy the flowering of your favorite plants in the next few years. The mixborder device from perennials includes several main stages, by completing which you can get a picturesque corner of natural harmony, which perfectly fits any landscape style.
Mixed border layout
They equip a mixborder from perennials both on the external and internal borders of the site, and along the edges of lawns or along garden paths. Outwardly, such a plant composition resembles a winding wide discount, which at first glance consists of randomly planted green spaces and flowers.
Thanks to the competent combination, taking into account the color combination of plants, their shape and height, the created composition is only admirable
Thinking over the arrangement of the mixborder with your own hands, you need to be based on a number of factors, the main ones are:
- The semantic load of the composition. A mixed border can act as a decoration of the porch and the main entrance to the site, give a special charm to ponds and stairs, emphasize the fractures of the numerous paths of the site.
- The height of the plants used. The principle of multi-tiered or "ladder" will allow each of the elements of the composition to fully express their beauty without drowning each other. Among the variety of plants and flowers for a mixborder, in addition to perennials, onion and groundcover, beautiful flowering annuals and biennials, as well as cereal grasses and ornamental varieties of coniferous and deciduous plants, can be included in the composition.
- Mixborder viewing angle:
The most common design option for a flower garden is a one-sided mixborder, which ends with tall plants and is most often used in the design of walls and fences
A variant of arrangement of a bilateral mixed border is possible, the borders of which are made up of medium- or undersized shrubs and flowers
Thanks to this arrangement of plants, it is convenient to admire the flower garden from any corner of the site.
What should be considered when choosing colors?
Wanting to create a flower garden that will attract eyes with magnificent bloom from the first days of spring to late autumn, it is important to choose plants so that during the flowering process they gradually replace each other. Placed by free groups of culture, blooming at the same time, they will form color spots that smoothly interspersed with foliage of plants that have already faded, or which only have to please others with their flowering.
When selecting plants, it is necessary to take into account not only flowering periods, but also the type of soil, moisture and light. Thanks to the competent selection of crops, the continuous flowering mixborder will have an elegant appearance not only during the flowering season, but even in the winter months, when perennial grasses and evergreen conifers will appear as bright touches on a snow-white background.
Garden flowerpots with seasonal plants will help to provide an attractive continuously flowering appearance to the flower garden, which will serve as a bright accent in the composition during flowering
The main stages of the arrangement of mixborders
Step One: Planting Skeletal Plants
Shrubs - the so-called "skeletal" plants, which set the height of the border and act as its fillers, form the basis of any flower garden of free combination. They are planted at a small but not equidistant distance from each other so that there is free space between the individual groups. This greatly enlivens the flower garden and allows you to give the composition a more natural look.
Advice! When choosing plants for a mixborder, it is necessary to focus on the volume of an adult plant and its estimated height.
The ideal base for the mixborder can be evergreen shrubs, a clear favorite among which is boxwood
As “skeletal” plants, dwarf varieties of conifers are well suited: Lavson cypress, conic spruce, Bergman pine, coliform yew, scaly juniper, weeping larch.
Among the most flowering shrubs that do not grow and do not lose their attractive appearance over the next few years, one can distinguish various varieties of spirea, Meyer lilac, shrubby cinquefoil and some varieties of mock
Red plum, magnolia, jasmine, elderberry, hibiscus, hydrangea and white derain can be an equally effective addition to compositions that enrich the picture of the flower garden. However, when planting, it should be borne in mind that these tree crops tend to grow over time, and therefore they can not be planted too close to each other. To prolong the flowering of bushes will help timely pruning and rejuvenation of plants.
Step two: fill the flower garden with perennials
One of the principles of arranging mixborders is tiered. Therefore, in the foreground, covering the elongated stems of shrubs, medium-sized perennial plants are placed.
When arranging small flower gardens, it is better to give preference to long-flowering beauties, for example: lavater, polyphylla, coreopsis, echinacea
Deciduous composition will also help decorative foliage. Silvery leaves of cineraria and wormwood look unusually gently against the background of motley flowers. A contrasting background to vibrant colors will be the majestic decorative geranium foliage or burgundy leaves of tunbergia and heichera.
Perennial cereals are good because they add bright spots of saturated pure color to the composition, the palette of which can be extensive, starting with pale yellow and bronze and ending with burgundy and violet shades
Among medium-sized perennial cereals, the most decorative are: feather grass, barley, sedge, meadow, hare, and burn.
Step three: complement the picture with pilots and onions
Colorful flyers planted in the empty "pockets" of perennial plants will decorate the composition with colorful flowering and give it more elegance and festivity. With the first spring rays, primroses will wake up: blueberries, muscari, snowdrops and crocuses.
In place of the spring-flowering tulips, daffodils and primroses, the summers will sparkle with a riot of colors and subsequently pass the bloom to the autumn-flowering plants. To enhance the decorative effect, annuals also need to be planted in small groups. When selecting plants for a flower garden, one should avoid planting aggressive species that are prone to a rapid build-up of green mass and crowding out neighboring plants.
Planted in small groups, the bulbous ones will create colorful strokes on the still half-naked flower garden
Examples of mixborder arrangements
There are a lot of options for ready-made schemes for arranging mixborders. It can be exquisite plain or spectacular multi-colored plant compositions.
Such a complex multi-colored mixborder is based on a harmonious combination and smooth transitions of shades and colors. A contrasting composition will look best on a large outdoor garden area.
A colorful yellow-purple mixborder will hide behind itself the unattractive walls of buildings and a blank fence. In the background of the composition is a stunted viburnum (1), oriental poppy (2), Bonar verbena (3) and meadowsweet yarrow (4). The middle tier is occupied by shrub rose (5), Ajax larkspur (6) and foxtail-shaped cirrus (7). Pentstemon (8) and aster (9) adorn the foreground. The variegated pillow at the foot of the mixborder is made up of fragrant tobacco (10), calendula (11), sage (12) and black mane (13)
The background of the mixborder arranged along the path leading to the house is decorated using mock-up (1), panicled phlox (2) and peony (3). Lilies (4), ageratum (5), lobularia (6) and cloves (7) act as decoration of the foreground.
With the correct layout and proper arrangement of the flower garden, even the usual plant composition can be turned into a real decoration of the garden.
