The borders of a garden are areas that should not be neglected! These serve multiple purposes – as natural boundaries between your property and the greater outdoors, as divisions within a single garden, and as corridors for wildlife. With the help of the right selection of plants, borders can be maintained as straight or curved, biologically diverse or uniform, and high (for privacy) or low. They should collectively reveal a cohesive design, one that suits your budget and easily adapts to the environmental conditions of your region.
Stick to a single palette of colors. A cohesive look is easily achieved by retaining the same hues throughout the garden’s borders. When selecting flowering plants, consider how their colors may change through the seasons.
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For a more natural border, cultivate shrubs and herbaceous plants with varied mature heights. Mixed plots are also great for experimenting with different types of growth forms.
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Add evergreen topiary elements with fun shapes and forms. A bunny-shaped shrub would undoubtedly give your border character and life! Hone your pruning skills by trying out all sorts of shapes!
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For seemingly weightless texture, add bright tufts of ornamental grasses to borders. These look especially attractive next to turfed or paved paths. Their upright or arching foliage instantly gives life to the garden’s edges.
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Add low, evergreen borders to contained plots of plants. A stately and well-planned finish goes a long way, especially in large, symmetrical gardens with sculptural centerpieces.
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Embrace symmetry when designing borders for wide paths. Mirrored borders are incredibly pleasing to the eye. They highlight the varied textures and morphologies of leaves and blooms. This design screams “well-managed estate”.
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Separate your home and garden with sets of steps and strategically placed pots and containers. For a modern and well-structured finish, there’s nothing quite like a nuanced combination of straight lines, multiple levels, and curves.
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Line the edges of a planted border with strips of well-manicured turf. A turfed edge pleasantly contrasts colorful and diverse borders.
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Consider cultivating a sloping border to gradually taper off the edges of the garden. Sloping inward, this type of border can provide the illusion of a larger area and is ideal for zones with good drainage. Note that, in areas with poor drainage, it may cause waterlogged conditions at the base of the slope.
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Use a combination of edging techniques for more complexity. For example, plots along the wall may be delineated with concrete or brick edges, whereas inner plots may be outlined with tufts of grassy groundcover.
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Small pots of flowering herbs and their variegated cultivars are especially charming around greenhouses and sheds. Lively border plants can be placed around all structures, and they need not always be large or planted directly into bottom substrates.
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For easy maintenance, restrict your border plants to large containers. When evenly spaced apart and planted with complementary species, these create an impeccably neat and classy finish.
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Line raised borders with planks of wood, halved portions of bamboo, or any other natural materials. Make sure these are packed tightly to prevent the borders from eroding during periods of heavy rainfall.
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If you’re into microgreens or edible plants, designate one side of the garden to a border of potted, specimen herbs! Educate guests by adding labels around your pots. These should invite them to closely inspect and admire your border.
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Invite pollinators to your borders by growing an array of wildflowers. For year-round color, maintain a selection with varied peak flowering times. Low-growing, trailing species can be placed right along the edges of borders so that their stems may delicately splay out over your pathways or lawn.
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Keep a minimalist look around small to medium gardens by growing boxwood hedges as borders. Neat, low-maintenance, and evergreen, pruned hedges can double as natural screens.
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Add depth to your borders by edging tall shrubs with rows of low-growing herbs. A multi-dimensional arrangement would make for an enchanting border, one which would have you walking to your garden’s edges each day.
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Install chairs or benches that seamlessly blend into your garden’s borders. Paint these in colors that match your border plants. Consider using symmetrical arrangements to flank outdoor furniture.
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Naturalize high walls with lianas, trailing plants, or cascading baskets of hanging plants. Provide additional support for fruiting vines, which may be weighed down by their seasonal inflorescences and nutritious produce.
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Invite guests to walk right along the borders of a divided garden by lining them with turf or paving. This creates a maze-like path – one which is easy on the feet.
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Use rows of tall, evergreen trees to create a forested border. When compactly planted, rows of spruce and fir trees can act as an almost impermeable barrier around the garden. Select taller and denser species for more privacy.
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A whimsical, topiary border to awaken a child’s imagination is fantastic for family gardens. Get your children, nieces, or nephews to help you design your yard’s edges! Before you know it, they’ll want to take up pruning too!
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Use just one or two species to create an edge pattern at the base of taller hedges. A minimal design is often ideal for the borders of large gardens and lengthy pathways, which can be costly and time-consuming to maintain.
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If you live in an arid area, convert your garden’s borders into xeriscapes. Cacti and succulents are low-maintenance, long-lived, and come in a wide variety of heights and forms. Collectively, these can create colorful and sculptural hedges.
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Add elegance to your garden’s walls by incorporating sculptures, fountains, arches, and thriving vines into your design. Borders like this need not be restricted to royal gardens and stately parks. If you’re feeling inspired, you can enhance your borders with regal flair too!
Final Thoughts
A garden’s borders can transform its entire theme. When they are well-designed, they can transport visitors into a haven for life. Borders may be found everywhere in a garden – along its perimeter, around an outdoor patio, along the foundations of a home, or along the shoreline of an ornamental pond. Use your creativity to turn them into functional arrangements of both living and non-living components. Aim to maintain a cohesive look, one that elevates the overall design of the garden and complements any nearby structures.
