With the help of a border, any garden or backyard plot can be turned into a harmonious landscape, or, conversely, make it look chaotic and diverse. It all depends on the correctly selected and skillfully planted border plants. The boundary between the path and flowering plantings can work as a tool to complete the entire look. Such a decorative element as a border is one of the important or even the main elements of the style selected on the site. It is known that its use as a decoration was practiced as early as the seventeenth century. Garden plots at monasteries with numerous ridges and flower beds could not do without multifunctional plant borders.
Landscape designers recommend creating borders not only with the help of various artificial materials, but also advise using flowering plants to revive the invisible frame, which will act as a natural natural edging. Such a border will be both a division of the territory and part of a flower garden.
Various types and varieties of flowering herbaceous and semi-shrub crops are used as border plants. For example, such a cute annual as chervil was one of the first plants to be used in this capacity. Later, however, it became clear that planting annual crops every year is troublesome, and perennial plants came in their place.
Today the number of curb plants is huge and diverse. Among them there are many flowering crops that differ in color and aroma, in the splendor and duration of flowering, in size and shape. It can be annual and perennial specimens, ground cover and shrub, bright and modest in shades. It is important that the curb plantations remain approximately the same size and do not grow over large areas, changing the "living frame".
You can create an evergreen border. Then the decorativeness of the flower garden or garden will be preserved throughout the year. In winter, such natural compositions will attract attention and cheer up. And the care of these plants will be minimal. Perennial borders are also practical in their own way. They will remain on the site for many years, and sometimes decades. But their beauty can be enjoyed exclusively in the warm season. A striking and common representative of such borders is a slow-growing tree or boxwood shrub and perennial carnation. Bright annuals are also planted as curbs, but they are very short-lived. Such beauty will last only until the onset of the first cold weather.
Border styles
Everyone can choose the style of the borders, taking into account their likes and preferences. There are conditional base styles.
Strict or regular
In this style, strict straight lines, geometric patterns or shapes are visible. Plants on such curbs are usually subject to regular formative pruning to maintain a strict look. Boxwood, fragrant rue, as well as numerous types of grasses of medium height are most suitable for this style.
Natural or landscape
Borders in this style look natural and natural. The "frames" created from plants are hardly visible in the general landscape, everything merges into a single harmonious image. For planting, annuals and perennials, cushion and ground cover species, herbaceous crops resistant to trampling are used.
Country
Country-style borders are created from vegetable and berry plantings, from medicinal crops and healthy herbs. In such original compositions - dill and parsley, green onions and cilantro, strawberries, mint, oregano, calendula are involved in the beds.
Plants for borders in a sunny area
If the location of the curbs is in an open, sunny, well-lit area in regions with a mild climate, then it is recommended to plant fragrant rue, lavender and santolina. In areas with a harsh climate, you can plant frost-resistant plants. And in places with a temperate climate, rezuha, aster, yaskolka and shaved are popular.
Dubravnik is a frost-resistant crop that retains green leaves even in the coldest winter.
The cuff is an unpretentious and undemanding perennial, reaching a height of 30-40 cm. It grows well in partial shade conditions.
Catnip is a low flowering plant with beautiful small leaves of a bright green hue.
Aubrieta is used for a narrow, squat border as a bright pink, lilac, blue or purple spot against the background of green foliage of other crops.
Oregano is perfect for creating a very lush and incredibly fragrant border.
Armeria seaside attracts attention with its bright pink flowering against the background of a dense rosette of green leaves.
Byzantine chisel and red-leaved geychera differ from other plants by their unusual shape and color leaves.
Plants for curbs in the shade and penumbra
A lush "border" in a shady or semi-shaded area can be from evergreen or ground cover plant species that do not require bright sunlight to maintain their decorative qualities.
Boxwood is a classic curb plant that will fit into any style (but only with the obligatory regular haircut).
Saxifrage is an evergreen groundcover with a charming early June bloom.
The bell is an unpretentious, touching and delicate culture that requires low pruning, as it very quickly builds up volume and blurs the outlines of the “living frame”.
Annual border plants
Annual plants are an excellent tool for creating a vivid, picturesque and unique composition of flowering plants. Although every year you will have to deal with new plantings, but each time the garden will acquire new colors, shades, aromas. The options for combinations of species and varieties of flowering crops are endless and depend only on the creative imagination of the gardener.
The disadvantage of annual plants is their late onset of flowering. In early spring, they are just beginning to form, and lush bloom begins in the summer. This "problem" can be solved with the help of other spring flowers, which give their beauty only from March to May. For example, tulips or daffodils are first planted in the place chosen for the summer. When their flowering comes to an end, you can grow annuals. A favorable time for planting them is the period of dying off of leaves on bulbous crops.
Each summer season, you can plant various varieties of marigolds, balsams, verbena, calendula, snapdragon and various types of daisies as curbs.Such a bright flower garden-border can be admired and enjoyed endlessly.
Combination of plants in double and triple border
Several types of plants and additional artificial decorative materials can all be seen in a double or triple border. Perennial plants are recommended to be combined with bulbous crops (for example, Iberis and Tulip). Vegetable outlines can be enhanced or slightly emphasized with natural stone, pieces of wood, ceramic tiles or metal. A lush vegetation strip looks great against the background of large stones or twisted elements. Pieces of wood or tiles not only add variety to a natural flowering or deciduous composition, but can also be an excellent decorative support for plants (for example, for carnations and nasturtium). Decorative additional details on the border can give the image intricacy, understatement and awaken creative imagination.
Before planting and building curbs, you need to start by choosing a style. Only after that it is recommended to proceed to the selection of plants. When choosing, it is very important to take into account their conditions of maintenance, rules of care, growth and development rates, resistance to diseases and pests, as well as a palette of colors and shades during flowering. All cultures should be in harmony with each other, not interfere with each other, but, on the contrary, be a complete complement. It is also worth paying attention to the duration and timing of flowering of border plants. Bright colors should not overshadow or overshadow the fully saturated greens of the leafy crop.
Regular pruning of plants is recommended to form a lush green “frame”. This is especially true for winter green plantations. Once the flowering period is over, the plant is cut to the very bottom. Such drastic measures will contribute to the emergence of a large number of new young shoots and subsequently a greater density of branches and splendor. Only the tips of the branches will be subject to repeated light pruning.
