How to install a perennial flower bed

Rocailles and mixed border:

For rock gardens, however, special topographic conditions are required with unevenness and rocks or low walls. Otherwise we use the technique of the “mixed border” English term that can be translated as “varied flowerbeds”.

How to design and create a mixed border?

• You must first choose a site with clean ground because the plants will remain in place for several years and weeding is tedious.
The choice of location is important (see below).
• This type of flower bed must be regularly maintained, its width must be limited to approximately two metres.

Planting plan (on paper):

Divide the surface into regular areas of 50 to 70 cm on each side.
• Distribute flowering periods quite regularly over the surface, spring, summer, autumn among the spots.
• The color of each spot is not very important if you choose plants that are not very “worked”, that is to say with tones close to the natural tones of the species in question. Avoid varieties with too bright and garish colors.
• The choice of varieties to plant is somewhat haphazard, taking care to put the tallest plants at the back in relation to the point of view and the lowest at the front.
• It is of course necessary to choose plants that are well adapted to the particular conditions of each flower bed, soil, pH, exposure, water regime, etc.
• Finally, there must be a number of plants adapted to each task. 5 to 8 per patch for slow growing creepers 1 to 3 for more vigorous or fast growing species.
• Bulbous plants can be integrated into the project.

Choice of location:

It is very important. A flowerbed, like a rockery, should not be positioned just anywhere. They must bring a more decorative without seeming totally artificial, thus:
– A rockery will be placed on an already sloping site. Making a mound in the middle of a lawn has no interest and seems totally artificial.
– Similarly, there are two types of location for positioning a flower bed:
To highlight a path, whether straight or curved, or the edge of a terrace. In this case it will be necessary to limit oneself to a choice of plants low enough not to obscure the green surface at the back, which would have the effect of giving a feeling of reduction of the space.
– In the background of the landscape, to give a feeling of enlargement of the plot. For example, when there is a flat lawn surface limited at the bottom by a wall or a hedge, installing a volume of mid-height in front of the obstacle influences the visual aspect and gives the feeling that the space is more big.
In this case of a flower bed resting against a visual obstacle, care must be taken to leave a space of 0.5 to 1 m between the flower bed and the obstacle in order to prevent the tall plants from leaning over and ending up lie down to seek the light. This space is also very useful for accessing the maintenance of the flower bed and the obstacle (hedge, palisade, etc.).

Date of planting and maintenance:

The best planting dates are in the fall for soils that are not too wet or at the end of winter.

Maintenance is reduced to a few weeding operations and the cutting back of faded flowers, leaving 10 cm of stem in order to clearly identify plants whose foliage disappears in winter.

Choice and purchase of plants:

Too often the neophyte is seduced by flowering plants. This is the worst time to transplant them because this is when they work the hardest and need to be already in place. In addition, the flowering of a perennial lasts only 1 to 2 weeks on average. If you buy it in bloom, you also lose the main thing: the first bloom.

Ask all your questions during the gardening program on Sunday morning on France bleu Isère from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. by calling 04 76 46 45 45