12 Flower Bed Ideas for Your Summer Garden
Check out these creative ideas for flower beds.
Summer is here, and it's time to start pruning up that outdoor space after a long winter. If you're feeling a little stumped in the design department, read on to discover 12 flower bed ideas and how to help them thrive in your yard.
Playing with size and height can add the much needed "bones" to your flower bed. By integrating tall plants like sunflowers among your rose bushes, you'll create a dynamic scene and add visual structure to the space. It is important to remember, these tall plants may need some additional support due to their size.
Whether you opted for raised flower beds or digging plants into the ground, having a defining feature that marks a pathway is helpful in a visual and practical sense for your outdoor space. To help create that distinction, consider defining that path from flowers and grass with pavers or flag stone. This emphasizes a specific pathway and keeps people from trekking through your flowers.
Mixing vegetables and herbs with flowers can greatly increase your garden's flower production. This nectar then attracts more beneficial insects that protect edible plants and pollinators that increases flower production. You can also explore a gardening technique called companion planting which practices planting different species together to discourage root entanglement. This variety of different plants result in attracting butterflies, hummingbirds, and other desirable species.
Planting a variety of blossoms ensures a colorful and lush garden all year long. Annual flowers like pansies, marigolds, or snapdragons are a great way to add vibrant pops of color with almost no yearly maintenance. Along with your annual florals, also consider mixing staple greenery like ever-green boxwoods or a tea olive that offer a sweet scent with the return of their blossoms.
Try designing your space around an outdoor feature. Bird baths, fountains, sundials, memorial signs, or even a collection of garden gnomes are great ways to add personality to your space and give a point to draw the eye in toward your garden.
Help make your outdoor space even more enjoyable this summer by offering some shade. Introducing an arbor or trellis for greenery to thrive is an easy way to incorporate even more greenery to your garden, while also providing a much needed reprieve from the sun. You can even make it an entertaining space by adding seating with an outdoor bench. Look up the best evergreen climbers for your native area to have a shady haven year round.
Have all of your garden supplies within arms reach with a potting station. These posts can either be stationary or on wheels to move around the yard with you. Great for having a surface to repot your plants, hold your trowels, or store extra pots, they're perfect to keep by your garden, and can easily be stowed away.
A step up from the potting station, install your own greenhouse in the backyard. Greenhouse structures come with the cover, rods, and anchors included for an easy installation. Expand your garden to include a large variety of plants like succulents. You can even learn how to propagate and grow your own plants with the help of fans, heaters, and lamps.
Enjoy your garden day or night with the simple addition of outdoor lighting. Solar lights that go straight into the ground can help illuminate the pathways around your garden. Or, hang string lights through trees for a subtle overhead glow
Composting is great for fertile soil that can foster beautiful blossoms or fruits and vegetables. Also good for the environment, a composter retains water, reduces runoff, and keeps food waste out of landfills. Keeping a composter outside is more appealing than keeping it in your kitchen and using a garden cart or compost-friendly trash bags, as it makes for easy disposal.
Help make that green thumb extra green by implementing a rain water catch system in your garden. Rain barrels have an open top (usually with plants on top) to allow the water to run in from the downspout or the tubing from the gutter diverter. When it rains, the rain barrel will fill with the water. This water sits until it's ready to be used and redistributed through the garden. You can also keep your watering cans outside when it rains to have water ready to go without standing under the spigot.
In addition to large focal points like birdbaths mentioned above, you can also dot in smaller lawn ornaments throughout your flower bed. Colorful garden globes that reflect sunlight, mixed with holiday-adjacent garden gnomes are a couple fun ideas to add extra character to your flower bed.
The beauty of a flower garden, is it provides the space to bring your creative vision to life. You can use the garden to plant only your favorite flower, or one of each. There are endless flower bed ideas. Check out our other garden supplies to make your summer outdoor space come to life.
