Flower Border garden tips.?

What are the some of the main rules or guidelines for creating a good attractive border garden? Including elements like spacing, bunching, colors, heights, species etc. I have a space that is 10 feet wide and 12 feet long between the fence and the street. Thanks in advance.
Flower Border garden tips.?
All good advice so far, so I won't repeat. But will add my 2 cents about planting. When planting perennials, it's best to do them in groups of at least 3.



It's nice to have perennials as a backbone of your garden, and to supplement with annuals, until they get established.



I always underplant my perennials with spring flowering bulbs, so as to extend the season of bloom in my garden.



As the perennials begin to come back to life in the spring, their foliage will camouflage the yellowing foliage of the spent bulbs.



When planting annuals, I generally dig a good sized hole, and put 3 plants in together. It's showier that way.



Then I neaten everything up with a nice dark mulch---something like Cyprus is nice. Cocoa Shells are terrific too, if you can find them %26lt;and if your area is not too windy%26gt;



A mulched garden is good for many reasons.

1) aesthetics. Especially in a new garden, there will be a lot of empty space and the mulch allows you to get away with fewer plants.

2) mulch helps the soil retain moisture, so you don't have to irrigate as frequently.

3) mulch inhibits weed seeds from germinating and sprouting.



***Don't forget Miracle Grow!!!
Reply:No "written in stone" rules. It's about aesthetics, what pleases your eye. Choose what you think looks nice together as far as texture and color. Gerbera daisies make a nice low border plant as do sweet alyssum, pansies, verbena, ajuga, lots of things. Mid height plants include zinnia, geranium, coleus, and many more. Tall impact from cosmos, larkspur, corepsis, hibiscus, amaranth...



You didn't mention if you wanted a perennial or annual planting, nor sun the spot receves. I'll bet it will be beautiful. want some cuttings or seeds?
Reply:First get your soil conditioned and churned, Prepare and hard scape before planting, along with any waterspringlers if installed. If you don't use that a soaker hose is good. The back should be where your hedges or any climers should be planted. (your tallest plants). I then add something like boxwood hedge in front of that. Green all yr and you can conform a shape. The for flower I use a 3 seasonal bulb garden. This way I have color most the year. I also use crawling Ivy's for ground cover, Very durable. And then I also mulch around the larger hedges. Check with your local plant store or magazines for shapes you like and the plant store will give you the variety of plants for your planting zone. Good luck. Gardens can be very rewarding not to mention it increases the value to you home up to 15%