Beautiful borders are what make your garden and give it interest throughout the year.  One of the questions most people ask is how to have year round interest.  If you don’t have a good knowledge of plants and their flowering seasons this can be difficult.  If you plant your border by choosing a beautiful collection of plants that you see when you visit your garden centre, you will have an interesting border for that time of the year.  The trick is to visit in spring, summer, autumn and winter and choose what’s looking good then.   Also, take a look at where the garden centre is displaying the plant, if it’s in full sun, then probably, that plant enjoys sunshine.  Autumn is the best time to plant up new borders because most plants are going into their dormant period and have a good rest over the winter.  This gives them a head start on the following year. If you plant in the summer just make sure to water the plants well by pouring the water at the base of the plant, it’s the roots that need the water, not the leaves. Flowers and shrub borders are what make your garden come to life.  If you get it right from the start it’ll grow and improve year by year.

Beds should have a smooth clean-cut border with your lawn or path.   Here is a guide on how to create your own borders in your garden:

  1. The first stage is to mark out where you want your new beds to be, if you want to create curves the easiest way is to use your garden hose to lay out the shapes for you. Adding curves to a garden can add a dash of creativity to an area, consider creating flowing curved beds to be filled with small bushes or trees to bring height and interest to a garden.
  2. If your desired bed area has already got a lawn there use a spade to remove the top layer. When the layer of turf has been removed dig a 15cm deep, 5cm wide trench along the outline of the hose that will form the edge of your bed. Clean out any stones or weed and roots ans you go.
  3. Place edging material in the trench to create the border. There are lots of options on what to use for edging material but our recommendation for a clean and long lasting edge is to use a metal edging. Steel lawn edgings are the easiest to install and don’t require any trench digging beforehand, simply pressing the prongs into the ground will stop lawn from invading your flower beds and borders.
  4. Fill any gaps in your border with soil to make sure the border is firmly in place.
  5. Add a layer of our topsoil to your newly created bed to get your plants off to a healthy start. Choose which plants you wish to grow and place them in their new positions to check for spacing and then the fun part begins! Soak the root balls of your plants before planting and add a small amount of plant fertilizer such as chicken manure to each hole and firm in each plant as you go.
  6. A great way to finish your new border and keep it low maintenance is to add a 5cm layer of mulch to your borders. This will help to control the growth of weeds and enrich your soil and conserve moisture during dry periods.
  7. Don’t forget to water your new plants, even in Ireland, newly planted trees, shrubs and flowers need watering.