Should All Landscape Flower Bed Borders Be the Same Kind?

Up Against the Wall

• Flower beds that border a fence, garage or garden shed should integrate the structure as one of the borders in their design. Send a honeysuckle vine climbing the fence; place a rose trellis on a sunny garage wall; grow giant sunflowers along the side of a garden shed. The wall or fence becomes a soft border, edging the flower bed but expanding it into another dimension. It provides more interest but isn't a distraction. The rest of the flower bed may be contained by a visible border or kept in check with buried root barriers that won't interfere with a lawnmower.

Rock Gardens

• A rock garden is naturally constrained. The rocks and boulders, the raked gravel or heaped small stones are all mini-borders surrounding the plants. But the stones also free the rock garden from stiff formality. Use taller boulders towards the back of the garden to define it and set a dramatic boulder or shaped stone in the center or off-center as a focal point. The edges of the bed may incorporate larger stones and low stone planters, ground cover that overruns the formal borders of the bed, a low-stacked stone wall, half-buried railroad ties or symmetrical-cut stones between the rock garden and the surrounding lawn.

Patios, Terraces and Decks

• Use the same curved concrete pavers, plastic root barriers or end-to-end bricks to edge flower beds throughout the property for a uniform look but add a note of unpredictability with placement. A flower bed that grows up against the patio or terrace has a natural stopping point on one side. The garden seems to flow from the flat, paved area without the need of a formal border treatment, although buried plastic edging will keep it in check. Planters along the perimeter of a raised deck provide the same effect. Containers of the same wood as the decking blend flowers, foliage and deck seamlessly into the larger, adjacent flower bed.

All or Nothing

• Opt for a formal yard to surround your formal home. All flower bed borders should be identical, edged in the same brick or stone, drop-down gravel borders, curved and painted molded concrete, low bamboo or wood fencing, or buried plastic liners. Highlight the symmetry with beds of identical annuals or borders of trimmed hedges. Or soften the visual impact by planting wildflowers and random groupings of vegetables, annuals and perennials within the identical beds. The opposite approach abandons the concept of borders completely and substitutes a wildflower meadow or constructed marsh for a formal flower bed. Any borders around those choices are invisible root or water barriers or the natural stopping points of rocks, building foundations or trees.