Every great landscape design is composed of feature areas and well planned borders. While the feature areas are what comprise your overall impression of the garden– after all, these are spaces designated for lounging, eating or enjoying the backyard in general, its the borders that do the work of integrating the home with the landscaping and helping to define the backyard zones. That’s right, modern hedges and border plants might just be the unsung hero’s of your garden’s designs. Here are a few things ways to think about your borders and how you might want to design them.
Define Your Hedges with Color
Use your hedge to soften the area between your exterior walls and the open landscape. Planting against the home provides a visual transition that helps to make the home feel more integrated.
While your hedges will form a natural contrast to it’s surrounding areas, think about your color choice. Do you want it to pop against your house color or blend in? A contrasting color can provide really define your home’s shape and size. And how that color interacts with other plants in the area will help turn your hedge into a visual feature.
Related Reading: 11 Flowering Plants for your Mid Century Garden
Hedges & Borders can be a Feature Themselves
Like the above feature comprised of white boulders and flowering shrubs, great borders aren’t always shrinking violets. Sometimes they can be standout features. A sculptural boarder with dynamic colors, textures or heights is a great way to draw the eye around the garden and create areas of interest.
Think About Texture
Boxwood, native grasses and creeping ivy or ice plant are all common hedge and border plants. But anything can become a visually defining hedge if you plan for it. Like the variegated hostas above, large-leaf plants or plants with interesting patterning can make excellent eye-catching hedges and borders.
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