Island beds
By: Garden Gate staff
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Shape decisions
Kidney-shaped beds are often most effective because you can lay them out so the long side faces your vantage point. In the front yard, there are two common vantage points: The street and the house.
Have a little fun with your planting and go with bolder designs for the street side, using more detailed ones on the house side, where you’re more likely to view the bed up close.
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Plant it up
Since island beds are self-contained gardens, it’s easy to amend the soil in that area. This means you can try out some unusual plants, that might struggle in other areas of the garden.
Want to create texture accents? Pair fine-leafed plants with bold foliage — these help the bed appear larger, too.
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Over the edge
Edging is especially noticeable on an island bed because you can see it from all sides. And it’s functional, too, keeping soil and plants in the bed and making it easy to mow or trim up to the edge. There’s no extra trimming when you can run the mower tire on this flat stone edging.
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