Transform your landscape with one of these garden designs

By Cliff Johnson, master gardener
Carver and Scott counties

Gardens have taken on a lot of different looks since the days I hoed weeds in between rows of vegetables in a plot of farm ground back in the 1950s. Three garden designs that have caught my attention lately are island beds, raised beds and lasagna gardens.

An island bed is an area of soil placed in a lawn or hardscape, designed in most cases to grow perennials, annuals or herbs.

A critical design consideration for island beds is to create a relationship between the island planting and other areas in the landscape, explains Julie Weisenhorn, University of Minnesota extension horticulturalist. “This can be accomplished through repetition — repeat by the shape of the bedlines. Repeat plant types, especially masses. Repeat color. Repeat materials like boulders, edging styles (brick, pavers, etc.).”

Weisenhorn says island-bed design can take on many different looks. One design may be just masses of perennials. Mix and match these masses by texture and size, and overlap the masses to create a continuous flow of plants. Locate the taller perennials in the middle and work your way down with the shortest plants along the outer perimeter.
Another design may include a specimen tree, shrub or statue in the center of the island for a more formal design, or at one end of the island for an asymetrical design. Be sure to choose a specimen sized appropriately to fit inside the island at its mature width. If it grows over the bedline, it will interfere with traffic and driving (if it is a driveway island planting) or it will shade and kill the turf and make mowing difficult, if it is in the middle of a turf area.

When preparing the soil for an island bed, Weisenhorn cautions against too much soil, since the soil level needs to accommodate 3 to 4 inches of mulch. “You also do not need landscape fabric if your mulch is thick enough,” she says.