Mixed What?

I have come to love mixed garden borders. Borders in general are long narrow plant compositions meant to be viewed from one side. The most commonly discussed and most difficult to design is the classic formal herbaceous perennial border like Cleveland Botanical Garden’s C.K. Patrick Perennial Border.

The mixed garden border is the slightly easier and more interesting design as far as color, form and texture are concerned. The mixed border at the front of Hershey Children’s Garden is a good example. Mixed borders are simply border designs planted with a mix of woody and herbaceous perennials and annuals.

I love the mixed border because of the greater variety of color, texture and form options. I also think they tend to be easier to plant and coordinate the timing of flowering, etc. Herbaceous borders tend to require more plant material, thus increasing their complexity. One other feature of the mixed border I like is the extended seasonality of the design. Herbaceous borders tend to have a shorter window of display. Woody plants add seasonal interest from winter to winter and annuals push color throughout the main growing season.

Other gardeners can have their herbaceous borders. Me, I am going to keep it mixed up.

Posted by Josh Steffen