DIY flower bed borders: the best ideas and photos

Gardeners love to decorate their plots with flower beds. To make them look really beautiful, you need to think not only about choosing flowers and caring for them, but also decor elements, borders that organically complement flower arrangements. The borders can be made by hand, which is inexpensive and will make your garden bright and original.

Content:

• Purpose and types of garden borders
• Stone and brick curbs
• Wood curbs
• Plastic curbs
• Tire and metal curbs

Purpose and types of garden borders

A flower bed definitely needs a frame. A flower bed fence performs not only a decorative function. Of course, a beautiful border will successfully complement the flower arrangement and give it a well-groomed look, but no less important is the demarcation and protective function.

Do-it-yourself borders for flower beds are not just made as an element of landscape design, they allow you to distinguish between different types of plants, prevent their mixing and germination in another territory. In addition, they serve as restrictions for weedsthat do not reproduce by seeds, but root system.

The border allows the gardener to recognize which types of flowers are planted and where, so as not to damage them when digging, if the plants are perennial and their bulbs are left in the ground for the winter. Curbs serve as a limitation not only for plants, but also for the soil.

The fence restrains the fertile soil of the flower bed and protects it from spilling onto the paths, which allows you to protect both the flower bed and paths from the formation of lumps of dirt.

Of course, curbs are weak protection from children and pets, however, explaining to children that it is impossible to cross the fence is easier, as well as teaching an animal to react to a bright curb.

There are a huge number of types of fences for flower beds and beds. Basic materials for borders:

• Live curbs. One of the most beautiful, but not the easiest types of flower bed fences. Low-growing plants are used as a fence, which, as they grow, form in the form of a border. This is not the easiest and fastest task, you will have to wait for the plants to gain sufficient height. In stores, you can find special seeds for growing these curbs. As a rule, they are short, unpretentious and resistant to adverse conditions.
• Stone curbs. Stone curbs look beautiful, they are durable, but they will cost a lot depending on the chosen material and the size of the flower bed.
• Wooden borders. Wood curbs can be in the form of pegs or a wicker fence made of various dry branches and twigs. It is recommended to change such curbs annually.
• Borders from scrap materials. You can make curbs from what has accumulated at home over the winter: old tires, plastic bottles, remnants of ceramic tiles, scrap metal.

Stone and brick curbs

It is not difficult to make a beautiful border of stone or brick, but if you want it to be durable at the same time, it is better to use a solution to fix the result. Several variants:

• Mosaic.A border with a small mosaic pattern looks very nice, but it will take a lot of time to make it. Mortar is needed to anchor the pieces of the mosaic. First, a trench is dug in the shape of a flower bed with a depth of 20 cm. Sand should be poured at the bottom of the groove and made of wooden blocks a form for pouring the curb. First, the cement mortar is poured, and only then, after partial drying, it is covered with mosaic pieces. The drawing can be anything, as far as the imagination of the owner of the flower bed allows. Fragments of ceramic tiles, various colored glass pieces, or even river pebbles, which can be pre-painted, can be used as mosaic pieces.
• A natural stone. A beautiful, durable, very durable, but rather expensive curb is obtained from natural stone. If it is possible to find a natural stone on your own, then you can simply lay out the fence around the perimeter, and then fill it with mortar. It can make a border without cement, but in this case it turns out to be unstable, it can easily be damaged by children or pets. For the manufacture of a border, granite or sandstone will come. It is best to use cement so that there are no gaps between the stones.
• Brick. The most common and inexpensive material for making garden borders. There are a lot of options for making brick fences: you can lay it out in a circle, put it at an angle, make double or triple masonry, alternate white and red bricks. In the manufacture of such a curb, you can use cement mortar. You can use the facing brick that was left after facing the facade of the house. In this case, the curb will be in harmony with the house. Before laying bricks, you need to dig a trench around the perimeter of the flower bed. If you plan to fix the curb with concrete, then the groove should be wider than the brick.

It is advisable that there are no gaps in your curb, since in this case the earth will spill out, and it will be easier for weeds to get into the flower bed. For a tighter, stronger fence, use cement mortar.

Wood curbs

Wooden borders for flower beds are not as durable as stone ones. They can deteriorate from moisture, so it is advisable to treat the tree with protective solutions. It is possible to make a very inexpensive fencing option and renew it annually. This is the best option for gardeners who love annuals and often change their place for a flower bed.

Wood will be inexpensive, especially if you have some scraps from boards and other materials from other buildings.

Ideas for wood borders:

• A very beautiful and inexpensive border can be made from long willow twigs. The bark from willow twigs can be removed, but then it is better to cover them with a special solution. First, small wooden pegs need to be driven in around the perimeter of the flower bed. The distance between them should be less than the length of the rods. Around these pegs, rods are braided like a wicker basket. To secure the fence, the ends of the rods must be carefully nailed to the pegs. Such a fence can hardly be called strong and durable, but it will be inexpensive, it looks original and gives a certain flavor to the entire garden.
• A simple but beautiful option is a stockade-style border. You just need to find a certain number of small pegs of approximately the same diameter, so that they are enough for the entire perimeter flower beds... You can choose logs of any diameter that you think is successful. Along the perimeter of the flower bed, the pegs are dug into the ground tightly to each other. If they are not wide, you can dig them in at different depths to create a wavy curb.
• The option of a wooden box is quite simple. This option is convenient if the flower bed is small and rectangular. Along the perimeter of the flower beds, the lengths of the board are dug in and fastened together with nails.Such a border looks quite simple, but you can decorate it, paint it, let a climbing plant around the perimeter (but be careful so that it does not begin to choke the flowers in the flower bed). It is better to use a special paint or lime that will protect the tree from damage, decay and rodents. Such a border can last a long time.

You need to carefully approach the choice of wood. It is best to choose pine, it is very strong and durable, but quite expensive. You can take cheaper varieties of wood, but do not forget to treat them with protective substances.

Plastic curbs

You can use commercially available plastic shingles or even regular plastic bottles to make the curb. There are many ready-made foldable multi-colored borders sold in stores. They are convenient because they are easy to install, they can be rolled up and put away for the winter, and put back next spring. Plastic is very durable.

For lovers of creativity, you can offer an even more economical and interesting option: to make a border yourself from the accumulated plastic bottles. There are two most common ways to make a flower bed fence from plastic bottles:

• The easiest and fastest option is to simply dig the bottles vertically upside down around the perimeter of the flower bed. If the bottles are multi-colored, of different diameters, it can turn out bright and beautiful. This is the most budgetary and at the same time not labor-intensive option. Thus, you can lay out a flower bed of any size and any shape. Do not forget only to remove the labels from the bottles, pour out the liquids from them and dry them well. You need to dig in the bottles so deep that the border is stable.
• You can also lay plastic bottles horizontally, but in this case you will need to fasten them with something. This is a good option for small round flower beds. First, the base is installed. A barrel rim, for example, can serve as such a base. Then bottles are laid out in a circle in rows on top of each other. It is best to cement them together with cement mortar. This will make the curb particularly durable. If the top layer of the bottles looks unaesthetic, then after pouring soil into the flower bed, the necks of the bottles can be decorated with moss or pebbles.

The plastic curb is very reliable in keeping plants from overgrowing. Perennials remain within the flower bed. With a horizontal version of the border, it is very convenient to preserve the appearance of the flower bed. If any element of the fence is damaged, it can be easily removed and replaced with another. This is more problematic with vertical placement and fixing of cements.

Plastic is considered unsustainable, but plants will not be harmed by such a fence. Rather, on the contrary, non-degradable plastic will last for a very long time, and this is an indisputable advantage.

Tire and metal curbs

Tire curbs look original and very bright. There are a lot of options for making such fences:

• The easiest and most affordable option is to simply put a large tire, pour earth into it and plant flowers. It will turn out to be a small but cute flower bed. The tire itself can be painted, painted, pasted over with anything and whatever.
• The curb can also be made from cut tires. To do this, they are cut into equal parts and unbend, these parts are laid out along the perimeter of the flower bed, and the edges are fastened with iron clips. To make it look beautiful, the braces can be decorated, and the entire border can be painted in bright colors.
• For lovers of creativity, you can advise to make a flower border. To do this, you need to find the largest possible tire, cut its upper part so that petals are obtained, that is, the lower part remains intact, and the upper part is cut in the form of pointed triangles. These triangles need to be bent, painted, and flowers should be planted in the center of such a tire.
• You can make tall flower beds by stacking several tires on top of each other.They can be fastened or left so, the soil inside the flower bed will not allow the composition to disintegrate. At the bottom of such a flower bed, you need to put drainage, and then pour soil and plant flowers in the top layer. Such a flowerbed looks very impressive, especially if you paint the tires in different colors.

Tire beds will last a long time. They are resistant to low temperatures and humidity, but the paint will have to be renewed regularly. Metal curbs can be constructed from copper or aluminum plates. This option will be convenient if the flowerbed looks like a rectangle. It will be difficult to give the metal any other shape.

Metal curbs are reliable, durable and can look very impressive, but they are not very easy to install.

The metal border is dug deep enough into the ground, therefore, it protects the flowerbed from overgrowth, as well as from various weeds and underground pests.

Do not forget that the metal is also exposed to air and moisture, it must be treated with anti-corrosion agents.

More information can be found in the video: