JOIN USGive a twist to your home garden by bringing in some carpet beds. These patterned beauties will uplift and energise any green space, maintains A Dyuti.
Have you always admired flowers? Perhaps, flowers have dominated your garden all this while. Looking for that novel touch to boost your garden’s aesthetics? If your garden can boast of some substantial space, then you can try creating carpet beds. Mystified? Read on to unlock the answers to all the questions milling around in your head.
First, what’s a carpet bed? You must have noticed rows of uniformly-coloured plants in beautiful patterns in parks, resorts, estates and corporate gardens. That’s what we’re calling carpet beds.
Masses of colourful flowering plants run along in symmetric designs or concentric circles to mesmerise you into believing at first sight that it’s some gigantic rangoli. Incidentally, concentric circles are the most commonly-chosen pattern for conjuring up a carpet-bed.
Now, what kinds of plants should you go for? Whether they’re foliage or flowering plants, make sure they’re colourful. Make sure you get plants that grow fast so that you can prune them into a pattern of your choice.
The effect of planting should be to create a solid colour effect. You can also employ flowering plants to contrast or highlight the ornamental foliage plants you’ve chosen as your basic species. Most important, the plants you’ve singled out for filling the pattern must be healthy and strong, capable of growing well. Coleus, Canna and Phlox are some of the plants most commonly featured in carpet beds.
Patterns on soil
Next, let’s consider the pattern. Whether it’s simple circles, solid single or multi-coloured stars or more complicated geometric patterns you’ve opted for, first draw the design on paper and colour it with the hues of the plants you plan to grow within the various components of that design.
Do you like the effect? If not, keep experimenting with contrasting or co-ordinating colours over and over again until you arrive at the desired effect. Clocks, logos, signs, symbols, messages, words and the family name are some of the other popular ideas for carpet-bed designs. Your final choice of pattern is also determined by the amount of space available and the spot you’ve picked for the purpose.
Once you’ve decided upon the plant species,the design and the location, should you begin planting right away?
Of course not. This idea could prove to be a disaster.
To avoid such a mess, first stake out a square you’ll be working within and then draw the pattern on the soil. Rangoli powder could be used for this task. Only after this, can you start planting. Take care to leave enough space in between the seeds or saplings sown to accommodate every species’ growing style.
Coloured stones or mulches can be artistically placed in the background. A lush green lawn around your carpet bed can ably accentuate the beauty of the pattern.
Maintaining the beauties
Pruning on a weekly basis is a must to avoid colour encroachments. Snip out branches or blossoms defecting towards neighbouring components. The plants’ growth shouldn’t transgress the low height and outline you’ve chalked out for them.
The design will retain its shape and neat appearance only when you take out the dead or dying leaves and branches periodically. Weeding and proper watering are other essentials.
Remember, simple designs are best for beginners. Once you’ve mastered the art and technique of creating a well-demarcated pattern of plants, you can dabble with more complex designs. Also, be prepared for lots of manual work, for it’s a labour-intensive task.