A flower bed is one of the eye catching landscaping tricks that makes a yard look softer, or more inviting. An elevated flower bed around an existing tree, or around the perimeter of a structure makes a beautiful accompaniment to any yard décor. 

You start the raised flower bed by building a solid foundation to place your decorating border on top of. The shape and design of your border is limitless because there are so many different materials you can use for this purpose. You can choose from brick edging, plastic molded edges, rock edges, wooden edges, or concrete edges. Some people even get creative and make edging for their raised flower beds from pieces of old tires, and other materials that have been discarded.

Edging materials to use in landscaping

It does not matter who you are, or what you are doing, you want your efforts to be noticed, and you want to get the most bang for your buck that you can get. Landscaping is a form of outdoor decorating that will permanently improve the look and value of your property. The following ideas will help you to get more of a visual impact with the work you do.

1. Hide outdoor sheds, barns, and other structures behind inviting plants. Where it is feasible, you can put brackets and shelves on the exterior of the structure to allow you to place plants like drooping ivy on. You can plant climbing vines on trellises to hide exterior sheds that might not be as attractive as you would like, and you can plant flowers along the perimeter of the building. Choose tall flowers like lilies, or choose blooming shrubs for this job.

2. Containers are a wonderful way to bring plants into an area where digging might be difficult. You can use containers, and planting pots of different heights, sizes, colors, and textures to help you introduce plants in front of buildings, along walkways, or around the perimeter of a patio or deck. When you plant in hanging basket containers, you need to put three different plants in each container to create a visual impact that is stunning. You want one plant that will spill out over the edge of the basket like a begonia. You can also use variegated sage as an interesting plant to droop over the edge of the container. Then you want a plant that fills in the gaps and spaces in the hanging basket. Kong coleus is a great choice to use to create fullness without taking away from the drooping plant. And finally you want an eye catching flower that will stun you. Pick something like purple cordyline that is full of vibrant color. You can even put posts in the area and hang the baskets from these posts. Try setting some posts in the flower bed border that edges your driveway and hang amazing baskets from these posts so people are taken away by the beauty as they drive up to the house.

A brick patio strategically placed outside can be a great place for afternoon cook-outs with friends, or family gatherings. These patios add a beautiful touch to your landscaping efforts around the home. They make a nice place to set a grouping of furniture on, but first they need to be made level and flat.

You can create a patio or walkway path suing bricks, flat rocks, paving stones, or even wash gravel. The one thing that all of these outdoor floors have in common is that they need a solid foundation before you put the decorative materials on top of them.

Dig below the surface area of where you want your patio at least six inches. You are going to place stabilized sand in the area four inches thick and then the remaining two inches will accommodate the thickness of the bricks, or rock that you are using to create a level surface that is stable and dependable.

Rocks are a natural product that people use to decorate their yard, to create waterfalls, to create walkways up to their homes, or to other areas on their property. Stones are not extremely expensive if you live in an area they are naturally found in, but if you live in an area that would require you to ship the stones in you could quickly spend a massive amount of money getting them.

• Landscape drawings are useful, but when you are working with naturally formed stones, you may not always be able to follow your directions to the letter. That is because rocks are each unique and there is no way to guarantee that you will find one that is perfectly shaped, and sized according to your plan. So draw a plan, but remember to be flexible with it.

• Landscaping with stone can be costly if you live in an area that does not have native stones readily available. The actual cost that comes with using stones in your landscaping décor is from the transportation of the stones. If you can get the rocks from a local supplier, or local quarry, you will spend far less on them than if you have to have them shipped a long distance.

Home decorating can quickly add up to a lot of money. It does not matter if the home is in the country, or in the city, people will want to do some decorating, or landscaping, to make their property look unique. The problem is that when you first move into a place, your budget for landscaping materials may be quite low. Even if you do not have a large budget you can still do some home improvements through landscaping. 

The best way to do landscaping on a budget is to repurpose other items and use them to create your decorations. Instead of going to the store and spending money to buy specialized items to put in your yard. There are a lot of items that can be used that you may have been lying around your house.

• Clear plastic bottles and some food coloring can create a spectacular effect along walkways, or around the borders of flower beds. You empty clear plastic one liter, or two liter bottles and fill them about ¾’s full with colored water. Use post hole diggers to dig a hole that is approximately six inches deep (for a two liter bottle) and set your bottle in the hole. The pack dirt in around the bottle to hold it in place