With spring right around the corner, you might already be looking forward to warm evenings spent in your garden, weekend family barbecues, or maybe even a spot of sunbathing. But to really enjoy your garden this summer, you have to love spending time in it. 

Whether you’re a first time gardener or just in need of a helping hand, our ready made garden borders offer a cost-effective alternative to garden designers to help you plant and enjoy your outdoor space. 

We’ve shared some of our favourite garden border ideas to help create your dream garden, and some important considerations to help choose the right border.

Create an exotic, low maintenance aesthetic

If you’re looking for something that doesn’t require huge amounts of attention but adds visual and aromatic interest, a Mediterranean border could be the perfect solution.

Our favourite selection of drought-resistant plants don’t require much watering, while also being incredibly resilient against the hot summer months. However, they’re not only a popular choice because they’re low maintenance - they also look great! 

Use your borders to support local insects and wildlife

We’re all becoming more environmentally conscious, and it’s important that gardeners do their bit to support local insects and wildlife and help them thrive. Climate change is making it harder for British wildlife, particularly insects, but choosing flowers for your borders that insects and birds love can make a big difference.

Our Wildlife Garden Borders can do just that, with plants and shrubs that attract bees and butterflies, while also providing shelter for birds to nest in. Berrying shrubs can also act as a welcome treat for hungry birds during the winter months.

Besides the benefits to wildlife, these borders are also simply a stunning addition to your garden. These types of flowers and shrubs—including Aster, Ceanothus, Geranium and Lavender—add vibrancy to your garden borders, while they’re also popular thanks to their versatility and being low maintenance.

Want to go a step further for your local wildlife? Incorporating eco-friendly features and products into your garden border can include:

• hedgehog homes
• bird feeders
• nest boxes
• butterfly barns 

If you’re looking to create a home for wildlife, incorporating the above garden border ideas are a great way to make them feel at home. 

Enjoy your garden all year round with evergreen plants

Does the lack of colour and life in your garden during winter get you down? If so, you’re not alone, but evergreen garden borders can help ensure your outdoor space feels alive and wonderful all year round.

While not as vibrant as summer-loving flowers, evergreen shrubs bring much needed colour and greenery when the rest of the world feels dark and dreary. Making use of evergreen borders is also important if you have a north-facing garden that doesn’t get as much daylight at any time of year - although there are still evergreen shrubs that do prefer to be in sunny spots, such as Bergenia, Escallonia and Heuchera.

Another benefit of evergreen borders? They’re low maintenance and resilient, ideal for less experienced or time-restricted gardeners.

Use borders to break up your garden

You might think a garden border should wrap around the edges of your garden - it’s called a ‘border’, after all. But don’t be fooled, this may not be the best aesthetic choice for every garden. 

For example, having borders down the side of a long garden could create a very narrow appearance, while borders surrounding a shorter, wider garden can leave a big patch of uninterrupted lawn.

With this in mind, consider breaking up the space by having borders placed within your garden, this will divide the garden into sections with an added opportunity to create walkways to offer interest to the route as you walk through.

Consider the aspect

Before planting your new garden borders, it’s important to consider the aspect. That is, the direction your garden is facing, and how much sunshine each area of your garden receives. 

If your garden is south facing, choose flowers that thrive in direct sunlight. If your garden is north facing (or you live in a built up area), you’ll need to plant shrubs that prefer the shade or don’t need a lot of sunshine. 

West-facing borders will get some shade during the morning but a lot of sunshine after midday, so you’ll need to plant flowers that will enjoy the summer sun. For east-facing borders they’ll get the sun in the morning but more shade during the afternoon, so you’ll need plants that thrive in the shade.

Choose a design that suits you

Finally, one of the most important considerations for your garden borders is what type of scheme will work best for you. This not only ensures that your new garden border will suit your unique style and needs, but also avoids having a clash of colours or plant styles. Perhaps you are looking for something exotic or do you enjoy the softer, beautiful colours of a cottage garden border? 

At Garden on a Roll, we know what plants work best for any type of outdoor space. Simply choose your preferred design, width and length and our garden experts will create your dream garden border, boxed and delivered to your door.