Where is the landscaping at your home lacking? You have cultivated productive beds of annuals and perennials, complemented low-water designs with trees that offer shade, and made sure that the species you have selected adhere to an aesthetically attractive theme. However, border plants or hedges are the glue that holds a well-designed landscape together.
Border plants for garden are an easy way to make all the visual pieces in your outdoor area blend seamlessly. As a rule, border plants for garden are planted around gardens to demarcate boundaries of ownership. It creates a barrier between your garden and the elements, shielding your plants from pollution and wind. Hedge plants are low-maintenance once planted. They serve as an aesthetically pleasing barrier that garden animals and birds will be drawn to.
The Best Border Plants for Garden
Instead of spending a fortune on barbed wire, a densely planted garden edging plants may provide enough protection. For border gardens ideas, we have compiled a list of the most used hedge plants In India:
♦ Vilayti Mehendi
Botanical name: Clerodendrum inermis
When it comes to decorative and defensive hedging, this shrub is at top amongst all the border plants for garden. The leaves are a lovely shade of glossy green. It can withstand dry conditions, looks great after a trim, and won’t attract snakes because of its strong odour. It takes around two years for it to mature into a decent hedge due to its modest growth rate. It is laid out in two rows with the same spacing between them, around 15-20 cm.
♦ Devils backbone
Botanical name: Euphorbia tithymaloides
The spurge family includes this spineless and often leafless succulent, which finds widespread usage as a decorative hedge. A dense live fence may be quickly and easily formed by this hardy garden edging plants. Plant the stem cuttings in two rows, 15 cm apart, with a spacing of 10-15 cm between each.
♦ Bougainvillea
Botanical name: Bougainvillea spectabilis
Hardy Bougainvillaea types may be pruned often to maintain their attractiveness and privacy. Plants are spaced 60 to 90 cm apart and trained against the fence’s barbed wire. A bushy look is achieved by trimming the stems, including the side shoots. You can use border plants like this that don’t need support to create a living fence, but a Bougainvillaea hedge looks much nicer.
♦ Henna, Mehendi
Botanical name: Lawsoniainermis
The maximum height for this shrub is 2.5 metres. Requires little maintenance and makes an excellent hedge in arid climates. Perfusion bears the white, sweet-scented blossoms, which are followed by berries. Some people use the crushed leaves to colour their nails and hands. To maintain its form, the shrub requires heavy trimming. It may be propagated by planting seeds or cuttings 40-60 cm apart.
♦ Firebush
Botanical name: Hamelia patens
An attractive, spreading shrub that flowers continuously. When people think about to choose from border plants for garden firebush is always an amazing choice. The foliage is attractive and shimmers. A beautiful sight is a well pruned Hamelia hedge. It can withstand both full sun and partial shade, and it looks great planted in a fence. It needs annual trimming of the central branches and is spaced 30 cm apart.
♦ Thuja / Morpankhi
Botanical Name: Platycladusorientalis
An attractive, spreading shrub that flowers continuously. When people think about to choose from border plants for garden firebush is always an amazing choice. The foliage is attractive and shimmers. A beautiful sight is a well pruned Hamelia hedge. It can withstand both full sun and partial shade, and it looks great planted in a fence. It needs annual trimming of the central branches and is spaced 30 cm apart.
♦ Weeping Fig
Botanical name: Ficus benjamina
It provides excellent seclusion and looks verdant because of its thick and glossy leaves. Without frequent trimming, it may also reach a respectable height. It can be your great choice amongst the border plants if you’re seeking for thicken leaves.
♦ Coleus Plants
Botanical name: Solenostemon scutellarioides
The mint family includes the coleus plants. The leaves of these plants may be a rainbow of hues and forms. They like areas with a mix of partial and full sunshine, and they develop on square stems with leaves that face in opposing directions.
Fertiliser in the form of compost or moss would be ideal for these border plants. Wet but not drenched soil is ideal. Hot and humid weather is ideal for their growth. With the right maintenance, they may develop into a stunning hedge.
♦ Kodiak
Botanical name: Diervilla Rivularis
A stunning plant, the Kodiak has vibrant orange leaves. The shrub also has summer blossoms, which are yellow in colour. Either full sun or partial shade will do it justice. Dry spells won’t kill it, and it can even flourish in them.
Proper fertility of border plants ensure the view they create for garden. Although it can tolerate a wide range of soil types, it does best when given a little fertiliser. It attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies to your blooms and requires little care for your garden hedge.
♦ Eranthemum
Botanical name: Eranthemum
The eranthemum, a shrubby grass plant, is native to Southeast Asia. From December through March, when temperatures are cooler, the plant produces stunning blue blossoms. Even though it may have frail branches, this plant may reach a height of one metre.
Grow them in tiny batches so they’re easier to handle. Watering border plants is crucial for their optimal growth, water the plant only a little bit every day. Although it can withstand dry conditions, it does best when watered often. To maintain the plant’s form, regular trimming is required.
♦ Lantana/ Gubon Gu-phul
Botanical name: Lantana camara
One such hardy plant is the lantana. Its dense thickets make it an ideal hedge, and its height may reach 2–4 metres. They may also take on a vine-like growth pattern in some regions. Strong stems support leaves that are sometimes coarse to the touch.
Depending on the season, the stunning clusters of flowers may be any shade from pink to orange. They are adaptable border plants that may thrive in a wide range of soil conditions. Their dense bushiness makes them a good hedge, but regular trimming is required to keep them neat and tidy.
♦ Dhobi tree
Botanical name: Mussaenda
Plants of the genus Mussaenda, often called Bangkok Roses, thrive in warm, tropical climates. They thrive in warm, humid climates. Pink or yellow blossoms adorned with enormous petals of white, pink, or red emerge from this plant.
A maximum height of 2–3 metres is within the plant’s reach. While ideal conditions include warm temperatures and moist soil, certain hybrid cultivars may withstand cooler climates. While they are actively growing, they may need a little trimming.
Importance of Border Plants for Garden
Screens and border plantsare two of the first things to think about while planning a landscape. Can you define an area or block off an unattractive view? Are utility concealment and path lining necessities? Border plantsare useful for outliningboundaries. Why not use a variety of plants to make a screen or wall instead of a stiff one made of bricks or wood? Wildlife will benefit greatly from a living fence since it will reduce wind speed, enhance water and air quality, and enhance the environment visually.
♦ Strengthen confidentiality
In addition to providing seclusion along property borders, tall border plantsmay be used to carve off secluded areas on larger lots, perfect for yoga, meditation, or hosting secret get-togethers. Dense hedges may help reduce noise pollution if your neighbours are too loud or if your home is next to a busy road.
♦ Streamlined traffic flow
Planting low border plantsaround paths helps keep people off the grass and off private property. Incorporating a variety of plants into a landscape in an imaginative way not only makes it more visually appealing, but also aids in navigation.
Hedgehogs are a popular stop for most dog walkers, but they may be a pain to clean up after since they provide as a natural barrier between the grass and other surfaces.
♦ Improve air quality
The current state of air pollution has a direct impact on human health and is a contributing factor in a number of respiratory illnesses. To prevent inhalation of fine dust, border plantswith rough, scaly or hairy leaves collect the particles that are then rinsed away by rain or fall to ground as leaves.
♦ Amazing appearance
They provide visual interest and structure to your landscape when grown as beautiful borders. Colour, leaf type, and density might vary more than you would imagine.
Hedge Maintenance and Care
Hedge trimming should be done at least twice a year to keep it neat and clean, while certain hedges may only need it once. Do not cut your border plantsif it is home to birds that are in the process of nesting; doing so will disrupt them.
Give some serious consideration to the height you want for your hedge as well as its intended placement in relation to your home’s upkeep needs. Yew will get the job done, but it’s not particularly fast-growing, so you may want to look for coniferous thuja instead. Hornbeam and hawthorn are better hedge species to choose if you know your soil is quite damp. Many choices exist, including whether to plant an evergreen or deciduous tree, how quickly it will grow, how much care it will need, whether it will bloom or be thorny to discourage pests, and so on. It is possible to confidently choose the ideal border plantsfor your garden with little planning ahead of time.
♦ Planting Hedges
When planting a hedge, spring is ideal. Your goals for the hedge and the kind of hedge you’re planting will determine how far apart the seedlings should be from the property line. Think about the soil quality, and accessibility of any necessary maintenance areas before planting your hedge.
♦ Hedge Diseases
Despite its hardiness, some diseases and pests may harm hedge plants. Regular and thorough examination for symptoms of issues is an important part of hedge upkeep since rusts, insects, and moulds can do a lot of harm if they go untreated. However, if you attend to it promptly, your border plantscan come out relatively unscathed.
♦ Gaps in Hedge
Even though it’s discouraging, fixing gaps in hedges is typically really simple. Whenever you’re trimming your hedge and come across a patch of the dead leaves, just clip back to the healthy wood. The gaps should eventually close on their own. Another option is to temporarily bridge the gap by “training” a stem over it and then tying it in place. It is usually necessary to plant the new border plantswhen there is a significant gap in the existing one.
♦ Fertilising Hedges
Fertilising your border plants should be a part of your garden care in March or April. This will ensure that your hedge has access to essential nutrients before the summer strains it out. Select a hedge-specific product.
Conclusion
Why not have gorgeous hedge plants as borders, instead of settling for a wire fence? When planning your garden, hedge plants are a great border gardens ideas for border gardening. Nevertheless, for optimal performance, they also need some care. It is best to plant hedge or border plants in the spring or fall, and then give them plenty of time to mature into full-fledged hedges. It may take a few months or even years. As a result, one has to make preparations and choose plants that can adapt to their specific climate and surroundings. When it comes to growing and nurturing plants, various species have distinct preferences. After the hedges have matured, you should prune them and inspect the grounds periodically. You can enjoy Leela Greens landscaping and gardening services for proper installation of hedge plants.
