[Dotty]

I have two odd shaped beds in my front garden that i have completely cleared to start from scratch.
Is there anywhere online that shows photographs instead of just drawn plans and also lists the plants used? i cant seem to find any with nice pics

[fatcat1955]

Why not make a list of the plants you like. Or google red flowers , yellow flowers etc. Do you want perennials or annuals . No one can decide for you , you need to look at the bed and decide what will be the face you see most of the time. Plant the smaller plants there and work your way towards the back increasing the height of the plants as you go. A good tip is to plant a large architectual plant in the centre and work away fron there. My local council uses canna's surrounded by geraniums/lobelia.

[Dotty]

Yes, but my problem is i am not very good at visualising what things will look like long term. That why i would like to base it on a photographic example with plant names and positions to make it easier
I already have a magnolia tree just off centre in the largest bed, but it still gets plenty of sun.

[Dotty]

Aha! its ok i think i have found what i am looking for

[Nadlen]

Share with us,please! 

[Dotty]

here you go 

http://www.growsonyou.com/gardening/browse_photos/garden-border-ideas

[Dotty]

oh my word!!!! Can u imagine the work that went into this garden? Stunning!

http://www.growsonyou.com/gardening/slideshow/garden-border-ideas/115713

[Nadlen]

Yay,awesome! Problem is - I can't see if there are list of plants they used anywhere. You can only guess what is where,but when you are novice its not so easy...

[gillie]

Are you sure that these pictures are real?  I have a hunch that someone has been having a lot of fun with photoshop...

[Dotty]

You are right not all the pics have lists of what they used but some do and if you scroll down under the pics people discuss the  gardens. Most belong to the people who took the pics.

I dont think they are photoshopped. Few are anywhere near the standard of the one shown above

[sion01]

I've got the same problem at the moment as I've liberated a small pack of lawn from the kids swing and slide and am planning a border there at the moment.A good place to start is at you're local library as you can take a couple of gardening books home and take a couple of weeks to mull over any designs/plants that you see.One book that I've bought because the beautiful photos really inspire me is cottage gardens by Toby Musgrave.I don't like the plans in it that much but the photos are really fantastic.

[Alastair-I]

There's been a bit of assistance boosting the saturation and luminosity of the flower colours in quite a few of the shots on that website.  Judging by the consistency of the effect it's probably been done by the website rather than the gardener submitting the photographs..

[sion01]

One thing I would be carefull of plans you can get or with pictures you see is that a picture can look fantastic but in reality the display might only look that good for a week or two.This is espellialy true when a plant is planted enmass ,it can look really dramatic but for the other 50 weeks of the year it might look distinctly average o'r worse.Which is fine if you've got a big enough garden to produce another interest in another border.
If you aren't that confident about picking plants for yourself the RHS have a really good range of books with differant books for perennials,shrubs,annuals a biennials,herbs and bulbs and there's also their 'good plant guide' all with really good pictures and a hight for the plant and as important when planting a border their spread as well.