Garden border ideas: 16 for the garden

Five inspiring plant combinations from Hermannshof, a German public park that has bloomed from a trial garden to the forefront of planting design

Author and landscape architect Marian Boswell offers tips on how to create a layered, mixed garden border

Download this border planting plan, created exclusively for Gardens Illustrated by award-winning garden designer Sarah Price. It will look good from late winter to early summer. Illustration by Hannah McVicar.

A small front garden can come alive with bright colour and inspiration through the dark days of early spring. You can add pockets of interest with bulbs, no matter how tiny your plot

Advice and tips for planting spring bulbs in borders to create a colourful display in spring, plus how to combine bulbs with perennial

Four plant combinations to add colour and drama to your summer borders.

With the best of spring over, head gardener Matthew Reese gets to work in the Flower Garden at Malverleys, coaxing colour and interest from self-seeders, bedding and early flowering perennials until high summer takes hold. Words Matthew Reese. Photographs Jason Ingram.

Here's a list of the best grasses or Pennisetum chosen by head gardener Matthew Reese

A sheltered, east-facing plot can be the ideal spot for a beautiful border crammed with half-hardy and exotic plants. National Trust head gardener Mick Evans offers some inspiration with a colourful planting scheme. Download the planting plan here.

The borders at Cottesbrooke Hall are made up of pale pinks, deep purples and icy blues. Garden designer Arne Maynard shares some of the plants that make up the stunning borders, grouping them together in colour palettes.

A flower border planting plan, perfect for a cottage garden created by award-winning garden designer Jinny Blom. Illustration by Hannah McVicar

For almost 20 years, plantsman Jimi Blake has been rewriting the rules on combining plants at his Hunting Brook Gardens in Co. Wicklow. Here he shares the secrets of his beautiful borders. Photographs Jason Ingram

Head gardener Tom Coward shares the secrets of how he builds up layers of plants to create a long season of interest within the borders of Gravetye Manor. Photographs Richard Bloom

Inspired by Great Dixter’s mixed borders, Andy Salter has conjured a dynamic garden full of surprise on a plot in Kent. Photographs Claire Takacs

Keep your plants in line with one of our stylish garden border ideas, from naturalistic wooden edging to modern stone.

Andy Salter's Kent garden is a beautiful tribute to Great Dixter with a planting style that is inspired by the garden's mixed borders. Here's tips on how to recreate the same effect