Island Garden like a flower vase for your landscape

For many people it is difficult to maintain big gardens. For such people an Island Garden can serve a better purpose. While you are making a wide grassland in your courtyard or fixing interlock tiles, such Island Gardens can give you a break from boring and regular garden with flowerpots. They stand alone, free of walls and fences, and if designed perfect, it looks appealing in every angle.

Allow rainwater to directly flow to soil

There are many ways to make Island Garden practical. In a vast courtyard filled with grass lawn, it’s easy to make an island garden. You can find a place almost middle in the lawn and place some flower pots and flowering trees together. You can also make small dividers for drive way using an island garden. Vehicles can pass on either side of the island garden. You can make them attractive by adding statues, rocks and pebbles. You can add any piece of creativity.

In a courtyard if interlock tiles are fixed and you can find a tree at any corner or other space, you can easily convert it into a small garden or island garden by placing a few flower pots around it. You can also leave certain spaces in your court yard, while interlocking it with tiles, and use your creativity to build island garden around them. Water will easily reach ground through such spaces.

You can fix a big flowering plant at centre giving spotlight

You can choose circle, rectangle or any other shape for your garden. But it should match the surrounding landscape. You can add trees, shrubs, flowering plants, grass etc, and a combination of different types for your island garden. The area you choose should be easily visible from outside. It adds extra attraction to the space and also your home. Here comes a demerit also. As the garden is easily noticed, its maintenance is equally important. You have to keep its beauty intact throughout the seasons.

A good design could be a big flowering tree at centre, a few shrubs around and a few more shrubs but less taller beneath them. You can create any number of layers you want, and also in different colour shades to make them attractive. Different types of decorative plants are also available which has different colour and types of leaves which can help you in creating layers. It is advisable to avoid flower pots and plant them directly in soil.

To distinguish an island garden from other parts of the courtyard for the space, you can fix separate tiles around them or build small walls. If you choose less plants and more pebbles and rocks, maintenance is easy and looks good throughout the seasons. Plants need more maintenance time and energy. Design your island garden in such a way that it enhances the aesthetic appeal of open spaces.

Choose the plants matching the surrounding landscape and season

When you choose the right plants, maintenance is less. Flowering plants like Miniature ixora, Melastoma, Tecoma and Loropetalum are best suited for island garden. Leaf plants like Snake plant, Aglaonema, Rio plant, Coleus, Copper leaf plant and Dracaena marginata are good. According to the space available, you can add a small pond or driftwood in attractive shape to improve beauty.

When you build an island garden in the mist of green lane or grass, you can grow both leaf and flowering plants together which have less height (scrubs). Choosing seasonal plants is the best option. You can also change the plants occasionally, to bring change your garden. You can also choose plants based on seasons. For example, during monsoon you can plant flowering plants like Rain lily, Miniature ixora, Ruvelia, Krishna kanthi (dwarf morning-glory), Kongini (West Indian Lantana) etc.

During summer you can remove them and plant Marigold, Zinnia, Torenia, Dianthus etc. Leafy plants like Coleus, Miniature Croton, Golden Ball Aralia, Golden Duranta, Dracaena Ctc Red etc can be chosen. It’s easy to maintain them. Contrasting colours for flowers and leaves can make layering process easy and easily catchy to eyes. You can cut them to desired shapes to keep your island garden attractive. Create the bed for your island garden first. Oval, circular, kidney-shaped, or freeform based on landscape can be chosen.

Choose plants that can grow in shades

When you grow plants around a big tree or tall plants, mostly those plants will grow in shade. So it’s advisable to choose decorative plants which can partially grow in shade, or those plants which don’t need direct sunlight. You can choose Money plant, Peace Lily, Syngonium and Aglaonema. You can place them in different colour shades and height. Fix pebbles of different shapes and colours on the floor. You can also make it simple by fixing pebbles on the ground, placing a few sculptures and planting very few trees, scrubs and flowering plants. Low-growing plants can fill the space easily. You can also construct a fountain.