Want to instantly improve your yard in just two hours? Build a DIY Garden Bed! I decided to transform my boring back wall into a beautiful new flower bed around two of my favorite Jackson & Perkins roses, Earth Angel and Don Juan. Here’s how I did it and what I planted.

Huge shoutout to my dad for helping me build this fabulous garden!

Before

Just so you know what we’re working with: here is the before. This section of my garden just had two roses stuck in the grass. It didn’t used to bother me until the rest of my garden began to really come together!

Note: if you aren’t Texan you might not know this: our grass is brown in the winter. I started this project last February.

Edging

We started by laying out the edging where I thought I wanted the bed. There are lots of edging options on the market but this EasyFlex scallop edging came with spikes that you hammer in the ground, which made it super sturdy and easy to work. We got it nice and curvy, which was easy to do with this flexible edging.

Prepping the Bed

Some of the grass here had already died, which made it really easy to dig out the rest with a garden hoe. We then removed all of the grass then filled in the bed with four large bags of good soil.

This particular bed is somewhere where grass and weeds didn’t really grow so I did not put any sort of lining here. However, under my DIY pebble patio, I have a plastic sheet with holes poked in it underneath the rocks and years later, it’s still perfect and weed-free.

Don’t overthink the soil. Use whatever soil you like that’s specifically made for flowers and in-ground use. If you have really good soil where you live, I suppose you could skip this step but I certainly don’t.

Note: I really only topped off with soil at this stage. I then ordered my plants from Jackson & Perkins. After my plants arrived, I filled every single hole with high quality soil to replace the horrible clay.

Project Cost and Time

Look how much better this area already looks! This garden bed took us about two hours and cost less than $100, not including the plants. I even have enough edging leftover for my trees on the side yard.

Plants

We’re finally at my favorite part! With a name like Katie-Rose, I was born to be a gardener. This bed gets enough morning sunlight to keep roses happy, but is in the shade for the heat of the afternoon.

Agastache Rosie Posie is far and away one of the best plants I’ve ever added to my garden. In the heat of the summer, when other plants of mine were plagued with storm damage and chili thrips and drought conditions, Rosie Posie just kept blooming day after day. We love a hardy queen!

Lavender is also one of my favorite rose companions, as it smells so lovely and is the prettiest shade of silver-blue. My new dwarf buddleia bushes have attracted so many butterflies to my garden! I’ve always thought that buddleia was too large to put in my garden but this adorable dwarf plant is easy to fit in any garden.

I also added this charming solar fountain to add soothing zen vibes. Get one here with my affiliate link.

I’ve also really been enjoying my adorable new snowcone shrub rose, which only grows to a compact 24″ tall. This low-maintenance white rose is fragrant and cute as can be. The bee balm is also such a happy little flower!

I hope this inspires you to add a whole new garden to that forgotten space in your yard.