Arrange a flowerbed with me

[Greentomatoes21]

I am so excited to be getting a big ish raised bed tomorrow!!!! My garden is mostly patio and so I have survived with pots everywhere.

I LOVE flowers and colour but have no idea what to fill it with to get the most out of it year round. I know taller plants go at the back etc but WHAT plants is my question...and where to position in the raised bed to give good height structure?

Only things I really want are deep purply lavender plant(s) somewhere in it and opportunities for spring bulbs to come up before the summer flowers take off. I also have some delphinium in pots that I grew from seed last year so would like to transfer those somewhere.

Anyone want to offer some suggestions?

Some white Gaura would look good. Wispy and fluttery.

General advice is to have multiple of each plant to make it look more natural (3s or 5s) - if you're budget constrained then consider buying 1 of each with the view to divide them in a year or 2 when they've bulked up to create some free plants!

Oh this is really helpful - I really have no idea how many of each I might need / how big they might get. The bed is 2.5m length and I was hoping to roughly divide it into four, allowing for one big ish plant (eventually) in each section plus some seasonal additions as and when. Would I need a couple of each to achieve this then? Sorry if this is really stupid, I haven't had to set up a bed from scratch before!

I like to look at the Sarah Raven collections for inspiration of how to fill a border - not sure if we're allowed to link but have a look here: https://www.sarahraven.com/products/the-low-maintenance-border-collection

He second picture shows how you can position them. They generally have 3 each of 6 different plants for a 2.5 x 1.5 border. Those are small 9cm pots though.

If you are buying from places like J Parker’s you can often buy in multiples of 3 which is helpful. The plants will likely be small and need nurturing but they are good value.