A bed that had been designed purely for cut flowers is a utilitarian space, it is not designed to look natural and inspire flouncy poetry or songs about unrequited love, all this can go on in your general flower garden. Really they should end up resembling a vegetable garden. Straight rows that are easily accessible from straight paths. We here at The Higgledy Garden have had to deal with couch grass and bellbind which has infested the area we have acquired to grow our flowers. In order to best eradicate this without nasty chemicals we have dug and sieved our beds to a depth of a spade and forked in to a further depth of 12 inches a good deal of compost. Our beds our approximately 3 feet wide with narrow paths between and we plant 3 rows in each bed roughly 10 inches apart depending on the plant. Perennials we plant as befits their nature, more on our perennials later. Make sure these beds are in full sun and are well drained. Once plants become established give them a good drink and then apply 3 inches of mulch. Previously our experience has been of growing for customers in their own flower gardens so we are learning this more formal approach as we go along, so any advice from old hands is welcome.
Oli