Native Plant Design: No More Amoeba Beds!

I will never forget one of my design instructor’s hatred for the “amoeba bed.” What is the amoeba bed, you ask? Can you picture an amoeba? Google it, look at the shape, and you may begin to understand. Generally, the amoeba beds are those that seem to randomly float within the yard, sometimes with distinct shapes, sometimes formed into strange globulations that have no rhyme or reason and can make maintenance a nightmare. 

You may have something like this photo, with beds whose borders have changed with time, due to trees growing larger, or bed lines slowly shifting and moving around. Mowing and edging around all the bedlines and trees may have become a chore, and trees outside the beds certainly don’t appreciate having their bark repeatedly whacked by the trimmer. 

So maybe for your first iteration of the new beds, you start smothering the grass between some of the smaller beds, connecting them to each other or anchoring them to the sidewalk, driveway, etc. and bringing the trees into the beds where they will be better protected and more easily maintained. (Bonus- if you have a “messy tree” that you feel compelled to constantly rake the lawn underneath, it will simply be making its own leaf mulch in the bed now.)

Next, maybe you continue to combine beds, further reducing your lawn. You could still keep some of your walkways intact, if dogs, children, etc have become accustomed to accessing that area.

After cleaning up some of the extra lines, maybe you end up with something like the photo below- a drastic reduction in lawn, less mowing, less whacking trees and leaf cleanup, and less bedlines to maintain. PRO TIP - try to keep your bed and hardscape lines close to right angles and reduce acute angles in your design to help with maintenance/ mowing.

Do you have amoeba beds in your landscape? Do you think this would simplify your maintenance? I’d love to hear about your amoebas in the comments!