Easy ideas for beautiful flower beds From azaleas to zinnias, dazzling flower beds provide beautiful splashes of color, scintillating scents and a place to put your green thumb to work. Following are a few ideas to help you create beds that will be the perfect outdoor accent for your home, courtesy of the gardening experts at the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association (CSPMA). Traditional flower beds remain popular, but there are other options. Consider lining your driveway or sidewalk with a colorful border. It's a great way to spruce up a cement slab and to provide an abundance of fragrance and splendor to enjoy every day. Or try a raised bed, which puts everything in a self-contained, custom-built space that makes it easy to care for and walk around. This kind of bed is perfect if your area's soil isn't up to snuff - or if you just don't want to kneel in the dirt. The flowers you choose are a big part of your bed's makeup, and a layer of prepared, conditioned soil is the "security blanket" plants need to really blossom. Annuals offer maximum flexibility. Since they only last one season, you're free to start from scratch the following year. Perennials, known for their dependability, variety and relatively easy-to-care-for manner, survive the winter and return the following year. Whatever type of plants you choose, tucking them into a cozy layer of healthy, conditioned soil will help them thrive, snug in their beds. For a flower gardening brochure and other free brochures on "How-to With Peat Moss," send a self-addressed, unstamped, business-size envelope to: Peat Moss, Box 385102, Minneapolis, MN, 55438 or e-mail cspma@peatmoss.com.