Pat Lowe
Picking a few plants you like from your local nursery and undertaking serious garden design are two very different things. A serious green thumb will soak up loads of gardening info and then embark upon an incredible task of redefining his or her personal space. Perennial flower gardening for all seasons involves much forethought. You’ve got to know what plants do well in sun and shade, when each variety will bloom, which plants will be tall and which ones will be short, and what plants work best next to each other.
If you read Garden Guides magazine, you’ll discover that there are many types of garden design plans available. You can select dry or water gardens, wildlife attracting flower gardens or edible gardens. Maybe simplest way to get started is to evaluate the area you have available and look at some photos to determine what sort of garden tills your soul. Once you set your imagination free, it will be much less difficult to begin picking plants and formulating your game plan.
A great strategy for garden design is to choose a theme for your garden. At Garden Guides, you can choose between “dry gardens,” with cactus, drought-resistant plants, herbs, rocks and heat-loving plants; “edible gardens” for fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs and plants; “flower gardens” for annuals, perennials, biennials, roses, orchids and wildflowers; “wildlife gardens” to attract birds, butterflies, dragonflies and bees; or “water gardens” like ponds, bogs, water features and tropical gardens.
There are also distinctive styles to consider, such as alpine, cottage, English, family, forest, fragrant, Japanese and Zen gardens. For more information, visit http://www.gardenguides.com.
Better Homes and Gardens magazine online is a fun resource for garden design. On the site, you can register to use a computer program that lets you “plan-a-garden.” You can do virtual container gardening or drag-and-drop over 150 trees, shrubs and flowers to map out your whole yard’s garden plan. You can add structures like sheds, fences, decks, buildings and ponds to visualize how things will look before you actually do it. Here you can also leaf through their free garden planting guide. You’ll receive an illustration, a detailed layout diagram, a list of plants for your garden and complete instructions for installation. As you can see, there are many gardening “tools” to help you envision the best possible setting.
Everyone wants their property to look its best and one of the ways to do that is to enhance your landscaping. You might be interested in backyard garden ponds or adding a rose garden. Find more landscape design ideas here.
