Garden Design Ideas

How is it that some people seem destined to have just the right garden design ideas to accent their homes and yards? The answer starts here, where you will learn how to transform your dreams into action.

Begin by asking yourself the three essential questions of garden planning. Print our handy garden design form to start your garden planning today.

The following garden design ideas will guide you in organizing your garden planning. From there you will select and plant individual components. As always, economy and efficiency equals success!

Consider Your Space

You can bring your garden design ideas to life with the lowest cost and effort by remembering these techniques.

Interplanting: This simply means using more than one type of plant in a given garden area. You can mix a slower maturing variety with those that grow more quickly so that the demands on your space and soil are evenly distributed. Or plant shade-loving varieties beneath taller species, so they work in harmony. See an example in the Color section, below.

Double Cropping: This technique is used in vegetable or cut flower gardening. You simply plant another crop in the space left behind when you harvest. If you want a constant supply of fast growing lettuce, then start only 3-4 plants and replace them as you pick them down, rather than planting 12 only to have all mature at the same time. Do the same with fast growing flowers which you cut for indoor use.

Containers: Even if you have outdoor space for garden beds, container gardening is quick, less time consuming and portable. In shady areas, you can move a container to allow for greater sun exposure.

To be successful:

Maximize Your Color

To attain color from one end of the growing season to the other and even in winter, you must interplant. Perennials bloom only for a few weeks, so mix in annuals and biennials as well as rocks, grasses and shrubs for texture.

Start with a bird’s eye diagram of your garden space. Draw in shapes where you want to place your patches of perennials. Note their color, height, texture and bloom period on the diagram. Then do the same for annuals. These will be replanted each year, so you can fiddle with different garden design ideas here.

Biennials typically grow in the first year, bloom the second and then go to seed. So why use them? They are self-propagating—you either harvest the seeds and replant (if you want to control where they grow) or seedlings take root on their own—providing a free source of flowers. Some self-seeding varieties are the pansy, forget-me-not and money plant. Another reason is their beauty, like verbena, hollyhock and delphinium. Some varieties such as foxglove will bloom for longer than an annual.

Think of your time. The truly permanent features are the inanimate ones—rocks and man-made garden features. Then come trees and shrubs, which need no replanting or heavy care. Next are perennials, which typically last several years but which need to be lifted out of the ground every 3-5 years so you can divide their root ball, replace part of it and then plant the remainder elsewhere. This technique will also work for ornamental grasses, particularly when the plant dies out in the center. Then you have biennials and finally annuals, which are replanted each year.

Remember to refer to your garden planning form to keep track of your priorities and garden design ideas as you proceed. Don't forget to include indigenous plant species on your list. If they thrive where you live, they are adapted well and will be less expensive to obtain and maintain.

Vegetable Gardening

Vegetable gardens are both beautiful and delicious. They will enhance your property, feed your family and provide you with a lifelong hobby.

Effective vegetable garden design can be broken into manageable steps which consider:

If you don't have enough land for a traditional garden plot, or if your available direct sunlight is limited, you can still grow vegetables using movable containers.

Flower Garden Design

Rather than scratching your head each Spring for ideas on how to beautify your property with flowers, you may wish to adopt our simple but comprehensive approach to flower garden design.

It's best to first evaluate your present landscape features and your property's growing potential. Then use our garden planning form and flower garden design ideas to help you stay on target.

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