Many garden owners are tempted by the displays or by special sales in garden centers and carry home whatever they find attractive. Often only a single plant of each type. Don't buy plants indiscriminately. One of everything will end up in a visual mess. Save your money until you know what you need.
First Things First
Building a house starts with the foundation! The same is true for building a garden. Prep your soil with lots of compost and rotted manure. Unless you are lucky to have fantastic soil, amend it first before planting anything.
Good black soil is the safest thing to use. Lay a couple of inches of compost at soil level and dress with mulch after you've finished planting. It will suppress weeds, keep the moisture, and even out temperatures in summer and winter. From now on the soil should not be disturbed. The first year your garden must be watered deeply twice or three times a week.
Evaluate Light and Sun
Which way does your garden face? Calculate where you have sunny spots for 4 to 6 hours a day and apply this information to plant research. Read the plant labels carefully and research each plant on the Internet. Don't bother with vegetables unless you've got sun for more than 6 hours a day, and you are willing to water and weed on a daily basis. Examine all the contours of the garden and enhance any humps by building a berm — piling up soil and covering it with compost.
Create sections or "garden rooms"
Have an overall vision of what the garden should look like from specific parts of the house. Now it's time to choose your trees, shrubs, and plants, and lay them out for maximum visual impact. Avoid planning them too narrow. Find out the maximum size plants and trees will reach.
Every garden needs a focal point
It can be a structure, a gazebo, a patio, a beautiful birdbath, or a spectacular plant. Evaluate the volume of the plant at maturity: how wide and high will it get? Don't forget at least one to two feet of space around it. Read the plant tags and take them seriously.
Big structural trees come in every shape, size, and color — they are the most thrilling creatures to plant — never be casual about them. Trees are crucial for screening, privacy, beauty, as well as creating a vertical element.
Create layers
Once you know what trees will grow well, look for large shrubs or small trees as the next level down (2 to 3 meters in height). We often forget this important aspect of design: eye level. You should have the feeling of walking through plants.
Create a mix of both evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs throughout. We need the evergreens for winter interest, as well as for bird and animal habitats. If you want to attract butterflies, for instance, get Buddleia (Butterfly bush), Eupatorium (Bonesets), Ninebark shrubs, Weigela, or a small Hydrangea tree.
Perennials and annuals add color to the garden
Get plants with similar hues in the bloom to achieve a drift of color. Plant hundreds of small naturalizing spring bulbs. They will provide the soil with cover and feed early spring insects. Their amazing colors are a bonus. This way you will have something blooming in every season.
Last, but not least: No Plastic in Your Garden!
Plastic is creeping in heavily for years into our personal landscape: Sitting on a PLASTIC deck with a PLASTIC canopy or awning, using a PLASTIC watering can, PLASTIC garden hoses, PLASTIC garden fence, PLASTIC trim edges for the lawn, PLASTIC garden tools, PLASTIC flower pots, and planters…
Mother Earth is precious for all living organisms - and that we need to protect the environment and do something against the thread of a climate catastrophe that is upon us and our children. Instead of calling for the governments to do something, we should start to add our part. Fossil fuels, plastic, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides — all that should be banned from our daily life, our families — and our gardens!
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