How Do I Make a Garden
How do I make a garden?
How do I know where to start?
As the days lengthen and the sun gets higher in the sky I begin to look at everything bursting into life around me leaves opening on the trees and perennials forming clumps of spring green leaves. It’s the perfect time to get outside and make a start in the garden…. But where to start????
Planning changes to your garden can be a bit daunting…
Often the first instinct is to rush to the nearest garden centre and buy lots of individual plants, usually choosing the ones in full flower that we find the most beautiful and appealing. Maybe a quick glance at the label but who needs to pay real attention to what that says… this is the flower I want I’m sure it’ll grow in my garden… somewhere… after I’ve built the bed!
But slow down.
How many of those plants come home and stay in their pots unloved and unwatered only to become another sad looking dried out pot of weeds sitting by your back door?
Slow down.
Yes go to the garden centre. Yes have a look about but you don’t need to buy everything you see! Instead take some photos of the plants you like, take some photos of the labels.
Have a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, have another look round, take some more photos of what appeals to you.
You will have a lovely morning and come home with lots of ideas and inspiration but no plants to die a sad lonely death by your back door.
Have a look at the labels you photographed; is there an area of your garden where those plants would be happy? Do they need full sun and dry gritty soil or perhaps they prefer a shady damp spot.
Wonder around your garden.
Do you have a dry sunny spot? Is it shady? Where do you like to walk; could that become a path? Where is the best place to sit and have a cup of coffee, would a bench work here?
Decide what’s most important to you… where would you like to start?
What I often do before I even start on a design is to take a picture of an area that needs work print it out and sketch some design ideas on tracing paper over the top so I can start to visualize what I’d like it to be like.
I can play with the shapes and structure i’d like to see.
Once you have an idea of what your trying to do… whether it be a simple flower bed or a whole garden makeover.
Mark out the area and make a start, remove all the turf from any areas that will be beds or paths, weed the soil well removing as many of the weed roots as you can.
Anywhere you intend to plant up add some organic matter – compost, soil improver or well rotted manure.
The areas you want to become paths think about using a weed suppressant membrane particularly with gravel or bark mulch paths as this does what it says… suppresses the growth of any stubborn perennial weeds lurking in the soil below.
See more on planning and building paths here
Once the bed is created it’s weeded, it’s had some lovely organic matter added… now’s the time to head back to the garden centre… Yay!
Don’t worry if the plant you fell in love with in the spring is no longer flowering, still buy a few they’ll look lovely next year.
So what’s flowering now?
What will be flowering in a few weeks time?
Read the label
Will these plants be happy in the bed you’ve created?
Buy several of the plants you choose, particularly with smaller plants, flower beds always look better with plants in groups or drifts of 3, 5 or 7 it helps the bed to look more established.
Now when you get home your plants can go straight into the ground… yippee
Place the pots where you think you want to plant them then step back have a good look, walk around and look from different angles move the plants about until you are happy with the way they work together and then, starting from one side of the bed… plant away!