Planning Your Garden

One of the most important steps to having your own garden is the planning that goes into it. If you don’t take the time to plan your garden before you plant it you may end up with a lot of plants that don’t look good, don’t serve the purposes you want, or can’t survive in the natural conditions of your garden or your climate. You can also run the risk of having a lot of plants that aren’t compatible with each other and that can be detrimental to the growth of your garden. Also be wary of what kinds of animals or insects certain plants will attract or deter.

Before you begin to plan your garden the best thing you can do is decide what kind of garden you really want to have and how you can fit that into the resources you have available to you. If you have a large backyard you may be more interested in the presentation and general appearance of it but you also might have a bit more in the way of money to spend. If you have a smaller backyard you might want to get the most out of it you can by growing vegetables and herbs. Or maybe you don’t have any land to work with at all and will be using containers and planting boxes to garden in. Whatever your situation sit down with a pen and some paper and get started on deciding what you want your garden to be like. Ask yourself questions about how you want your garden to look and to feel? Figure out what kind of plants you want to grow, what kind of space you have, and what sort of resources are available to you. Do you have a fair amount to spend on new gardening supplies or would you be better off growing smaller plants in containers while you build up your collection of gardening tools? Questions like these can help you get a clear idea of what you want to go into and come out of your garden so make sure you answer them before you run out to the gardening store to buy a bunch of plants.

When you decide what you want to plant in your garden get some graph paper, measure how much space you have, and then mark out the parameters of your garden on the graph paper. This way you can get an idea of how much space you have to work with and will give you a chance to move things around and put what plants you want where. It’s also important to have taken a look at the light that comes in to certain areas of your garden and other surroundings that may be of concern to whether or not your garden is successful - like how close it is to the street, other neighbors, water sources and so on.

Once you’ve done that you can begin arranging your garden to suit your needs and preferences and after that all you have to do is start planting!