Winter may bring notions of being stuck indoors and of having to wait for the budding green of spring to awaken our senses, but winter is the best time to plan your spring and summer garden activities.
Here are some helpful tips I’ve discovered over the past few decades of gardening bliss:
Soul-search
Take time to reflect upon your personal style and desires for a green space, whether it’s for an aesthetic or a productive edible garden. Your yard and garden should be places where you find solace, beauty, and peace. When you acknowledge your own style, your garden will provide maximum benefit.
Make a budget
We’d all love to have a million-dollar English garden or a mile-wide koi pond, but finances will drive any home project. Be mindful of your budget for such garden design and maintenance, and you will likely achieve established goals and be contented with the results.
Research
Researching is paramount to successful gardening. Why waste valuable money and time on designs and plants that simply will not fare well in your desired garden areas? You may find flower and seed catalogues highly-useful research tools; they usually contain clear, color pictures, detailed information about plants’ specific needs for sunlight, space, water, and soil type. Circle the plants you like, and earmark the pages for future reference.
Imagine (Visualize)
Picture the garden design in your mind. Feel how the colors, textures, and fragrances affect your mood. Now is the time to let you be the master of your garden design project.
Design
Graph your design on graph paper. Use colored pencils to shade in the squares that represent your chosen design plants. A rough draft is fine, but be thorough, as you don’t want surprises come planting time!
Develop
Plan development takes self-control. Don’t exceed your budget! You’ve done your homework; now is your test.
Repeat (Imagine, Design, and Develop)
Your garden design project is a work of art, and reassessment, recalculations, and revisions are all parts of the process.
Find Resources
Remember those garden catalogues? Find the best price and guarantee that suit you.
Create Timeline
Utilize a calendar for creating a reasonable plan of action. There are pre-made calendars online, but you are planning a unique space for YOU.
Stick to the Plan
Flexibility is good, but discipline is BEST! Follow through to successful fruition!