I recently moved into a new house, and after living in apartments for years, I was so excited to have a real garden! Our new home had green plants, but only of the weed variety. I figured since I help people plan their gardens all day here at the nursery that it would be a snap to design my new garden and install it. I was wrong. So wrong. As soon as I walked into Gill’s to get all my supplies, my thoughts on what plants to get flew out the window! After walking around for a while I remembered a customer who came in the day before who had a blank space in their garden too. So I decided to treat myself like I would a customer, and it all became clear! So if you have a new space to plan, here’s my advice.
- Decide on a color palette or a style of garden that you want. It’ll help keep your mind focused as you walk through the store.
- Check your soil. As soon as we started digging we discovered that our house is firmly situated in pure clay. So we had to come back and get Expanded Shale, Landscaper’s Mix and Cotton Burr Compost to amend it.
- If you’re working on a project with somebody take a few minutes to just walk around the store and point out what you like. It will not only inspire you, but it’ll help you both decide what will make you happy.
- Measure, measure, measure! It’s so important to have a clear idea of the size space you’re working with, because there is nothing worse than coming home with too many plants or too few.
- Still flummoxed? Try breaking down the area into smaller chunks. Do one bed at a time, or just decide on one focal plant. As you work on a more specific goal, it will get easier to make progress.
After a lot of sweat and cursing at clay (which unfortunately doesn’t help break it up), we finished our front beds next to the house. Now all we have left is the entire backyard. It’ll keep us busy at least!
-Marta
Rickie says
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