Well rotated vegetable garden

Obviously this isn’t an option for perennial plantings, if you transplant your rhubarb or asparagus each year you won’t be able to harvest much, but any annual crops can and should be sown or transplanted into a new spot each season.

I remember a customer at the garden centre who was looking for advice about growing spuds.  He told me that he used to grow a great crop of potatoes but in the last few years they had progressively gone downhill.  They were all scabby, full of worms and basically inedible.  When I asked him if he moved his potato patch around he said “of course not, they do best in a certain corner of the garden, that’s where I’ve always planted them”.  Oh, really?  I guess common sense isn’t really all that common…  I gently pointed out the obvious and he seemed quite grateful for the info.

Potatoes

The reasons are simple and obvious, if you think about it for a bit.  If you’ve had a pest or disease problem with a certain veggie, replanting it in the same area is bound to result in even more trouble because the offending pestilence will most likely have overwintered in that very spot.  You can even run into troubles if you replant with related crops.  For example; if your leeks were infected with rust last year, you should avoid planting leeks, garlic or onions in the same place.

It’s also a good idea to consider how taxing the crop is to soil nutrition.  Any that require a lot of nitrogen (leafy plants or things that grow really big) should be followed by less demanding crops unless you are able to add a generous helping of compost to rebuild your soil.  I like to follow the heavy feeders with root crops like carrots or spuds that produce better with less nitrogen.

Corn and pumpkins...nutrient hogs!

Now stay with me here, I don’t want to make crop rotation sound difficult.  It’s not, really!  Even if all you do is to shift things around so that you’re not repeating yourself, that’s okay.  I keep track in a little black book, my garden journal.  Each year I draw a simple map of the garden, scribbling down what went where.  When I’m organizing my seeds and figuring out what I want to grow for the following season I can refer to my map (it’s much more reliable than my memory).

My garden journal

I know that there are gardeners who subscribe to much more complicated methods of crop rotation, where certain crops always follow certain other crops and a strict schedule of rotation is adhered to, but I’m just not that type of gardener.  And my garden produces quite well, so don’t get your drawers in a knot about crop rotation, just use a little common sense!

My Garden Planner

As I pull out my garden planner, I reflect on what was successful last year, and which crops failed or underproduced.  Usually the failures are entirely my fault; I tend to chuck things in the ground too early.  When we have an early spring this strategy can pay off, but it seems that spring is more often late to arrive, and my veggies limp along, neither succumbing to the elements nor thriving.  It would be better if these early transplants just died, then I could start over again.  But what usually happens is that I can’t bear to rip them out and begin again, so I end up with a poor crop of undersized onions, or corn that only grows three feet high before shifting into flowering mode, whereupon the cobs produced are miniature.

Patience is a virtue they say; I guess I’m not so virtuous!  This year I swear I’m going to resist the temptation to plant my veggie crops until the conditions are right.  Just because I MIGHT be able to plant peas in early March doesn’t mean I should, if temperatures are still wintry and the ground sodden from never-ending rain.  And I also pledge to be ruthless with cold-stressed transplants.  If I know that certain crops are unlikely to produce well because of exposure to an unseasonable spell of cold or wet weather I promise to rip them out of the garden and replace them, rather than coaxing from them a disappointing harvest.

Last year I grew a patch of early planted “miniature” corn and a second crop which grew like gangbusters to about ten feet tall producing plenty of big, juicy cobs of sweet corn.  It was a perfect example of how planting early can backfire, and I intend to remind myself of this when I get itchy to plant this spring.

Delicious sweet corn

Another lesson that I’m learning is to grow more of what is successful in my garden.  With a limited amount of space for veggies (unless I dig up more lawn) it would be sensible of me to stick with crops that perform well in my cool, moist soil.  Towards that end I plan to grow a bigger patch of carrots this year.  I’ve perfected a method of growing carrotsthat works well in this climate and for whatever reason this garden grows the biggest carrots I’ve ever grown in any garden I’ve cultivated.

Homegrown carrots are the best!

Snap peas did very well for me last season, producing continually from June through September, but I think that had more to do with the lack of heat last summer than anything else.  Harvesting fresh snap peas in Septemberwas nice, but I don’t think I’ll give the peas any extra space, we had more than enough to eat and I’m not fond of frozen peas so producing a bigger crop is unnecessary.  The carrots, however, were devoured quickly and all winter I’ve had to listen to complaints about how nasty store-bought carrots are!

Fresh peas in September

My dh requested that I grow watermelon, so I’ll have to scope out a nice hot spot and source a plant or seeds suitable for our cool climate.

I’d love to grow some dry beans for winter soups and stews.  A couple of years ago I grew black turtle beans but they were really tiny, and because I did’t have much space for bush beans my harvest was pitifully small.  This year I’d like to try a pole bean, maybe Borlotti (available from West Coast Seeds).  If I go vertical with my beans I hope to produce more in a smaller area.

Hmmm, maybe I should consider digging up some more of the lawn!

In my next post I’ll continue with my vegetable garden plans for 2012 and talk about crop rotation.

GROW GREAT GRUB - New favorite text

The weather was not particularly cooperative this weekend, so Nate spent most of the weekend organizing the office while I did more garden planning.  At the suggestion of some friends, we also picked up the book, Grow Great Grub.

It’s only been in my possession for about 2 days, but GGG is already a favorite. The author, Gayla Trail, does a great job of explaining how to make a garden grow anywhere, even a trash can — seriously, she’s got some cool stuff growing in trash cans.

The other thing that I’ve found immensely helpful is her emphasis on companion planting to create a healthy garden ecosystem – which is only touched upon in Bartholomew’s All New SFG text.  Trail gets specific as she explains the role of companion planting to fend off pests and bolster root growth in a natural way… and since a major reason to start this garden is to have access to healthy, organic food that doesn’t break the bank, I’m up for all the good advice that’s out there.

Sunday afternoon I spent a few hours hopping between GGG and SFG to work up a spreadsheet to help us start understanding what, when and where plant. I’m not sure if Nate was impressed or concerned when he saw how detailed I started got.

Garden spreadsheet! The project manager in me LOVES this stuff.

Today it’s raining after our first big snowstorm of the year.  It was nice being snowed in.  My girlfriend Molly and I were well prepared and it gave us time to start planning the garden.  We’ve planned out a couple of gardens before and know most of the ins and outs, but this is a whole new level of size and variety.  I don’t know what I would do without Molly’s help.  I would probably wait until the last minute, rush out to buy a bunch of seed packets and dug up the whole garden planting seeds willy-nilly.  Molly you Rock.

But back to the weather, or rather, the heat.  This old house gets plenty cold without a fire going.  We had a decent amount of wood set aside at the beginning of the season, but we didn’t ration it well.  And now that the season is particularly bitter and perpetually slushy with looming bad weather and power outages, we’re low on wood and what we have isn’t that dry.

Now the question is, is it cold enough to justify starting a fire?  I mean its not like we’d freeze or anything, but each time we decide it is we gamble that further down the line it won’t be as miserable or we’ll somehow get more wood.  But with neither of us bringing much in right now we’ll probably just have to tough it out.

Options, options, options

We’ve got our boxes planned out (5 – 8′x2′ boxes and 1 – 3′x3′ for a total of 89 ft. sq. ), now we’re stuck figuring out what’ll go in them.

For Sure

• Carrots
• Peas
• Peppers
• Jalapeños
• Tomatoes: Roma & Tomatillo
• Cabbage
• Onions
• Squash
• Zucchini
• Beans

Really excited for this one!

Serious Contenders

• Spinach
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Swiss Chard
• Watermelon
• Corn
• Scallions
• Cauliflower
• Potatoes
• Asparagus
• Ginger
• Sweet Potatoes
• Bok Choy
• Garlic
• Strawberries

Herbs and Flowers – Companion Plants

We’ll also be interspersing companion plants throughout the boxes as most appropriate.  I’m just learning about companion plants, but from what I’ve read in a new book, Grow Great Grub, these will be especially important to help maintain a healthy organic garden.

The very interesting thing about the SFG method is that once a square has been harvested, you can immediately replant a new “crop” in that space — allowing you to easily extend the growing season, so we’ll be doing spring, summer and fall crops.

If anyone has recommendations of anything listed (or anything we left out!) pass ‘em along…

This time of year, you’ll see me with my stack of seed catalogs, but not far away is my stack of cookbooks and magazines for inspiration.

The reason I planted an herb garden a few years ago is that for years I had seen so many recipes in cookbooks and magazines that called for fresh herbs.  And I wanted to make them!  But fresh herbs cost a mint (pun intended) at the grocery store, and truth be told they really aren’t “fresh” inside those little plastic clamshell boxes anyway.

Grocery store herbs are reminiscent of fresh herbs, but lack the intense smell and flavor of freshly harvested herbs.

Because I love food–and because I love the people for whom I cook food–I had to grow my own herbs.  I couldn’t go wasting money on mediocre (at best) grocery store herbs and I HAD to make those great recipes I was reading and collecting.

Now I like to go back and page through my cookbooks or magazines and think about what we’d like to try in the coming year.  I see a great looking beet salad and I make a mental note to choose beet seeds that will be perfect for that.  Eggplant recipes have inspired me to grow a few different varieties.  When thinking about what to plant, it helps to think about what I will cook.

Last year I added tarragon to my herb bed.  How have I lived without tarragon my whole life?  I was inspired by recipes to add this and now I cannot imagine summer grilling without it.

So I’m looking forward to trying some new recipes this growing season and in preparation I’m going to be ordering the needed seeds.  I think of it as planning for dinner six months in advance.  Might seem a bit extreme to some, but to me it’s much less extreme than my herbs and veggies traveling thousands of miles to end up on my dinner plate.

A little advance garden planning makes it easy to throw together delicious meals during the growing season, such as this grilled chicken marinated in herb mayonnaise with fresh herbs.

Guiding texts.

About 3 years ago I had the great pleasure of visiting my friend Heather’s office: DeLaney Community Farm in Denver, CO.  It was amazing to see so much fresh, healthy food being grown on such a small space of land.

Now that we’re embarking on our own growing experience, we’re taking as much inspiration as we can from Heather’s farm and other gardening pros.  Mel Bartholomew’s book, All New Square Foot Garden will be our guiding text.  Here’s a quip from Wikipedia that pretty well sums up why this method works: “Harvests per foot of garden are increased due to the rich soil mixture, well-spaced plants, and lack of weeds produced when following Mel Bartholomew’s method.”

We’re also using Let It Rot: The Gardener’s Guide to Composting.  We’ve invested in a compost tumbler, a counter top compost bin and an electric chipper/shredder (because my husband doesn’t pass up a chance to expand his power tool collection).  Now with these pieces in hand, we’ve already started putting our scraps and debris to use in the compost bin.

Our next steps will begin in the coming weeks:

• Digging up the side yard, creating the drainage system and constructing the raised beds
• Finalizing the garden planting plan
• Cultivating the compost

Wish us luck…

2. Make a list of the plants you lack but would like to own.

3. Try to learn something of the origin, history and habits of your special favorites. It will make it a lot more meaningful when you work in the garden next summer.

4. Learn the Latin names of your plants.

5. Paint the handles of your small hand tools in bright colors so they are easier to find.

6. Study the catalogues.

7. Put in your order for seeds and hard to find plants now, before the best items are sold out.

8. Feed the birds.

Now as we’re well into our first year of marriage, it’s Nate who is leading the charge to move us beyond recycling and into the world of composting and rainwater harvesting.  These changes are about maximizing our resources — getting the most out of what’s freely around us — and living in a way that is respects the balance between human nature and mother nature.

And now, even on this gray January day, we’re making plans for our first garden.  We’ll be using the square-foot-garden method, creating our own compost and using rain barrels.  No doubt that we’ll make plenty of mistakes, but we also hope to have some fun and harvest a few veggies while we’re at it.

Most major seed catalogs have been mailed out by this time. If you don’t get any catalogs, most are free and it is easy to sign up for them online. Of course, most companies have online catalogs too that have everything available rather than what fits in a catalog. That said, I really enjoy thumbing through the colorful pictures and descriptions in my own hands.

A few favorites are Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.org), Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds.com), Park Seed Company (parkseed.com) and Seeds of Change (seedsofchange.com). There are plenty of other seed and plant companies, these just happen to be my favorites.

The downside to ordering from a catalog is most of the time you are buying seeds. This is fine for direct seeded crops (beans, corn, carrots, cucumbers, melons, etc.) but for long season crops you will need to start your own inside. Many people aren’t really set up to start their own seeds inside and to do it right, you really need to have a good light source (preferably a grow light) and space dedicated for 6 to 8 weeks for their growth. Tomatoes and peppers are probably the most popular veggies that need to be started indoors. These days, a good number of catalogs offer transplants that will be shipped to you when it is planting time. They are more expensive, but cheaper than buying a plant stand with lights. The selection is more limited too, but the most popular varieties are certainly offered.

Plan, plan, plan. I say this, but every year I buy some seeds and have no place to plant them. With seeds, this means you’re only out a few bucks, but if you buy transplants, you are out more. It is also important to make sure you are observing the spacing requirements for each plant when it will reach full size. Little tomato plants can easily get put too close together when they are first planted and then they grow up and are competing for resources and they just won’t produce well.

There are a couple of websites out there with planning software, but really paper and pencil work best for me. Graph paper is great if you want to get fancy. Just put your plot down and start penciling in your crops. Make sure you put tall plants on the north side of short plants (otherwise they will block the sun- although, with the right crops it might work…lettuce on the north side of corn might extend your lettuce season into hotter weather).

My personal goal this year is to preserve a lot of my harvest. I got a canner for Christmas and am really excited to make and can my own salsa and tomatoes for the winter. If you want to explore canning, make sure you do plenty of research. To be safe, you really need to follow some basic rules. I might post some info on this later.

Happy Growing,

Matt

Last years vegetable plot.

It`s the winter holidays now and a good chance to dig over our vegetable corner. For a while now, we have wanted to improve the soil quality and take out the remaining bamboo roots. Also we want to make our veg patch more efficient and maximize our available space. Last year we had one corner that had good soil and we grew tomatoes, sweet peppers, okra and aubergines.

This years terrace style vegetable garden.

 This year I want to make a much bigger terrace style veg garden to use all the available space. I dug over the soil and buried any small weeds, took out many stones and bits of glass, wrestled with the bamboo roots and mixed in some cow manure from the local garden centre.

One barrow load of bamboo roots.

Eventually, we hope to have 4 vegetable plots. Two will be on the lower level and two on the higher terrace level. If all goes well, we should be able to rotate our crops every year and prevent diseases. Hopefully, this year we can grow more vegetables by ourselves and be less dependent on the supermarket.

Cow poo.

I gift canned goods each year to teachers. It is appreciated by them as well as their families and it doesn’t cause clutter in their lives. And let’s face it, in these tough times, food really hits the heart, soul and the stomach at a budget friendly cost.

I just got my seed savers exchange catalog for planning next year’s garden. ALREADY! So, NOW is the time to hit your library and check out all the books you can on growing vegetables and planning a garden for refreshing your mind and to help you plan out next year’s garden. Maybe you want to start a garden? add something or some space to an existing garden plan? Do it now because in late february you won’t be able to find these books (someone will have beaten you to it!). Besides you’ll want to know what seed you want to start indoors too – you will start this in february perhaps….

Tomatoes for hanging baskets are almost always some type of cherry/grape tomato, and the plants usually have some type of dwarfing characteristic that makes them perform well in a hanging basket. The “trailing” characteristic is also touted widely, but I’m not sure how much that is breeding versus the natural habit of the tomato vine.

Most of these varieties are available from more than one catalog, so you don’t have to buy them from any particular one.

Tomatoes for Hanging Baskets/Containers

• Cherry Falls (red cherry) – Grows only 6″ tall, but cascades for 36″ of vines. Indeterminate.
• Red Rambling Stripe (red with green stripes cherry) – trailing, 14″ tall and 36″ vining; high yields
• Gold Rambling Stripe (gold with green stripes, cherry) – trailing, 14″ tall and 36″ vining; high yields
• Little Sun (yellow cherry) – 10″ tall and 14″ wide; dwarf determinate, not trailing; early (50 days)
• Lizzano (red cherry) – 2011 All America Selections Winner; semi-determinate; disease resistant; trailing 20″ long and 20″ wide; yields late into the season
• Terenzo (red cherry) – 2011 All America Selections Winner; compact determinate, 16″ tall and 20″ trailing; crack resistant; yields all season
• Sweet ‘N Neat Scarlet Improved (red cherry) – 10-12″ tall; compact determinate; very high sugar content

Also of interest, but more for a larger container than for a hanging basket would be the Container’s Choice Red tomato which is a 6-8 oz beefsteak tomato that is a compact determinate.

I can’t believe I’m talking about tomatoes again only 2 months after we gave up and pulled our tomatoes out after this horrible summer!

I have managed many of my own renovations as well as renovations for my clients, therefore I know how time consuming and demanding the role of Owner Builder is.  To have a builder you trust and have a great relationship with is hard to find, and those with a great reputation don’t come cheap. So which way to go whether it’s Owner Builder or handing all responsibilities and management to a builder is a tricky decision even for me.

With all the information and research at hand, I decide that the best direction for me is to take this challenge on as Owner Builder however, I have decided to employ a site manager to undertake the day to day construction activities, co-ordinate the sub-contractors and manage the site.  This allows me more time to focus on the materials for construction, finishes and overall design rather than being bogged down the arduous tasks of ordering and ensuring delivery of materials, coordinating and supervising the site and sub-contractors, and overall relief of the stress which comes with such an immense project.

Now to focus on developing the concept plans for the house. The plan or vision for the development is to create a home to suit its enviable position. Located on a sloping site with great water and district views, the current layout with its difficult access doesn’t make the most of its potential.  Surrounded by other new homes, this house really fits the description of “worst house in the best street” scenario.

The pool in the rear faces due north, therefore the plan is to leave it in its current position however, give it a total facelift. With pools, as I have been told, unless you are keeping the shape the same, you are more or less building a new pool.

The rear landscape poses many issues for me. I think the most desired result is to create an environment or landscape that brings the outdoors in and takes the indoors out. However with the steep incline, walking out of the back door of the existing house, you are faced with an overbearing and very intrusive natural rock and retaining wall on top of which the pool is located. For me the greatest and most important challenge is to create more of an open view to the rear. This will create a more seamless flow between the house and its internal living spaces with the rear garden, entertaining areas and pool.

Rear Landscape Plan

In order to create this feeling of openness and connectivity, with the help of the landscape designer we plan to create a terraced rear garden with each level having its own designated use.  The new design will encompass a level lawn, with a small retaining wall softened by greenery leading up to a semi enclosed entertainment pavilion with a Vergola, outdoor kitchen and dining facilities.

From this point another short flight of stairs take you to the pool area, featuring timber decking, sunbeds, more landscaping amongst natural rock outcrops.

To overcome the hard surfaces of the boundary walls, I plan to incorporate the use of vertical gardens, outdoor fireplaces and feature walls. The landscape plans below give really transforms the rear into a real entertainers dream.

Front Landscape Plan

The landscape needs at the front are also critical. The current access as mentioned is very steep and limited to the driveway. With a double garage being positioned at street level, I want to create a grand entry to the house by designing a separate entry via security gates which will take the visitor up gradually. The garden and entry is the first point of contact and visually it speaks volumes.  I believe that with the new design for the front landscape which features terraced and layered gardens,  pond, natural stone and an abundance of ‘green’, it will give the visitor an exciting first impression and glimpse of what lies ahead.

I think a crucial mistake people make is leaving the landscape design until last. I have learnt that attention and thought about the landscape  is critical to the overall success of the redevelopment. You can have a beautiful home, however with an incomplete and poorly designed garden and outdoor space, the potential of reaping the rewards and enjoying the house becomes very limited. A great garden can transform the way we live especially when coupled with a house design that flows and works in unison and harmony with the outdoors and its spaces. In regards to aesthetics, there is nothing more appealling to the eye than striking architecture working in harmony with a well balanced garden, it gives one the impression that the house naturally belongs with its surroundings….

Now that’s the landscape component sorted, next we move onto the house design and concept…stay tuned….

TinaCx

I don’t really feel anymore prepared than I would have. Half of the things I’m growing this year I’ve never grown before, so I have no idea what shape or how big they usually get! Here’s what it looks like (yes, it’s hella crude). Click to enlarge:

I suck at this crap.

Before I get into the garden planning, do you see how many tussicks (grasses) I had to trim down to be presentable?!

Tomatoes will be going in pots, as well as the cucumber that will be next to the fence I’m training the peas and beans to go up. I think I can train the cucumber up the fence? Hopefully? I need to figure out where to stick my cherry tomato plants. I’m wondering if I can grow those in pots, too. Does anybody out there know? Have you ever grown them in pots? I have a good pile of medium-large pots and some larger ones I was going to use for regular-sized tomatoes.

I also think I’ll be doing a spring crop and a summer crop of the beans, peas, and lettuce…I think I’ll have enough time.

As for the herbs in the top bed in the pic, I was thinking I might just do my herbs in pots instead, since I’m going to grow mint and two kinds of thyme that I think can spread everywhere (I know the mint can). And I plan on putting basil in with my tomatoes, since they’re good companion plants.

Also, Ben dropped a gardening bomb on me. He wants potatoes. I don’t know where to stick them either. Ben’s Dad suggested I stick them in front of the raised bed at the top of the picture…in the actual ground, behind the grass, sort of where a space is there. He said potatoes were often used to break in the ground at a new house before the lawn was planted, since the ground there is pretty much caked down. Once you get past the top layer, it’s not so bad, but those telephone people really stomped it down there to get it back in after they dug it all up. I’m not sure I really want to bother? Does that make me a bad girlfriend?

Let me know what you think of the garden plan. Tell me of your gardening experience with what I’m growing? Am I nuts? Am I doing it wrong? XD

When starting to plan a garden, at first you have to estimate the values and disadvantages of your site. Analyze, where you have great views – to the neighbouring forest or lake, to a beautiful tree or to a hill inside your territory, mark them on a plan. Mark also important views like from the living room and from the terrace. At the same time analyze bad views e.g. to the neighbour’s household area and mark on a plan any views, that you would like to screen. Evaluate the existing trees in your garden and decide, which ones you would like to keep. Make a wish list, what elements you would like to have in your garden: a tree house for children, a vegetable garden, a barn, a gazebo, a fireplace, a dog’s kennel etc. After you have understood, what you want from your garden, you have to embrace all planning aspects in your garden design.

Functional aspect in garden design

Functional aspect is the most important in garden design. The garden has to be logically arranged and convenient in use for all the projected functions. The functional planning starts with the division of functional zones. A garden can have a representative zone, a recreational zone (for passive and active recreation, for example, sports), a household zone, a children’s playground zone and other zones. The representative zone usually is situated in front of the house and it includes the first view towards the garden. The representative zone has mainly a decorative function therefore it should be decorative in all seasons. Evergreen plants of sculptural forms are appropriate for the representative zone as well as plants with decorative leaves, a long flowering period, decorative grasses and other plants, which have a long decorativity period. The front yard can have special decorative elements like ornamental pavement, a fountain or a sculpture, a decorative pond or an art installation. A recreational zone is an area, where the family spends the leisure time outdoors. It usually contains a terrace or a gazebo with a dining table, a lawn area for different activities, it also can have a swimming pool or pond, a hill, some recreational equipment like a trampoline or a rocking chair etc. Depending on the size of the garden a sports field can be included in the active part of the recreational area – for basketball, for tennis, for volleyball and other sports. For the recreational zone such plants will be appropriate, which have a long flowering period during summer time, also scented plants can be welcome nearby the terrace. A family with children will find it important to design a children’s playground. It should be situated in a garden area, which can be conveniently supervised by adults – in direct view from the kitchen, living room or garden terrace – choose a view point, where you spend most time, when being at home. Plan the playground in a place, where the sun can approach it, but also shade is available in hot weather. There are different types of play equipment for children up to 6 years of age and from 7 to 14 years. If you have children in both age groups, arrange the play equipment in separate play areas. Choose the concept of the play equipment according to, what skills you want to develop most: equipment for sports, gymnastics, equipment for imagination games, for social development, adventure style equipment etc. In the children’s play area edible plants can be planned as well as richly flowering plants. Avoid plants with thorns and it is extremely important to avoid poisonous plants in the garden at all, if you have children. The household zone is an area, where a parking lot for cars can be situated, a barn, a greenhouse with a vegetable garden, a compost heap, a fenced area for the dog, a litter-bin, a storage place for construction materials etc. The household zone can be screened from the rest of the garden by a row of dense plantings or it can also be left open and arranged in a pleasant way. There are modern concepts for arranging a vegetable garden now, that finally it can be just as decorative as the main flowerbed in the garden. If you prefer to screen the household area, use evergreen shrubs, an evergreen clipped hedge or a trellis with evergreen climbers. When the analysis of functional zones is accomplished, arrange the functional elements in the garden accordingly to the functional zones. Do not mix in one zone elements from other zones, which do not belong there.

All planned activities in the garden have to be arranged in functional zones

Ecological aspect in garden design

Ecological aspect is about the naturalism of the site, about the ecological compatibility of plants as well as about the global ecological situation. The natural values of your garden are unique, they can not be recreated by a man’s hand therefore they should be preserved and enhanced in the garden design. If you have a natural forest stand with a forest ground cover, a wetland or a natural meadow, these are biotopes, which grow in the specific conditions of your territory – preserve them and place new elements in these places delicately by using natural materials and wild plants. Think twice before cutting an existing tree or eliminating a group of shrubs.

Plant choice for the garden plan

It is important, that you examine the ecological conditions of your site before starting to plan new plantings. All plants have specific growing conditions and they should be planned according to the conditions of your site, where they can grow. There are sun loving plants, which will grow only in full sun conditions, shade tolerant plants, which can grow in sun or semi shade and shade loving plants, which will grow only in full shade. The demand for humidity also differs: some plants need humid soil conditions, some – dry or medium humid. The demand for nutrients differs: some plants will grow only in fertile black soil, but others are satisfied with sandy soil. There are some plants, which can grow in a salty soil – in territories near a sea or ocean. The pH of the soil should be checked in different parts of the garden. Most coniferous plants, heathers and rhododendrons love acid soil conditions, but there are others, which grow only in alkaline conditions. Be sure, that you choose plants, which are appropriate for your climate conditions, check the plant’s winter-hardiness before buying it. Experience shows, that some shops sell imported plants, which are not appropriate for the local climate conditions. Get acquainted with the expanding properties of the projected plants. In mixed flowerbeds do not plant aggressively expanding plants, which can take over the whole flowerbed and lawn. Do not mix plants with opposite needs together. If you will plant an alkaline soil loving plant, for example, next to a plant, which grows in acid soil conditions, one of the plants will always decay no matter how you improve the soil. Another common mistake is planting the plants too close to each other. When buying small plants in the nursery it is hard to imagine exactly, how will they look like, when they grow up. Find out the grown up size of each plant and place them by keeping a sufficient distance from the surrounding plants and other garden elements. A possibility for slowly growing plants is to plant them twice more dense and after they grow wider and reach each other to remove every second plant. Another important aspect to know is the flowering time of each plant. There are different approaches for arrangement of flowerbeds depending on the flowering time. One approach is to arrange the planting group so, that there are always some plants flowering and they change each other sequentially during the season. Another approach is to plan a whole planting group flowering in the spring, another one flowering in he summer and another one flowering in the autumn. This approach can be used, if the garden space is sufficiently big.

To choose the right plant for each specific place in your garden, use our Garden Plant Catalogue, where a searching program will find plants, which match the selected conditions of every place in your garden.

When designing your garden, think globally. Do not use materials, which can harm the environment. Think, how you will dispose your litter – plan separate litter-bins for each litter type. Use compost, natural fertilizers and solutions instead of chemicals, pesticides and herbicides. Decontaminate your waste water and reuse it for watering the garden, for example. Use garden lamps on solar batteries or even plan solar cells on your terrace roof. Plan garden elements, that you can use alternately with your neighbours, if it can save energy. Use energy saving heating systems. There are many ways, how you can think sustainably about the global ecosystem, when planning your garden. If we do it today, our children will benefit from it in the future.

Visual aspect in garden design

Visual aspect determines the way, how your garden will look like after establishment. There should be a united visual concept for the whole territory. Each garden is a composition of art like a painting or a sculpture or even a musical composition – it’s purpose is to express a sense of harmony. There are unlimited possibilities, how to choose the garden design concept. The starting-point of design is the existing situation – the surrounding landscape and the architecture style of the buildings. For natural landscape surroundings, a garden next to a source of water, a hilly territory or a building designed in modern, plastic forms, a dynamic design concept will be appropriate, made of naturally waving forms and disperse elements. The newly planned garden should be perceived as a whole with the buildings, surroundings and existing garden elements. For a geometrical building, designed by a system of rectangles, a geometrical garden will be appropriate, designed in squares of pavement, lawn areas and plantings. It is suggested to implement forms or materials in the garden design, which reflect the architecture elements of the house. If the house and the surrounding landscape suggest different design concepts, the territory can be divided in different concept zones: an artificial zone by the house, a medium artificial zone in the middle and a natural zone in the outskirts, where the garden borders a natural territory.

Dynamic garden design concept

Colors in garden design

When choosing garden materials and plants, some visual moments should be taken into consideration. Warm colors always look closer, thus minimizing the perceived garden space, but cold colors on the contrary extend the perceived space. The flowerbeds can be arranged according to different color concepts – similar colors in one color gamma can be projected together by playing with different textures and plant forms, completely contrasting colors can be united to achieve an abundant, richly flowering impression on the background of a homogeneous lawn or hedge as well as similar colors can be arranged by having one outstanding color as a contrast element.

Arrangement of space in garden design

When planning changes in the terrain, it is important to know, that all changes in level make the perceived and usable space smaller. Also to divide a small territory with plantings is not advisable – it is better to arrange the plantings around the territory by the border to screen the boundaries and make the garden look bigger. The most important aspect of space arrangement is scale – the plantings and other elements should be proportional to the size of the territory, the house and the existing garden elements. The size of plants should be chosen depending on from what distance the composition will be viewed. When choosing the right scale, the next step can be an interplay of rhythm and dynamics in the garden composition. A successful design can implement the rhythm of the house facade, the design of a decorative pergola or another garden element into the layout of the garden.

Historical aspect in garden design

Historical aspect is important in territories with a significant historical value. For example, an authentic baroque style building would require a corresponding baroque style garden with symmetry axis, clipped ornaments of hedges etc. It is also suggested to examine the history not only of the site itself, but also of the surroundings. What does the historically traditional garden look like in this area? Maybe there are some special features or materials used? If the house is built in a traditional style, then it would be appropriate to plan the garden also by keeping the traditions of the area.

Symbolic aspect in garden design

Symbolic aspect is relevant in territories with a special symbolic meaning – a memorial garden, for example, a garden, that is dedicated to somebody, a healing garden, a graveyard or a garden for a building of a special meaning. Also a very common private garden can be designed with a symbolic idea. The garden design can express emotions: joy or grief, pain or contemplation, anxiety or serenity. It can also express a tribute to some idea or a person. Each private garden expresses a tribute to the owner’s personality since it displays the taste and preferences of the owner. The symbolic effect can be achieved by the layout of the garden, which leads to some symbolic element, by a symbolic garden installation or even the whole movement through a garden can tell a story, that the designer has intended to demonstrate. Symbolic meaning can be displayed also in a direct way: symbolic signs can be engraved in some garden elements or displayed in the arrangement of pavement. Symbolic names can be given to garden paths, squares and buildings.

Psychological aspect in garden design

Psychological aspect is relevant in each garden. The garden can have different psychological purposes but the most common purpose is to achieve psychological comfort by the garden design. Each person has a different optimal level of the surrounding impact therefore it is important to understand the personality of the person using the garden space to design an environment, which would be perfectly comfortable for the certain person. Important factors of the design are: the perceived harmony of the design, the perceived logical structure, complexity, mystery, uniqueness, multifunctionality, privacy, lightness, spaciousness, colorfulness, contrast and materials, that everybody consciously or subconsciously evaluates in the garden. Usually a harmonic, logical, lightsome garden is preferred with pleasant materials used. The amount of harmony, logics and light can be different for everybody to perceive the garden as harmonic, logical and lightsome. Other factors like complexity vary in preferences – some people like a more complex design but some think – the simpler the better. Mystery is a mysterious factor indeed, it is considered intriguing, if the whole garden doesn’t reveal at once to the sight, but too much mystery can also be perceived as threatening. Anyway an unexpected secret found in the garden can be very exciting. Uniqueness is usually a welcomed factor to design something unique, that others can admire. But there are also cases, when people want a common garden, kept in conservative traditions. Multifunctionality is especially useful in small garden spaces. A retaining wall can be also used as a bench, for example, as a table or as a support for some children’s play equipment or more originally as a blackboard for drawing with crayons. Multifunctionality also gives the user the psychologically necessary sense of control and choice. Every day the user can choose to use the multifunctional element in another way or to rearrange it somehow differently. Privacy is an intimate need, which depends on the person’s character as well as on the mentality. There are nations, which prefer to screen the whole garden and especially the recreational area from all outside views. Other nations on the contrary perform a more social lifestyle – willingly place a bench with a view towards the street, organize family events in the frontyard and invite all neighbours to participate. The perceived privacy is also directly connected to the sense of security, which is an extremely important factor for a person’s psychological comfort. To provide a higher sense of security different security elements can be planned starting from a fence and dog’s kennel and ending with surveillance cameras.  Sense of security is also obtained by planning dense plantings, a wall or other garden elements behind all rest places to provide psychological protection from behind.  Spaciousness concerns the whole scale of the garden. For small gardens there are design tricks to make them look more spacious. Big gardens on the other hand, if they are too spacious, they can become comfortless. In a big garden it is suggested to plan secluded rest areas to have a cosy rest, but also to maintain long views to have the impression of spaciousness.  Colorfulness just like contrast should match the owner’s personal taste. If the garden is too colorful and contrasting, it can become obtrusive and disturbing, but if it lacks color and contrast, it can become too boring. The responsible task of the designer is to plan the different perceived factors in balance to create a harmonic environment.

Economical aspect in garden design

Economical aspect – during the planning process it is important to estimate, what expenses are planned for the projected garden. Depending on the budget size more expensive or cheap garden materials can be planned. The plants can also be bought cheaper in small size or more expensive bigger or even grown up plants. It is possible to plant even grown up trees, if big scale machinery is applied. When planning the garden, you should choose, how expensive elements you want in the garden – a heated pool or a bigger pond, a fountain or a sculpture, big paved areas and an irrigation system can make the garden establishment considerably more expensive.

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Garden plan will answer several questions such as what plants will be suitable for home-grown cultivation? How much do your gardening spots will receive shade over seasons? Consider your plant combination will work best with your particular garden space conditions.

A garden plan should consider plants, vegetation and trees selection. Focus in your mind on intentions and desires for your garden. Plan your garden according to its purposes, for instance outdoor entertaining function needs much shading spot instead of vegetable garden should be located in sunny area. Keep on your mind the garden’s time to blossom and harvest particularly if you are planning garden for holiday home.

You should also remember to avoid hazard such as venomous plants and seed. You should select plants with aromatic flowers, various colors and textures, particularly, if the frequent visitors are small children.

Note down a list of your most wanted plants, and afterward categorize them by shape, texture, color and blossom time/ gestation period. Choose suitable plants requiring less maintenance in extreme season, so you don’t have to spend more time in your garden if you are too busy. Like pine which approximately has forty species around the world and other evergreen plants maintain their verdant color during the seasons, so they are recommended to your garden instead of asters and mums that entail more upkeep in the fall.

At this moment, your specific needs and plants selection can lead to your work. Anyway, you should consider other things of gardening. Understand the free time around your activity you want and have to allocate in your gardening project each season, particularly when you are cultivating plants at holiday home.

Moreover you can plan your garden landscaping in progress stages, especially if you have less money to spend. So you can optimize its magnificence and function during all stages.