When you think of garden design, you might think the topic is limited to where you’re going to place new beds or whether you’ll use stone or mulch between them. But there’s so much more that goes into it.
Your garden design might start out as a dream scribbled in a notepad over the winter while you wait for the days to get longer and warmer, but there are so many more facets. For example, it’s all well and good to draw out your garden, but do you know how much it’s going to cost? Will you DIY, or will you get the help of a landscaper?
What about planning your garden beds? Will they be raised beds, or no? Tiered or vertical? Will you require a trellis or an arbor? Are you on a hill? And do you start by picking what you want to grow and design from there? Or should you plan how you want your garden to look and then choose what you want to grow to match?
When growing a food garden, it’s best to start by picking the foods you actually like to cook and eat and design around it. The rest of the answers to these questions you can find in the articles below, like how to space vegetables and herbs, whether vertical gardens are a good idea, and how to design a garden even if all you have is concrete.
In the articles below, we dive into all of these approaches to garden design, and you can learn more about it in our How to Grow a Vegetable Garden: 10 Things Every Gardener Need to Know Before Starting a Food Garden freebie. Enjoy!
As much as I love harvesting a bowl of sweet peas or enjoying an heirloom tomato right off the vine, part of the fun of gardening is planting raised garden beds. Garden design is where that artistic side comes out. I get to plan how my garden will look, where I want a footpath, and what kinds of raised beds I want.
If you’re like me you’ve exhausted all of your outdoor garden space with fruits, veggies, and herbs and are always looking for a way to maximize garden space. Or maybe you rent your home or apartment and only have a small footprint to work with. In either case, growing vegetables vertically is an excellent strategy. You may opt for a store-bought tower garden, but there are also plenty of ways to craft a DIY tower garden.
Ireland may be known for cabbage, carrots, and potatoes, but there’s much more to an Irish vegetable garden than these staple veggies. Of course, you can do a lot with these three vegetables. I’m thinking about a big pot of stew or roasted veggies or cabbage cooked up with a lot of garlic and some […]
When most people think of gardening, they envision a sprawling area with raised garden beds and trellises and neatly grown lettuces all in a row. However, some of the most beautiful gardens I’ve seen use vertical gardening techniques to grow more upward than outward. But what is vertical gardening?
When designing a vegetable garden, it’s a good idea to figure out which part of your yard receives the longest and most consistent light. Might as well get in a bit of sunbathing and call it “research,” right? For some, as luck would have it, the most sun-filled section of your yard will be the least conducive to growing. Sometimes your sunny spot is on concrete or pavement. Other times, you may find the sunniest area in your yard to be on a hillside or sloped land. You can work with that!
I’ll admit that writing about the different types of beans to grow in your garden is no easy task. You could probably write an entire Ph.D. thesis on beans if you were so inclined. There are hundreds of bean varieties, and within that, there are at least six types of bean plants.
Screens are a wonderful thing, are they not? Your screen door can let in sunlight and a nice summer breeze while it keeps out the flies and mosquitoes. A screen can help you clean your vegetables, allowing dirt to wash off while your veggies stay in place. And a vegetable garden screen? It can be […]
There’s something about a hanging vegetable arbor that turns a garden into a magical hideaway where you can breathe deep and enjoy nature. In a way, I suppose that’s true, too. Once the season is underway, you can stand underneath your arbor and be surrounded by lush greenery and dappled sunshine. I’ve even seen a […]
An above ground garden is one of my favorite recommendations for folks who want to start gardening but aren’t sure where to begin. For one thing, gardening can be tricky if you don’t have the right space for it and some folks don’t have a large yard to work with. Others may have poor soil quality on their property. Many people have mobility issues preventing them from getting on their hands and knees, and still others can’t keep up with the weeds and pests pervasive at the ground level.
My first apartment had a porch the size of a thimble and a backyard with only 10 square feet of green space. At the time, it didn’t occur to me that I could grow a thriving vegetable garden. Looking back, I see the missed opportunity and wish I could time travel to give my former self some vegetable garden design ideas for my small space. (I would also advise myself to steer clear of side bangs and gaucho pants, but that’s a tale for another blog!)
