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!
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!)
Garden gnomes, those small, bearded creatures that have been popping up in gardens for centuries, have quite the storied past. But where did these little guys come from? And why are they so darned popular? It all started back in the 19th century, when a German potter named Phillip Griebel began creating garden gnomes as […]
If you’re lucky enough to have a patch of yard to do some gardening, you’ve likely spent some time dreaming up garden designs. If you’re anything like me, that involves graph paper, colored pencils, and a ruler! When thinking about what your garden will look like, think about the types of vegetables you want to grow and their specific needs. I recommend considering enclosed vegetable garden ideas.
Good fences make good neighbors, but can they make good gardens, too? A vegetable garden border fence can accomplish a few different goals all at once. For one, it can keep rabbits and other critters from wreaking havoc on your vegetables.
Is your backyard less of a yard and more of a concrete desert? Or maybe the terrain is too rocky or uneven for you to live out your vegetable garden dreams. There’s no reason to throw in your green-thumb-towel yet! There are lots of options to build a garden bed on concrete. Heck, people use cinder blocks to line gardens, so why not use them to build one? With a little strategy and planning, you can have a vegetable garden in a nontraditional space like a cement patio or walkway. Check out these five ways to prep your space and garden bed before you plant.
As an avid gardener, I’ve experienced my fair share of backaches after a day tending the plots. While there’s nothing quite like digging into warm soil and coaxing a seedling to life, I’ve spent many growing seasons wondering how to keep the pain at bay. So, how do you prevent back pain when gardening? Over […]
Why does it always seem like you spend all winter waiting, wishing, and hoping for spring, then when it arrives, your brain goes into panic mode, and suddenly you have no idea what’s going to go where, or how many of what you’re going to plant? Just me? That’s fine, that’s fine.
It’s usually after the third or fourth big snowstorm that I start sketching out my garden design for the spring. If I’m being extra nerdy, I’ll even bust out the graph paper. My desire to micromanage each square foot of my backyard is outdone only by my desire to save money. This is where recycled materials come in! In garages, basements, and tool sheds across the world, there are gobs of recyclable materials we can use to build a DIY vegetable trellis.
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.
