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!
Wooden pallets are used to transport just about everything in this world, from cosmetics and electronics to home goods and manufacturing materials. And thanks to the dawn of Pinterest and other DIY websites and TV shows, pallets have been getting a new life, by being upcycled into furniture pieces, fencing, and even garden structures. In […]
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.
I love how something so simple as a little seed, with some soil, sunshine, and water, can grow into a bountiful tomato plant or ears of corn or a dozen summer squash. I also know how frustrating it can be to watch your plants succumb to mystery diseases, get eaten by bugs or rabbits or skunks, or just wither and die because they aren’t getting the right nutrients. And that’s why I also love partner planting.
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.
No-dig gardener Charles Dowding says multi-sowing seeds is a great way to save time and space in your garden Tell me, fellow gardener… if you buy a square of onion sprouts at the gardening supply shack, do you plant each little tiny bulb one by one, or do you bunch them? When you plant carrots, […]
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?
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.
You don’t really need an excuse for planting in raised beds. They help you control the health of the soil, they define your space, and they can help deter some garden pests. My favorite benefit, though, is that raised beds are a lot easier to work with. Lower back, upper back, neck – you name it and planting in raised beds can make it better.
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.
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.
