Part 2: The Paper Plan (taking gardening dreams into reality)
If you are new here, this is part 2 in a series on taking your gardening dreams and bringing them into reality. Make sure you’re all caught up by reading the last blog by CLICKING HERE!
Sample Flowerbed photo used with permission
Last time on the blog we started working on our gardening dreams. We moved on to choosing the gardening spot, picked our style and finally started some rough sketches.
It’s so much fun to create all these grand ideas and come up with all sorts of ideas of things to put in our yards. When it’s finally time to get planting, it’s easy to feel lost.
So let’s continue and get those gardening dreams closer to reality!
Determine the climate
The climate is more than just knowing your plant zone. Knowing your plant zone is important, but you also need to know what happens on a day-to-day basis. List all things that affect your garden.
Is it full sun?
Is it full shade?
Is it against the side of the house? What side? North, East, South, West?
Are there trees in the way?
If you want more information I go deeper into this in my blog post Planning a Perennial Bed.
House with Full Sun Exposure
Measure
If it’s the middle of winter when you’re planning, this might be a bit difficult. So wait till you have a nice day and grab a tape measure. Jot down some rough measurements and head back inside.
Examples of things you’ll need to measure:
Length of house
Position of any existing trees, buildings, and permanent fixtures (gas lines, etc.)
Distance from the house to garden beds
Go from sketch to graph paper
Now is the time to start getting a better idea of what will fit into your garden.
Graph paper is the easiest way to do this. Make a base layer that doesn’t change and then use tissue paper over top. This way, if you don’t like your plan you won’t have to re-draw your house and any permanent structures.
Think ahead to the mature size of your trees and shrubs. It’s easy to plant your trees and shrubs too close to the house when they come in a little pot.
Just drive into any older subdivision, and you’ll see too many yards with evergreens right in front of the front window blocking all the sun. That cute little tree grew up and now is in the way and has to be cut down.
Don’t worry about actual plant sizes right now. We will go over plants later in the series. Just go with approximate sizing for now.
This is just to get your permanent structures onto paper. You can put shapes into your plan to represent a potential plant.
Plan to invest in the long term
When it comes to planting, put your trees in first.
Trees take years to establish. The saying “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago” is true. But the last half says “The next best time is today”.
So get those trees in the ground now if that’s all your budget allows. The rest can come later!.
What’s next?
Next time we will break down your budget and help you figure out where to spend your money.
Happy Planning,
Heidi
For Part 1 in this series click here
