Planning the garden for next year. Summer is the best time!
Do you want to have a beautiful garden and a great harvest next year? Get busy planning your garden.
What can and should you do in the summer and fall of 2022 for your 2023 harvest and next year’s garden design? How do you make a layout plan, choose a location for a new flower bed, when and what new crops to plant?
Choosing a location for a new flower bed
The design and choice of plants depend on the location. It can be a flowerbed in front of the house, a narrow flowerbed along the path, or a shady mix in the back of the garden. Consider the soil composition, light and moisture content of the chosen location. For each of these parameters a different list of plants suitable for your site. It is better to make this list in advance, as consultants in garden centers can not always give the right advice. Your task is to sell it, not to discourage the purchase.
Sketch a plan
How to draw up a plan of the garden and vegetable garden on the territory? Not everyone wants to do it, but believe me, with a plan it is much more convenient. It will properly determine the future sizes of plants, which will determine their variety and quantity, and in the future will not have to endlessly replant them. By the way, you can find a lot of garden and vegetable garden layout riders. Do not be afraid to repeat someone else’s garden design idea. You will still succeed in your own way.
Determine the type of flower garden
There are species flower beds – of several types of plants (for example, only roses). Plants are chosen to fill in the gaps and create bright spots when the main plant blooms.
And multi – valuable when the selection of plants is based on seasonality: For each season is selected soloist (the most important, the most spectacular plant), and this is too much help. In such flower beds, tulips, lilies, gladiolus are suitable for the role of soloists. It is better to plant plants in groups of two or three species in equal numbers. This way you will look more beautiful. This is how you can create the perfect flower garden in the country.
Don’t buy everything you like.
The foundation of the garden is created by hardy and unpretentious plants. They won’t freeze in cold winters or get wet in rainy summers. Since breeding has come a long way, you can pick up interesting new varieties even with local, long-established species. With plants, on the other hand, you have to be more careful.
It is also very important to buy seedlings of local producers, grown in our conditions. Imported plants of the same species are not very adapted to our weather conditions, because they are grown in a milder climate. The acclimatization period can be long and painful.
If you plant in your garden unpretentious flowers and shrubs, you will get another advantage. Such plants will create a special microclimate on the site and protect all other plantings from winds.
Perennial plants
They serve as the basis of the flower garden, and on their correct placement largely depends on the picture as a whole. Checking the plan, dig planting holes, water them with all the necessary fertilizers and plant crops. Each variety has its own norms of embedding in the ground: some need to deepen, others slightly lifted above the ground. By the end of September, you need to have time to divide and plant overgrown peonies, dig up the old bush, wash the rhizome, remove all old roots and divide peonies with a knife. So, let’s plan the garden and vegetable garden for fall! Read more about perennials.
Bulb
In early fall, pears are planted. The timing is determined depending on the climatic conditions of the particular region, so that the plants have time to take root, but do not sprout above the soil surface. Tulips can be planted almost until winter. If you see healthy tulips on sale at a discount, don’t hesitate to buy them and plant them. Tulips will bloom beautifully in the first year, maybe a little later than the stated date. Before planting, the bulbs should be treated with a fungicide solution and dried. Use mesh containers for planting to protect the bulbs from rodents (moles, bears).
fruit crop seeds.
Autumn seedlings are not sold at garden centers, which have the best selection of spring seedlings, along with spring seedlings on sale. It is better to buy annual or biennial seedlings with an open root system. Mature and container-grown plants are not likely to produce an abundant crop. In the first half of September, you can transplant fruit and ornamental shrubs – currants, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, hydrangea, cluster, barberries and others.
Planning a garden and vegetable garden – even annuals
Did you know that cold-resistant annual flowers can be sown under the winter? Be sure to try it – it will bring early and healthy blooms to your beds! In the first days of steady soil frost, you can sow: asters, annuals, dimorphodocus, sweet tobacco, Iberis, calendula, clarkia, cosmos, lavatera, poppies, mattiola, resort, scabiosa, Drummond phlox, escholtia, etc. .
The perfect garden: how to plan it?
It often happens that the space of the garden is organized: at the first impulse, under the influence of emotions or under the influence of advertising, seedlings, flowers, accessories are bought, and then everything happens chaotically on the plot or on the principle of “like everyone else”. How does it all end? Yes, one and the same: soon it turns out that almost everything is not all in “place” and as a result on the site has become ugly and uncomfortable.
A video on the subject
To get what you want, you need to act like professionals from the very beginning – competently plan your garden. There is no other way, only preliminary planning will allow you to get the garden you dream of.
The dining area and what kind of garden are you dreaming of? This is where you need to stop. This is the first professional step. You need to determine what kind of garden you want, and very specifically and “financially.” To do this, start with yourself.
Take a blank sheet of paper and in a calm atmosphere think and write down: what you like and do not like, what needs, hobbies, family traditions you have, how you spend your free time, what inspires you, what you want to achieve. This is very important. Let each member of your family make such a record, then such “research” will help you choose certain options.
A place of tranquility – now it’s time to assemble a family council. Gather all together, and let all your wishes create what I would like to have on the site. First, briefly describe the size of the site, and new or existing plantings and buildings. Don’t limit your imagination, write everything you want: a bathhouse, grill, gazebo, orchard, vegetable garden, terrace, rock garden, alpine hill, pond, workshop… for the children, a playground, perhaps need a cozy bench for the older members of the family. And where there’s a garden, there’s a shed and a compost pile. Discuss your lists together and assess the plot for everything you have planned. Of course, not everything fits on the site. So you need to run through the lists a few times and cross off anything you can do without, and your first list, a list of your personal priorities, will help at this point.
By the location of the beds they have identified their “objects of desire.” The next step is to create a “collection of ideas.” For this you will need a lightweight kart file folder. Gradually add all the “pictures” that relate to their future “design project”: excerpts from magazines, photos, drawings, flower beds, arbors, original ideas, color schemes, materials from exhibitions. At first, do not analyze the execution, complexity – just collect everything you like. The most unexpected solutions will not necessarily come in the same versions as their “collection”, and their unique version will consist of this “kaleidoscope”.
Well – you’re ready for the immediate planning. After all, they now know their dream “in person.” When planning, you need to consider whether you will have a brand new site or an existing living garden. A dream garden for you is definitely a reality. A completely cut down garden can also be redeemed one hundred percent, it’s all about the method used.
The office uses a very effective method that does not require any special skills. It is called the “cripple method”.
1. Garden Boundaries. Take a blank sheet of paper and draw the boundaries of your site. For this you will need a millimeter (scale of 1: 100, which means that the measuring device on the site corresponds to one centimeter on the paper. This is the scale you are most comfortable with). You can take plain white paper and use a large ruler at the same time (these rulers are sold with a different scale, one that has 1: 100). You will also need pencils (plain and colored), a compass, ruler, ruler paper, tape measure, and compass. Before you draw, measure the sides of the place with a ruler. If you do not know how to draw, the documents for your site will help – there should be a plan to scale, its configuration. You will only have to enlarge them to the desired larger scale.
Stone as a material for spontaneous construction 2. Zoning the garden. Here you have to determine what zones (parts of the garden) exist and what significance they have. Zones always have a function and are usually differentiated: living area (house, summer house, summer kitchen, yard, etc.), recreational areas (gazebo, grill area, pond, pool), household areas (garden, vegetable garden, shed, garage, workshop, etc.). However, this is only approximately, and all zones you can “set” yourself, because you already have your wishes.
The zones should be mentioned in his “design project. But only on the preliminary sheet of paper where you drew the boundaries of the site! Get some sheets of track paper. Transfer your original track paper outline in multiple copies and mark the zones on one of them. They are drawn as abstract spots of arbitrary shape. Sign them. Examine the resulting version. There may be questions about where to better place this or that zone, such as a pavilion. And you only have a few cripples. Do this and that, compare the options, move the pieces of paper for molding on the basic plan and immediately see the best one. Gradually you’ll get a complete zone plan (and determine the cost according to your needs). Practicality and rationality are the priority at this stage, because even the most spectacular design won’t appeal if the site is impractical.
Podium 3rd way. Draw them on tracing paper. First mark the intended paths of your traffic, then draw their outlines with lines. The exact width and shape can be finalized later. The main criterion is that it should be comfortable. If for decorative reasons you won’t make all the paths perfectly flat, let it be a slight curve. Fabric around the garden – connect in a single route. This is both convenient and practical. This is one of the techniques of landscape architecture.
4. Trees and shrubs. Draw them in circles of appropriate size for stalking. In the reference books, ask what size crowns of your chosen trees in the adult state and what distance is necessary when planting. A general recommendation for placement is as follows: taller plants at the bottom of the plot, beautifully flowering plants closer to resting areas. Berry shrubs, including berry bushes, can be framed along a route that can be blocked from the prevailing winds.
5. Flower pages. Draw everything on the following weatherstripping paper, because there will be many options! Design them however you like, but don’t forget the lighting requirements. Place roses in front of the house and on the south side, conifers and Heathers do well in the rockery, give an entrance to place plants that bloom longer than others.
Garden Furniture 6. Vertical Landscaping. Draw it with conventions on chase paper. Choose “your” types of vertical landscaping that you like: screens, arches, trellises, pergolas, etc.
7. Garden accents. Create accents on the schematic plan: garden accessories, plant containers, think of lighting, spectacular details. Go to the Highlight site.
Well, now for the most exciting moment! After you’ve put all your persecutions together, you’ll have your dream garden plan.
1. analysis of existing conditions. At the beginning of planning it is necessary to draw the boundaries of the garden. But then follows an analysis of the existing conditions – what they are given. You have to draw the site plan as it is now. So, you have drawn the boundaries of the plot and now draw all the objects that are already on that plan (trees, buildings, etc.). The resulting plan of what is “given” now needs to be completed. This means defining the individual properties of your site. Mark the cardinal sides on the plan by identifying them with a compass. This is very important for proper alignment of future plantings and buildings. This is your light “climate.” Highlight all micro-relief features – depressions, elevations, irregularities and sign them. Draw the direction of the slope, if any, with an arrow. Estimate its angle by eye. Pay attention to the landscape that surrounds it, the proximity of woods, water bodies and streets, how beautiful the view from this place opens to the neighbors under construction. Sign exactly on the plan what you want to hide, and what, on the contrary, should be marked. Depict objects on the plan with the help of simple geometric shapes – circles, rectangles of appropriate size, preferably colored.
If your garden is habitable, you know a lot about it. So be sure to note the direction of the prevailing winds, the “plan of movement” of the shade during the day, the location of the warmest and coldest places (those where frost is guaranteed to lie and snow lies longer). Of course, it is very good to find out the level of groundwater and soil composition (roughly accurate analysis is not required).
When analyzing the available conditions, it is very good to use a camera. It will be very convenient to shoot some corners of your homestead, so that you always have the material in front of your eyes and do not miss a single detail.
Decorative lantern 2. zoning a living garden. The main thing in zoning is to take into account those individual properties that you have identified in the first stage: the relief of the landscape, existing buildings, climatic features. If a particularly beautiful view opens from some place – it is logical to create a recreation area there, if there is a lowland or hollow – the best place for a pond will not be found. The biggest secret of design: most of the disadvantages of your site are actually a plus. It’s good luck, it’s your individual style. This will make the site unique just for you!
Limit of colors If the place is already developed, there are buildings and plantings, you need to consider each “object”, how it suits you and fits into the new areas. There is no need to be afraid of drastic changes, because everything can always be adapted to the new conditions, because it gives special decorative techniques.
All of the next five steps – planning paths, plants, flower beds, vertical landscaping and garden accents – are done on separate chase paper just as you would when planning a new garden. But until the zoning is complete, leave only the objects you want to keep in the garden on the chase paper and do not transfer them into your design.
