Getting Ideas for Your Garden Space

After you take inventory of your garden space and yard in general, consider what sort of garden you want. Before you get bogged down in choosing plants and deciding where to plant them, think in broad terms once again. How do you want to use your garden? What are your needs and expectations? Naming your goals can help you further clarify the details of your plans. If I had one single, strong piece of advice to give you at this point — and I do! —it would be this: Be realistic. Identify, admit, and allow for special uses and considerations. Working within an honest, clear-eyed framework is so much easier.
A beautiful garden can grow up around your “givens.”