Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Zeroing In on Your Ideal Garden Style

After you’ve determined your basic wants and needs for your garden space, you’re ready to decide on its overall style. Gardens come in many types, themes, and moods. Yours can be informal, with less strict boundaries, a more casual look, and a wide variety of plants; or it can be formal, with symmetrical lines, crisp edges, and a limited plant palette. Or it can be one of many variations in between.

Select a style based on the architecture of your house, the lay of the land, or even an idea you saw in a magazine. Your choice also ought to take into consideration the advantages and disadvantages already inherent in your yard and gardening space, as I outline in the first half of the chapter. A garden is an emotional place for many people — a place of pride and joy, of relaxation, comfort, and meaningful projects.

Luckily, a garden’s always a work in progress, and you can improve, expand, or totally change some or all of it over time. You should also be open to surprises, like the errant sunflower that pops up near the deck or the herb that self-sows into the roses and ends up looking pretty there. So dream and plan, but be flexible.

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