A word in defense of boundary materials

Call me fussy, but I like enclosures and edgings in a garden, which in the context of the key areas in this chapter, can be walls or floors or portions thereof. I mean bricks, stones, plastic materials, wood, iron, and of course, also living plants. Enclosures and boundaries distinguish the cultivated area from the wild or neglected areas beyond. They embrace the plants and the people enjoying them. They create a sense of order and intimacy so you can focus on and savor what the garden contains and has to offer your senses.

Boundary materials also set the tone for a garden, making it feel formal or informal, elegant or casual. Wisely chosen, they connect a yard to a house or a yard to the surrounding landscape. They enhance the scene and flatter your plants without stealing the spotlight. Good quality materials endure for years and look like they belong.

Defining key areas so you know where to start

With your sketched yard in hand, your next step is to decide which area you want to start with and to roll up your sleeves. As I repeatedly advise, tackling everything at once isn’t easy and often isn’t realistic or affordable. Break big projects down into manageable pieces, and do them one at a time. Like rooms in a house, a garden area has four major elements. And as in building a house, going from the ground up is best. Tackle the four major elements in this order:

1. Floor, Lawn grass, a groundcover, paving materials, or good, plantable soil
2. Walls, Supplied literally by a wall of your house; by a fence, hedge, or trellis; or by backdrop of evergreens or shrubs of some kind
3. Ceiling Can certainly be open sky but may also involve an umbrella, awnings, overarching tree or large-shrub branches, or a pergola with or without a cloak of plants
4. Furniture Literally tables and chairs and benches and the like, but also major containers or garden ornaments and décor

Don’t go overboard with garden gnomes and pink flamingos. Limit yourself to one or two ornaments and keep the focus on the sense of space and the living parts of your garden.

Making your drawing match your dream garden

After you’ve completed the initial drawing of your yard or garden plot to your satisfaction, you can move forward and add the elements for your garden plan. Here are some recommendations:

1. Gather any pictures you’re using for inspiration, and prepare a list of your main goals, assets, and limitations. Go to the earlier section titled “Taking Stock: Evaluating What You Already Have” for advice on looking at your yard’s challenges and advantages. “Getting Ideas for Your Garden Space” can help you focus on your gardening goals.
2. Study your current plan carefully. Decide which features you want to incorporate into your final plan, which ones you want to highlight, and which ones you want to downplay or remove.
3. Place a piece of tracing paper over your plan.
4. Use a pencil and sketch in or leave out various features and designs. Try hard to stick to your theme or overall vision, and attempt to be organized (see “Zeroing In on Your Ideal Garden Style” for details on themes). When designing your garden plan, you don’t have to get bogged down in details, listing every plant by name. Instead, “sun-loving perennials,” “blue and yellow bed,” or “pots of annuals” may suffice.

After all the elements you’ve planned for are in place, take a good look at them to make sure the overall drawing matches the initial image of the dream garden you had in your head. If something looks awkward or looks like it needs to be moved or changed in any way, do so! Keep changing that drawing (and redrawing it if necessary) until you have a final plan that satisfies you. Only when your final plan is in your hands should you prepare yourself to move on to the next step.

Sketching out the yard you have now

Using graph paper and the tools necessary to draft out your garden, draw a plan of your site to scale, say 1⁄4” for each foot. Plot every feature you find on your site, both natural and those you or your predecessors have put in place. Use a measuring tape to get at least approximate measurements. You may want to indicate areas of sun and shade. If you’d like, you can also use photography to help sketch out your plans, Photograph panoramic sequences of every part of your property, as well as external features (such as views) you may want to enhance or hide. Paste them together to form a wide-angle shot.

Computer-aided design: Embracing your inner (garden) architect

Once the province of professionals, garden planning software is now available to the general public. Computer programs can take you through entire planning processes and generate detailed plans, alternate plans, and closeup plans. Some come with extensive plant databases. Others offer impressive show-and grow features to help you visualize what your yard will look like next year, five years from now, and so on.
To use one of these programs, you need

• Time and patience: You have to study and decipher these programs to understand what they can do, especially if you have no landscaping training. The journey should be as intriguing to you as the destination, or else you’ll get frustrated.
• Money: These programs vary a great deal in their cost. The ones designed for amateurs aren’t that expensive and have many of the features you need. If you want a full-blown design program like the professionals use, you’re talking about a sizable chunk of change, but they’re still cheaper than hiring someone.
• Good equipment: An old Mac or PC will choke on today’s gardening software; you need a powerful machine with plenty of available memory and speed. If the computer runs your kids’ video games well (or yours, for that matter), it’ll do a decent job with most design programs.

You don’t need a fancy large-format or color printer, though — just burn a disc of your plan, take it down to a good copy shop, and have someone else whip up the visuals. To find software that suits your skill level and needs, do an Internet search, examine advertisements, order brochures, and of course, talk with anyone you know who’s used one. Some community colleges, Cooperative Extension Services, and adult-education programs offer classes in using this software — they’re worth looking into!

Bringing Your Garden Ideas to Reality

Now’s the time to start getting real. Armed with your ideas and goals and wishes, step outside and bring your plans to life. Some gardeners find that the best time to do this step is fall or winter, when you have fewer distractions from overgrown plants and seasonal clutter. The outline and the “bones” of a yard are more evident then. But whenever you do this step, look beyond what’s present.

Visualize what will change and what will go in. When you’re ready to sketch out your garden plan, you can do it yourself or, if it seems daunting or is simply not your cup of tea, you can hire a licensed professional (see “Getting Professional Help for Your Garden Plans,” later in this chapter). Your overall garden plan doesn’t have to be precise or perfect. It just has to do what you need it to do — show you your yard so you can plan what you want to put into it.

Making Sure Costs Don’t Outgrow Your Budget

Having a good garden, or a series of smaller gardens on your property, does cost money. Fencing materials and paving stones aren’t cheap. Garden furnishings and décor aren’t cheap. Big plants, special small plants, and pots aren’t cheap. Potting soil and loam aren’t cheap. Fertilizer and pesticides aren’t cheap. It all adds up. And, frankly, budgeting is hard when you’re dealing with an ongoing project whose look is likely to evolve.

So here’s my main advice: Relax. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Take small bites, if need be. Tackle one project at a time and see it through, and then move on to the next one. Or divide a large project into sections and allow yourself time — even several seasons or years — to complete it. One place where you can save money is labor — use yourself, involve your partner or your kids, bribe friends with dinner, or hire neighborhood kids. And remember that, fortunately, gardening is one of those experiences in life whose journey can be as satisfying as the destination.

Here are some other money-saving ideas:

• Grow plants from seed.
• Divide perennials and shrubs and move the pieces to other parts of your yard.
• Get plants from other gardeners — some people may simply give you their unwanted surplus; others will be happy to swap. Join a local garden club, and you may be assured of these transactions!
• Make your own compost. And always compost your fall leaves instead of bagging them and sending them off to the local landfill.
• Buy from the source, whether it’s a special daylily nursery nearby or a local brickyard.
• Browse yard sales, junkyards, and antique shops. You may happen across real bargains in garden ornaments as well as pots, gates, trellises, fencing, and so on.

Last but not least, take care of your investments. It’s a sad waste to let good, costly plants or garden areas languish or die. The more you know about soil, about planting, about plant care — and this book is chock-full of useful advice — the easier it’ll be to do right by your garden. A thriving garden can repay you many times over.