Garden Landscaping
‘Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas.” Elizabeth Murray.
March/April: Spring into Spring!
Plan and plot, dream and draft, envision and execute. With springtime just around the corner, my gardening brain is going a mile-a-minute. What should I plant? What should I transplant? I need to finally set up my rain barrel. Why didn’t my garlic grow? What should I remove from my landscape? My deck needs to be stained. This is the perfect time to visualize your landscape and implement a plan of action to make those dreams come true.
When I moved into my house it was surrounded with scrubs and bushes that were planted too close to each other and the house. Jump forward 15-years, and even with diligent pruning, many of these plants are much too large for the location they were planted. So, I’m considering pulling out my overgrown Leatherleaf viburnum (Viburnum rhytidophyllum) and planting Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) in its place I have an evergreen hedge that makes a great privacy screen for my deck, but it’s slowing dying. It would be a lovely spot for a small vegetable garden. Plus, I have an Afghan pine (Pinus eldarica), which is way too close to the corner of my house and dying. I’d like to see a Korean Dogwood (Cornus kousa) planted in that spot. The white petal flowers, Sacramento green leaves, and fall raspberry-like fruit will make a lovely addition to my landscape.
This is a great time of year to design or redesign your own garden landscape. There are a lot of things to consider. How much space do you have to garden? How much money can you afford to spend? How much time and energy do you have to maintain your garden space? How would you like to use your outdoor space?
Make a wish list for your garden landscape, but keep in mind that you don’t have to get everything immediately. Part of the joy of gardening is watching plants grow, observing the landscape evolve year-over-year, and working the land with your own hands.
If you don’t know where to start, you can select a theme for your landscape. The theme can be anything that you desire such as a Zen garden, a pollinator’s garden, a contemporary garden, a color-themed garden or a victory garden. Once you have a theme, you can select plants and outdoor furniture or decorations to go along with your idea.
If you have a blank canvas or landscape to work with, simply start with a show-piece tree or scrub and go (or GROW) from there. Take into consideration the view from inside and outside the house. What do you want to see when you look out your kitchen window? What blossoms do you want to smell when you are sitting on your porch? What is the focal point you’d like guests to notice when they walk up to your front door?
Many gardeners use color as a theme for their gardens. Purple and white or red and yellow flowerbeds. How about shades of pink or an all-orange border? The opinions are as wide as your own imagination.
If you are on a tight budget, there are still many things you can do with your landscape. If you can’t afford a new fence, maybe you can afford to paint your existing fence. If you can’t afford stepping stones, you can start with mowing a pathway in the grass, later covering the path with mulch, and maybe eventually purchasing stepping stones or gravel. I’ve found outdoor furniture, ceramic pots, and yard art at garage and estate sales. Sometimes they need a fresh coat of paint, but they are still only a fraction of the cost of new merchandise. If electrical cables for outdoor lighting is too much for your pocketbook, try a solar lighting alternative.
If you have the financial means, you could add a water element to your landscape or even a small garden shed or greenhouse would be a gardener’s dream come true! If you have a small space, consider vertical gardening. There are lots of lovely vines, climbing plants, and vegetables that will happily grow on walls, trellises or fences.
As you determine what you would like to accomplish in your landscape this year, choose wisely and take on one project at a time. Maybe this year you will experiment with container gardening or raised flowerbeds. If you try containers, select larger pots so you don’t have to water them twice a day. If you are working around a specific color, you can paint the used pots to match your color of choice.
Let your creative ideas and inner beauty flow while you cultivate a garden sanctuary that will feed your soul. All gardeners understand the pure essence of dwelling outside in nature’s landscape.
Lastly, don’t ever think that you are totally in control of your garden. You are merely guiding the design, but nature is really in control. Work with the environment instead of against it. Together you will create a lovely outdoor landscape.
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