Garden Plan - Garden Planning
- Garden Design - Garden Landscape Designs
Do Your Own Garden Planning and Garden
Landscape Designs
Make a Garden Plan This Season to Enjoy
The catalogues are
starting to pile up and the list of landscape improvements grows longer each day. Don’t let this
overwhelm or discourage you. Instead spend a bit of time on your garden plan now and get better results later.
You will be amazed how much fun you can have while achieving your garden landscape goals under budget and
within your schedule.
Take some time to look through your gardening catalogues. It is a great way to
gather garden plan ideas and get some feedback from everyone who uses or enjoys the garden landscape. You
might find if they are invited to help with your garden planning they might just help with weeding.
And no one is too young.
"Break out the crayons, paper, pencils, ruler, old catalogues
and make the garden plan a family
event,” says nationally known gardening expert and author Melinda Myers. “Younger children can glue
pictures of their favorite plants on a piece of paper while older ones can do the measuring, sketch the garden
and help with the planting diagram." And if you are the sole gardener and caretaker, don’t worry. The same
process works and you get to make all the decisions.
Once the family has had their input or you created your wish list of plants it is time to
make sure your gardening plan is realistic. Check to see if the plants
selected will grow in the heat and cold of your region. Make sure they can also tolerate the soil, wind
and moisture conditions. Matching the plant to the growing conditions means an attractive landscape and
productive gardens with less work. Catalogues, your local Extension service and the Internet are great
sources of information. This is great way to fight the winter blues.
Now it’s time to focus on your garden foundation, the soil under your
feet. Preparing the soil with proper fertilization helps the plants you select grow and thrive.
Start with a soil test to find out what type and how much fertilizer and soil amendments you need to add. The
soil test results can save you time, money and insure you do the best for your plants and the environment. Over
fertilizing wastes money, damages plants and can harm the environment.
While waiting for the results you can keep everyone involved with garden
planning. Gather a cup of soil from your garden. Remove any sticks and stones and place it in a
clean quart straight sided jar. Fill the jar 3/4 full and add a teaspoon of non-foaming detergent and shake.
This is a great way to burn calories or use excess energy our young gardeners often have. Then allow the soil
to settle.
You will begin to see layers of the different particles. Check the jar again in
two days. The bottom layer is the heavier sand particles, followed by the medium sized silt and last the
clay. This exercise will give you an idea of your soil structure. Compare what you found to the university lab
results. "I have used this with young gardeners and it is amazing how excited they get about the
soil in their garden. Even the more seasoned gardeners seem to enjoy this activity," says Myers.
Now select a fertilizer suited to your plants. "I prefer low-nitrogen
slow-release fertilizers like Milorganite," says Melinda. "It is goof proof and safe for gardeners of all ages
and experience to use. The organic source of nitrogen does not promote excess growth at the expense of flowers
and helps to build stress tolerant plants. The non-leaching phosphorous is good for the environment and
non-staining iron encourages a deep green color. Plus one product is good for all your gardening needs."
Incorporate Milorganite into the soil before planting your flower and vegetable gardens as
well as landscape plants. The slow release nitrogen won’t burn the developing roots or interfere with
flowering.
Give flower and vegetable plants a mid season boost. The organic source of
nitrogen in Milorganite will not burn heat and drought stressed plants. And be sure to water thoroughly and
only as needed to keep your plants looking good throughout the season.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
Garden Plan - Garden Planning - Garden Design - Garden
Landscape Designs
Do Your Own Garden Planning and Garden Landscape
Designs
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