Planning a 4 season garden - easier than you think!
Getting into the spirit of spring is easy when you start planning your garden. All your winter blues melt away
once you start pouring through catalogs and books. I love to start this around February when winter is just a
stone’s throw away but a chill is still in the air.
Planning your garden doesn’t have to be hard. Whether you’ve got a large space or something relatively small, you
can plan with ease as long as you have the tools. You should have a couple of gardening books you really like and
get some ideas of how they incorporate 4 seasons of color. Once you have decided on the items you wish to use in
your plan, write them all down and research them. This is very important, look at soil recommendations, amount of
sun needed, zones, blooming time and maintaince, which is often overlooked.
You must decide what type of garden is right for you. Are you someone who has a lot of time and looks at gardening as
a hobby and relaxing or are you limited with your time because of a busy schedule, making it difficult to devote
less than the time needed to take care of some of the plants you love? Once you figure out this portion of it, the
rest is easy.
Finally sketch out a rough draft of what your area looks like and label the items you wish to incorporate. Jot down
helpful notes at the bottom of the sketch. Take pictures of your favorite plants at nurseries, cut them out of
magazines or save them from online sources onto your desktop along with helpful information. Once you get this
completed it’s time to order from your wish list. When you have the items in hand, whether you ordered them online
or went to your local nursery, grab your sketch and place out the plants accordingly.You may decide you have to
change a few things here and there. Make sure you take into account of how big these plants, shrubs, trees, etc will
get and space them apart according to full growth so that they have room to grow and develop a healthy root system.
Now all that’s left is to wait and reap the benefits of your labor. A true labor of love!
Below are some great plants that are fast growing and do well in zones 7 where the dog days of summer can be
scorchers and void of rain. Here a few that offer beautiful color, fast growth and linger well into fall.
Russian Sage
Poppies
Dianthus
Rudibeckia
Sedum
Crocusmia
Example of a garden sketch