Is this your first garden? If so, I envy you – what an exciting time! There’s nothing quite like planting your first seeds and watching them grow. You plant them in the soil, add some fertilizer, and then patiently keep coming back in the mornings to check the progress. And with a little luck and sunlight, you’ll have some new blooms within a few weeks. Plus, when you live in a place like the San Joaquin Valley? This stuff practically grows itself. That sweltering heat has to be good for something, right?
Designing your garden is another critical step that can make things run smoothly. Are you surprised to learn people plan these things out? That’s another joy of gardening. Unlike planting a lawn, you can pick specific spots for plants and flowers – and prune them so they stay within their zone.
But enough about the planting – let’s talk design!
- What are your goals?
Ultimately, we all have the same goal: plant a garden. But what do you want from this garden? Just something pretty? A place to grow all types of plants?
I ask because location is a vital consideration. Some flowers can be exposed to the sun for many hours, while others do better with indirect sunlight. And in the Central Valley, being exposed to sunlight means being exposed to triple-digit heat; some plants can’t handle that.
Therefore, when picking a location, keep this in mind. The amount of sunlight can dictate the type of plants you can grow.
- We recommend a raised garden bed
It’s just a much easier scenario, once you get past the set-up. With a raised garden bed, you’ll avoid most weed creep and many pest problems, since there’s a barrier separating the bed from other plant life.
- Think about colors
If you were painting the living room, you’d debate what colors to choose, right? Well, why wouldn’t you do the same with flowers? There’s no surprises here: we can pick and choose flowers of specific colors. So you should consider dictating the color scheme for your garden.
This might be a little too involved for some folks, but you could really add some interesting color to the home with flower choices. Like this house, which paired a blue-trimmed wall with purple-ish flowers. Doesn’t that look neat?
- Timing is everything
As you may know, plants have various growing seasons, which means they won’t all bloom simultaneously. Therefore, you should consider multiple plants for different growing seasons – i.e. a few that bloom in spring, others that bloom in fall, etc. That way, your garden will be colorful and vibrant year-round.