Guide to Designing a Garden Space

Looking to create a new garden space? We've got you covered! Watch our gardening expert Debbie as she goes about creating a brand new gardening space and outlines all the considerations you need to factor in when making important decisions like picking the right color scheme, garden design and the choice of plants.

So, you want to create a new garden space, not quite sure where to start? Well, don't worry, because basic garden design isn't rocket science. It's simply a matter of blending your wants and your needs with your garden space. Hi, I'm Debbie from Spring Hill and I'm here to help. You know, today, I'm actually going to be creating my own garden space, so why don't we walk through this together! There are three simple steps to designing a new garden space and the first one actually has nothing to do with your garden, because it's about you. That's right, you! After all, your garden is a reflection of you. So, think about your taste and your personal style. Do you prefer soft pastel colors, or like me you like bold, traffic stopping colors? Do you prefer a formal garden, or maybe more of a cottage garden? And then you want to ask, what do you want your garden to do for you? Do you want to beckon every single hummingbird and butterfly from a fifty-mile radius, well, you can do that! Or would you like a cutting garden, or, would you like to fill your whole yard with an oasis of fragrance? Well, these are all the things that you should keep in mind when you're designing your new garden space. The second step is to analyze your garden space. So, what's your hardiness zone? You don't know? That's okay, just log on to springhillnursery.com. On the left side of the page, click 'Find zone', put in your zip code and voila! Now what you want to do is take a look at your soil. Now there are three basic types of soil - sand, loam and clay. Now the good news is, that organic matter such as compost, peat mulch or pine bark will really help with all three of those types of soils and what it'll do, it will help your plants retain moisture and also, it'll put essential nutrients back into the soil. And the last thing you want to do is take a look at how much sunlight and water your garden will be getting. You take all of these things into consideration, it will help you with your last step which is my favorite - plant selection. To select the right plants for the job, take all of the above factors into consideration - your personal taste, your hardiness zone, the type of soil that you have, the water requirements and the amount of sunlight. Now speaking of sunlight, if your garden gets at least 6 to 8 hours of sun, you want to look for plants that have 'full sun' on the label. Now let's say you have a garden space that gets morning sun and afternoon shade, well there you could go with 'full sun' or 'partial shade' plants, or let's say you have a space like I have here under these trees that's pretty shaded. Well, in that case, you would look for plants that are 'partial' or 'full shade'. Pretty simple, isn't it? But hey, do you want to hear a super shortcut? Well, just go into your neighbor's yard. Hey, if your neighbor has stunning looking irises like my neighbor does, then, chances are, irises are going to look great in your garden too! Hey, come on, it's all fair in love and gardening, so let's get to work!