The key to an interesting and beautiful garden is good planning (and sometimes good luck!). Make a scale drawing of the area you want to plant around: include the house, walkway, fencing, existing tress or shrubs you would like to remain in place and any services (spigots, gas meter, etc.). Sketch the general shape you would like for your garden. Informal gardens usually are asymmetrical and have curved shapes and formal gardens are symmetrical and have straight lines. When you are ready to plant, use a garden hose to layout your shape. Use a garden spade to turn the sod over along the edge to achieve the desired shape. You can turn the sod over and bury it in the garden but you must bury it quite deep to kill of the grass and prevent it from coming up in your newly planted garden. We buried some sod but piled most of it up near the compost bins and composted it after the grass died.
SOIL
The soil is the most important aspect of the garden. A thick layer of topsoil should be applied (6inches to 1 foot deep). Topsoil consists of sand, silt and clay. Too much of any one of these in your soil will cause water retention problems. Any landscape supply store can provide you with topsoil (we use Trails End). You should also mix in humus or organic material (compost). This can be done by keeping a compost container (or 2 or 3) and composting your fruit and vegetable peels, egg shells, leaves and grass clippings. Be sure not to compost pulled weeds as they will germinate when spread back on the garden. We add compost once per season in the spring and dig it in very well with a pitchfork. Check your soil every spring; if it is too clay-like then add peat moss to break down the clay. You need to dig in the peat very well otherwise is will blow away! Adding compost and peat moss is messy, hard work but it pays off greatly in the end. The plants will love all the nutrients in the compost and the aerated soil will allow worms to live in the soil and add more organic matter to it. I know my soil is good when I can dig down about 6 inches easily and find lots of fat, juicy worms. The kids love to play with them but I always make sure that they return them to the soil.
ZONE
It is important to know which zone you are planting in as all plants and tress have a hardiness zone to which they will survive in. We in Niagara are considered Zone 6b but sheltered areas and areas along the lake can get up to Zone 7a. It is possible to have mini-zones around you house depending on shelter and other conditions. Most shrubs and tress sold at garden supply stores in Niagara will be hardy in our zone but it is best to check first before buying. Zone 6 means that anything from zones 1-6 will survive our winters but zone 7 may be iffy and zone 8 and up will not survive through the winter.
SUNLIGHT
Take note of the amount of sunlight that the area you are planting will get. Most tress and plants are rated as follows: Full Sun – at least 6 hours of full sun per day, Partial Sun/Partial Shade – 3-6 hours/day of filtered sun, Full Shade – 2-3 hours of filtered sun per day. The sunniest side of the house faces south and east with the shadiest facing north and east.
CHOOSING THE PLANTS
Trees
These are the anchors of the garden and should be considered first in your planning. Considerations include: tree height, leaf and bark color and texture, and flowering vs. non-flowering. Trees are often used to soften hard corners of a house. Some good choices for flowering trees for full sun or part shade are:
Ivory Silk Lilac – white flowers in June
Magnolia – various color flowers in Apr/May
Flowering Crab Tree – white or pink flowers in Apr/May
Golden Chain Tree – yellow chain-like flowers in June
Flowering Dogwood – white or pink flowers in Apr/May
Bradford Pear - white flowers in Apr/May
Tri-color Beech – no flowers but very pretty pink/dark purple and green leaves – very expensive!
Some flowering fruit trees can be susceptible to disease so ask about this when you but it. Good colorful choices for shade include: Japanese maple - various sizes and colors Eastern Redbud – delicate purple flowers in Apr/May For all trees, make sure you follow the planting instructions that come with it. Some new trees may need to be staked or protected from the snow and wind with burlap for a few years until they are well established.
SHRUBS After you have placed you trees, arrange your shrubs in uneven numbers in your plan. A garden book can tell you how big most shrubs will grow to be so that you can plan for this in your scale drawing. However, I never like to let my shrubs get too big so I prune them down and plant more than most garden planners will tell you to. Be sure to vary the height of the shrubs in the plan and place spreaders in between groups of medium or large shrubs. I will list shrubs that I have had luck with. Most require some kind of pruning in the spring or summer after they flower to keep their shape and to keep them from growing out of control. These don’t require lots of fertilizing or special soil. Large Shrubs Medium Shrubs
Snowberry Goldflame or silvermound spirea Forsythia Wintergem boxwood Red Twig Dogwood Burning bush (euonymus) Smokebush Mugho pine Lilac Nest spruce Mock Orange Weeping pea (tree or shrub) Weigela Cotoneaster (spreader) Viburnum Japanese juniper (spreader) Honey Suckle Yew – several shapes available Buddleia (butterfly bush) Hydrangea – Pee Gee Purple Sandcherry
There are 2 shrubs that I will grow once my kids are grown and I have more time. These are rhododendron and azalea. They require special acidic soil and are quite picky. I don’t have the time to grow these now – but someday…
PERENNIALS, ANNUALS, and BULBS
You may want to fill-in spaces in your garden plan with perennials, annuals and bulbs. I like to use annuals in my front beds and I keep a large perennial garden in the back since when perennials die off in the fall they can look quite ugly! Most perennials need to be separated after a few years and most (not all) should have dead flowers removed after blooming is done. Don’t cut the whole plant down after blooming as the energy from the green stem and leaves goes into helping it grow the next year. I will list several perennials I have had luck with:
Sun Perennials Shade Perennials
Stella de Oro daylily Columbine Coneflower (Echinacea) Hosta Black Eyed Susan Primrose Feverfew Astilble Autumn Joy Sedum Veronica Coreopsis Bleeding Heart Silvermound Pachysandra Euphorbia Solomon’s Seal Gaillardia Lamb’s Ears Liatris Ajuga Lupine Flax Yarrow There are so many annuals to choose from at the garden supply store and it is easy to see if you will like them as they are almost all in bloom at the time of purchase. Most annuals require deadheading (no – not the rock band but pinching off the dead blooms to encourage more blooming). I will list my favorite annuals for little care and all summer blooms (* indicates no dead-heading required) Sun Annuals Shade Annuals Million bells (petunia)* Impatiens* Osteospermum Begonia* Wave petunia Coleus (pinch off flowers to encourage foliage) Lobelia* Sweet Potato vine Purple Salvia Verbena Bacopa* Allysum* BULBS Tulips and Daffodils along with grape and regular Hyacinth are my favorites but there are lots more to choose from. Most spring flowering bulbs should be planted in the fall as they need to be in the ground over the winter. If you have problems with squirrels digging them up after you plant them, sprinkle some cayenne pepper in the hole along with the bulb. Be sure to plant the bulb to the depth that is says on the bulb package. You should pick off the flowers after they are done blooming in the spring but do not cut down the green leaves and stem. They deliver the necessary nutrients back to the roots and need maximum surface area exposed to the sun to achieve photosynthesis. MULCH After all planting is done spread on a thick layer of mulch to retain water and help reduce weeds – and it looks nice too! You can use pine bark or cedar mulch or a nice, fragrant albeit expensive choice is cocoa bean mulch. I dig last year’s mulch in with this year’s compost. KID-FRIENDLY CHOICES Nasturtiums (annual) – edible flowers Forget-Me-Not – you can’t kill it and it spreads like crazy Feverfew – fun to spread the seeds in the fall Lamb’s Ear and Silvermound – soft to touch Bleeding Heart – kids like to see the heart shaped flowers Butterfly Bush – attracts – what else? – butterflies Herbs – Basil, Dill, Oregano, Thyme – my kids like to pick these and add them to pasta sauces The key to growing most trees and plants is good soil, proper locations, pruning or separating when necessary and plenty of water. You may choose to fertilize with Miracle Grow once/month. I don’t have time for that and therefore I choose to plant what will grow well without fertilizing.
Last Modified May 15, 2002