Planning a garden is one of the most fascinating and energising jobs. As it is generally said, the ideal time to plan a garden is during the spring time. However, planning a garden demands much more than simply going out and picking the plants and flowers that interests you and later planting the same in the front or the back yard.
A beautiful and planned garden calls for several prior considerations and thoughts. Here are the basic and most fundamental requirements you need to consider before planning your spring garden.
Garden Placement & Type
The definition of modern day gardens extends much farther than simply terming them as confined areas and spaces with a lot of plants and flower plantations. In fact, now a day’s most of the gardens are designed in order to serve a particular purpose or fill some specific requirement. So you must first decide on what you want to use your garden for.
Be clear on if the garden is aimed at hiding an unsightly area or structure in the house or whether if you wish to attract birds and wildlife though it or maybe it will only add to the natural beauty of your house. Once you are aware of the purpose behind designing the garden you can easily think of its placement.
This will also aid in deciding the type of flowers and other plants you want in your garden as it directly depends on the purpose your garden will be serving. In order to obtain a clearer view of the shape, size or the type of a suitable garden, you can start by setting up an experimental garden bed.
For such a kind of garden go in for the flowers or annual plants which are usually cheap. However, for the long lasting or more permanent gardens, you may have to choose the perennial plants.
Accounting for Sunlight
The sunlight always plays an integral role in any kind of plantation. Therefore, once the area for the garden set up has been finalised, you must observe the space for at least one week in order to have an idea of the amount of sunlight as well as shade it receives.
Take note of whether the area is exposed to a full sun, partial sun, part shade or full shade which further refers to duration of 8 hours, 6 hours, 4 hours and very little time respectively. Depending on this time duration, you can pick the flowers or plants which will flourish well under such environmental conditions.
Soil Testing & Preparation
Most of the times, people go in for a soil pH test in order to evaluate of the soil is alkaline or acidic in behaviour Though this is a good parameter to test the soil on, however, the more important thing is to know the kind of the soil and the drainage properties it possesses.
For instance, while on one hand the sandy ground will drain the water more swiftly whereas on the other hand, the clay soil the water is pocketed or puddled inside the soil for longer stretches of time. Not knowing this information might harm your plants in future as most of the times plants get prone to drainage and soil problems where their roots may either rot or dry on account of constant wet feet or excessive drainage of water.
Under such circumstances, the soil is generally remedied by the addition of compost, manure, peat or topsoil depending on the problem encountered. Henceforth, experts always recommend having a prior idea about the properties of the soil so as to save such drainage problems.