How Does Your Garden Grow?

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Spending time outdoors is one of the best ways to enjoy spring, and what better place than your own backyard? Here are a few ideas for you and your family to organize the garden for a fun-filled season.

Tasks to Tackle on Your Own:

• Draw up a plan of your yard the way it looks right now, or grab your camera and take some photos. Then have the shots enlarged and copied — you can draw your plans right on the pages (and get a very good picture of how it will look).
• Before you start drawing your new backyard, think about how you want it to work. Ask yourself these questions:
• What will you use the area for (growing flowers, a play area for children, entertaining guests or all of the above)?
• What style of garden do you prefer (some options include formal, natural, Zen, English country garden and water garden)?
• Do you need to camouflage or block out an area (possibly the garage or, for privacy purposes, the neighbor's kitchen window)?
• Plan the different areas of your lawn by thinking of it as a house. For example, you may want to create an area for dining, a play area and a space for solitude. How you want to use the garden will usually point out where to put these separate "rooms" (for example, keep dining area closer to the house and a place for quiet furthest away).

How to Get the Whole Family Involved:

• The next step is to build your garden foundation, or what gardener's call "bones." These include structures (such as decks, patios, fences, garages, benches, statuary, pathways and ponds) and permanent greenery, including coniferous and deciduous trees. Not only do these permanent structures help create the basic design of your garden for spring, they also work to enhance the space in winter, when the garden is bare of foliage.
• Keep in mind the "rooms" you want to create (dining, play, etc.) to set up the structure of your garden.
• For example, you may want to separate your rooms with small boxwood hedges, stepping stones or pathways.
• Some other ideas include laying a floor for your dining area (be it a deck or patio), and choosing grass for the play area.
• A trellis is a great way to separate your quiet space from the rest of the yard. You can also create a quiet spot with a hedge of tall cedars, or make a focal point with a bench, birdbath or pond.
• Now that you have your basic plan, continue by adding the extras — your family’s favorite perennial flowers, annuals, shrubs, climbing vines and containers.

With a lot of good planning and a little help from loved ones, this spring you can bring your dream garden to life!

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