Playing with Garden Design

The one thing I have learned with gardening and garden design is there is no right answer. I am constantly moving plants around or re-doing beds or just plain killing plants. A lovely garden is never grown in a perfect, over night attempt. Sometimes the plant you think would be perfect never grows to its promised full size or maybe something that was supposed to be small suddenly took over the whole parking strip (I am talking to you, Purple Aster.) So you dig it up and move it or throw it in the compost pile and start over.

You typically get better results if you start with a plan in the beginning and maybe a few goals. Do you want a veggie garden? Do you get full sun? Do you like to have cut flowers in your house? Do you like to entertain? Do you have pets? There are a lot of things to think about.

Our front yard is pretty much an ongoing disaster because I never had much of a plan or color scheme until several years into it and now it is a constant busyness of digging up, moving, replanting, etc. trying to get it to where I want it to be.

The back yard, on the other hand, is looking much better because we had a plan and put (mostly) the right plants in the right spots and thought about functionality for veggies and herbs and entertaining.

Now I am branching out and helping my friend Rosie design her garden. She is starting with a clean slate and it is pretty fun to walk around the neighborhood with her and see what kind of plants she likes and then go home and start drawing. This is the sketch for her yard. It looks a little on the busy side but it really isn't. Her yard is fairly shallow so it allows for some fun plants without having to worry about a boring old lawn.
I can't wait until we actually get to go to the nursery and then start playing with the placement of the plants! While it is still cooler than usual here, the sun has been out, and that is getting me into the spirit of full garden mode!