Plan
As you walk through your home and look out the windows, you may realize that you would like a more pleasant view.  Maybe you want to hide your trashcans or air conditioning unit from view or camouflage the compost pile.  Perhaps you’d like more privacy from the street or neighbors. Think about how to enjoy your views from inside the home through all the seasons and not just how your landscaping looks from the street.  Whether you’re creating a small entry garden, or working with a large property, there are numerous books to help you along the way.   For example, Page Dickey’s book, Inside Out: Relating Garden to House is inspirational.  You can also enlist aid from a landscape architect to design a plan.  Landscape architects can not only lay out your garden spaces, but also can deal with such factors as the topography of your property, drainage issues, surveying property lines, and designing garden structures.

Structure (the "Bones")
Consider the grade around your house.  Moving from doorways onto surfaces that are on the same plane (level) provides a sense that the house and garden are continuous.  As you move to other parts of the garden, is there a need to level additional areas with terracing or decking in order to create outdoor living spaces?  Do you have a yen for special features such as a water feature or a pergola, or demarcation structures, areas such as stone walls, a fence or a beautiful gate?

Soil
In creating your garden spaces you’ll want to first consider your soil.  It’s very important to have your soil tested for ph and mineral content and to know the requirements of the trees, shrubs and plants that you choose, so that you can amend the soil accordingly.  You can either test the soil yourself by purchasing a soil testing kit at a garden center or a soil testing lab, i.e. CLC Labs in Westerville, Ohio (614-888-1663) can test it for you.  The other important factor with soil is drainage, drainage, drainage!  At least 75% of plants will not grow well if they have wet feet.  You can improve drainage by mechanical means such as adding underground perforated drain tile or by adding lots of humus to make the soil porous.

The Background
Hedges are more pleasing than fences but require more maintenance.   Decide whether you want a mixed plant or a uniform hedge, whether you want it to bloom, and if you plan to keep it pruned or sheered.  If you have a wall or fence you could enhance it with a vine covered trellis or an espaliered fruit tree.  Consider your garden site’s natural framework.  As you plan your background, take advantage of “borrowed landscape” such as distant hills, long views, a body of water, or important trees on a neighbor’s property. 

Paths
Paths are really important, telling you not just where to walk, or where to enter a house, but also, where your eye should travel.  They are most interesting when there is something at the end.  Paths need to be defined and different from their surroundings.  They can be paved with something as simple as mulch or river pebbles or as unique as the old millstones found in one of our member’s garden path.  If you expect to be walking with someone else or if it is the walk to your front door, the width should be 6-8 feet wide.  If you need to push the garden cart along the path you will need it to be 3-4 feet wide. Plants such as sweet alyssum or thyme growing through the path can be charming.

Trees and Shrubs
Research thoroughly. This applies to existing woody plants and ones yet to be planted.  Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs is a very good resource.  Consider the desired function, ultimate size, cultural requirements, hardiness for not only your zone but also the possible microclimate in your yard where the tree or shrub will be planted. Think about how the fall color and winter interest provided by branch formation and patterned or peeling bark fit into your year round garden design.

Plants
Always remember – “Right Plant, Right Place”.  Observe the conditions of your site.  Is it full sun, part shade or full shade?  Is your soil wet, moist or dry?  What is the size of your space?  What is the mature size of the plant?  Will it outgrow its space? Is it under a window, or under power lines?  Have a plan and think about making the garden pleasing to the eye, remember to think about texture and color.  Plant like you arrange flowers: uneven numbers, flow, repeat, with heavier globs of color at the bottom.  Think big for impact and think different, like vegetables for color and textural interest. Whenever you acquire a new plant, study and learn about it -  books, magazines, and the internet – before you plant it.  That is the best way to build a body of knowledge about specific species as well as plant culture in general.  While you are at it, learn the botanical name.  You will feel so much smarter, horticulturally speaking, if you refer to a plant with its botanical name and can communicate with “horties” that way. Also, it will saveconfusion whenshopping or researching, because one person’s ‘Bouncing Bet’ may not be the same as someone else’s ‘Bouncing Bet’! 

Composting
Gardeners generally know that garden refuse – the kind that was once alive – should be composted, not discarded.   Another front in the campaign to return what came from the earth back to the earth is the kitchen.  A container such as a 3lb coffee can kept under the sink to hold kitchen discards and emptied every few days into a larger “halfway” container near the back door or directly onto the compost pile.  Coffee grounds, fruits and vegetables, rice, pasta, bread, eggshells and shredded paper can all be included.  Do not include meat or fat or dairy products. 

Container Gardening
If you plan and plant your own containers they will tend to be more interesting and enhancing than the store bought ones. Decide on a color scheme, considering the surrounding area and nearby containers. One color should dominate. When using more than one kind of plant, use contrasting foliage and flower forms.  One texture or form should dominate.  Be adventurous with plant selection.  Experiment with plants that are not traditionally grown in containers, such as small shrubs, conifers, perennials, vegetables, etc.  Just make sure that the water and light requirements of the plants in one container are similar.  Try several varieties/cultivars of the same species in one container, for example, three varieties of dahlia.  Remember to have dominance of one color.   If you have quite a few pots, make groupings rather than strewing out single pots all over the garden.  And remember to have fun moving them around when you feel like it, just like the accessories in your home. 

Whimsy
Your garden should make you happy and one way to make you smile is to include an accessory or two that convey humor or evoke a special feeling or memory.   Antiques, found objects, sculptures, birdbaths, birdhouses, decorative ceramics, and mirrors are examples and, when used artfully and in good proper scale, qualify as garden art.   Unless it is an extraordinary piece, accessories should look like they are incorporated in the design of the garden, not in a gallery.  A word about restraint: if more than one piece is in your direct view at one time, you have too much art.

Ruth Moorhead and Kathy Keller

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