Gardening For Dummies E-Book

Sue Fisher

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 576

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

If you want to develop your green fingers and be part of one of the most popular pastimes in the UK, Gardening For Dummies is the book for you. Packed with expert advice, helping the novice get a solid start and the seasoned gardener broaden their breadth of knowledge, you can learn and develop skills in how to do everything from planning your planting to controlling pests - and everything in between. Full of useful illustrations and insider's tips this book will be a vital reference for everyone with an interest and love of gardening, whether you have a few containers in the back yard or a huge back garden with a rolling lawn.

Leseprobe

Gardening For Dummies®

by Sue Fisher, Michael MacCaskey, Bill Marken, and the Editors of the National Gardening Association

Gardening For Dummies®

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England

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Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN-13: 978-0-470-01843-9 (PB)

ISBN-10: 0-470-01843-7 (PB)

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell and Bain Ltd, Glasgow

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Authors

Sue Fisher is a lifelong plant enthusiast whose main aim is to make gardening as user-friendly and approachable as possible. After training at Oaklands College, St Albans, the first ten years of her career were spent in the nursery and garden centre industry, including five years as plant buyer for a group of top garden centres and a landscape company. In 1990 Sue decided to bring her enthusiasm for plants to a wider audience and became a freelance writer and broadcaster. To date she has written ten books, including Garden Colour, Essential Plants for Small Gardens, and Fast Plants, as well as co-authoring Ground Force Garden Handbook and Geoff Hamilton’s Gardening Year, and contributed to several of the Reader’s Digest gardening books. Her gardening features have been published in many magazines and newspapers, including Gardeners’ World, Gardens Monthly,and Garden News. Sue currently gardens in Buckinghamshire where her two young children are fast making her an expert on family gardening.

Michael MacCaskey began his college career as a creative arts student at San Francisco State University in 1969, but in the process became instead a passionate gardener. By 1976 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in ornamental horticulture from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. Since then, he’s had the good fortune to work for and learn from garden editors such as Walter Doty, Richard Dunmire, Joe Williamson, and Bill Marken. A second-generation Los Angeles native (zone 9), he was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Vermont-based National Gardening Magazine (zone 4) in 1994. Since then, he’s been learning about gardening in a short-season, cold-winter region. His magazine writing has been honoured by both the Western Magazine Publishers Association and the Garden Writers of America.

Bill Marken is the editor of Rebecca’s Garden Magazine, a new publication from Hearst Magazines Enterprises based on the popular television show. A lifelong resident of California, Bill served as editor-in-chief of Sunset, the Magazine of Western Living, from 1981 to 1996. Earlier in his career, he wrote for the magazine’s garden section, pitched in on several editions of the best-selling Western Garden Book, and generally nurtured his interests in subjects related to gardening, landscaping, travel, and other aspects of the good life in the West. A vacation garden at 6,200-feet elevation gives him insight into cold-winter climates with 100-day growing seasons.

The National Gardening Association is the largest member-based, nonprofit organisation of home gardeners in the US. Founded in 1972 (as ‘Gardens for All’) to spearhead the community garden movement, today’s National Gardening Association is best known for its bimonthly publication, National Gardening magazine. Reporting on all aspects of home gardening, each issue is read by some half-million gardeners worldwide. For more information about the National Gardening Association in the US, see its Web site at www.garden.org.

Dedication

We dedicate this book to new gardeners, individuals who sow a packet of seeds, plant a tree, or otherwise nurture a plant for the first time.

Publisher’s Acknowledgements

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

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Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

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Content Editor: Simon Bell

Commissioning Editor: Alison Yates

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(Previous Edition: Deborah Brown, John R. Dunmire, Denny Schrock)

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Executive Project Editor: Amie Jackowski Tibble

Cover Photo: © Photographer’s Choice/ Getty Images

Cartoons: Ed McLachlan

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Photography: David Cavagnaro, Dwight R. Kuhn, Jerry Pavia, Positive Images, Michael S. Thomson

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Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organised

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I : Getting Going with Gardening

Chapter 1: Just a Few Ground-Level Questions and Answers

How Do I Make My Plants Grow Rather than Die?

What Can I Use My Garden For?

Do I Have to Learn a Foreign Language?

Chapter 2: Planning Your Garden

Taking Stock of Your Existing Garden

Tackling an Overgrown Garden

Dreaming Up the Perfect Landscape

What Goes Where: Designing the Plan

Creating a Final Plan

Chapter 3: Planning Your Planting

Choosing a Garden Style

Matchmaking: Right Plant, Right Place

Creating Year-round Colour and Interest

Drawing Up a Planting Plan

Permanent Plants for Structure

Infilling for Colour through the Seasons

Bursts of Bloom with Bulbs and Annuals

Planting for Privacy

How Many Plants, How Far Apart?

Part II : Designing with Plants

Chapter 4: Trees, Hedges, and Shrubs

Tree-mendous: The Benefits of Trees

Choosing the Right Tree

Don’t Try This at Home

Our Favourite Trees

Hedging Your Bets: Choosing the Right Hedge

Our Favourite Hedge Plants

The Workforce of the Garden: Shrubs

What Shrubs Can Do for You

Our Favourite Shrubs

Chapter 5: Lawns and Ground Covers

Lawn Decisions

Preparing the Ground for a New Lawn

Going to Seed: Making a Lawn from Seed

Making a Lawn from Turf

Keeping Your Lawn Happy

Going for Ground Covers

Musing on Meadows

Converting a Lawn to a Meadow

Yee-hah! Prairie Planting

Chapter 6: Climbers and Wall Shrubs

Playing Twister

Advice for Climbers

Lean on Me: Choosing a Support and Plants to Match

Climbers We Love

Annual Climbers

Part III : Colour Your World

Chapter 7: Annuals

What’s an Annual?

Analysing Annuals

Planting on the Sunny Side

Buying and Growing Half-hardy Annuals

What You Can Do with Annuals

Taking Care of Your Annuals

Our Favourite Annuals

Chapter 8: Perennials and Ornamental Grasses

Pondering Perennials

Beds and Borders

Designing a Border with Perennials

Planting Perennials . . . and Afterwards

Our Favourite Perennials

Gorgeous Grasses

Chapter 9: Bulbs

Throwing Some Light on Bulbs

When and How to Buy Bulbs

Planting Bulbs

Caring for Bulbs

Dividing and Propagating Bulbs

Growing Bulbs in Containers

Forcing Bulbs for Indoor Colour

Favourite Bulbs

Chapter 10: Roses

Roses by Many Names All Smell As Sweet

Gardening with Roses

Buying Roses

Planting Roses

Fertilising and Watering

Cutting Through the Mystery of Pruning

O Rose, Thou Art Sick: Keeping Roses Healthy

Part IV : At Ground Level

Chapter 11: Understanding and Improving Soil

Clearing the Ground

Getting to Know Your Soil

Improving Your Soil

Cultivating the Soil

Chapter 12: Raising Plants from Seeds

What Those Needy Seeds Need

Smart Seed Shopping

Sowing Seeds Right in the Ground

A Dozen Easy Plants to Direct Sow

Starting Seeds Indoors

A Dozen Easy Plants to Start Indoors

Chapter 13: Choosing and Putting in Your Plants

A Matter of Timing: Buying Plants in Season

Working Out Spacing for Seasonal Flowers

Planting Seasonal Flowers, Step by Step

Container-Grown Permanent Plants

Bare-Root Planting

Planting a New Hedge

Burlap-Wrapped Root Balls

Part V : Caring for Your Plants

Chapter 14: Watering, Feeding, and Composting

Watering Basics

Providing a Balanced Diet for Your Plants

Don’t Compromise, Fertilise!

Piling onto the Compost Bandwagon

A-Mulching We Will Go . . .

Chapter 15: Snip, Snip: Pruning and Propagating

Practical Pruning

Pruning Tools

Safety First

Plants for Free: Down-to-Earth Propagating

Chapter 16: Fighting Pests, Diseases, and Weeds

Prevention Is Better than Cure

Identifying Damage

Common Insect Pests

Pest Control: Organic vs Chemical

Preventing Plant Diseases

Weeding Out Weeds

Weed Prevention

Chapter 17: Tools of the Trade

Hand Tools

Powering Up Your Tools

Part VI : Special Gardens

Chapter 18: Food Gardens

Planning a Vegetable Garden

Planting Your Vegetable Garden

The Best of the Crop

Getting Technical: Hybrids, Heirlooms, and AGM Varieties

Squeezing in Herbs

Fruity Harvests

Chapter 19: Container Gardens

Choosing the Right Containers

Designing with Container Plants

Putting It All Together

Favourite Container Combos

Container Plants for Four Seasons

Choosing the Right Compost

Planting Up Your Containers

Planting a Hanging Basket

Keeping Your Containers Happy

Chapter 20: Gardens for Wildlife

Pampering Your Feathered Friends

Beckoning Butterflies to Your Garden

Buzzing Bees and Pollination

Chapter 21: Gardening in Small Spaces

Simple Pleasures: Small Garden Design

Finding Space Where It Doesn’t Exist

Getting the Most from Your Front Garden

Choosing the Best Small-garden Plants

Chapter 22: Gardening for Fragrance

Discovering Fragrant Plants

Planning a Scented Garden

Flowers Most Possessed with Scent

Creating a Fragrant Evening Garden

The Most Aromatic Herbs

Heavenly Scented Shrubs and Climbers

Best Bulbs for Fragrance

Redolent Roses

Part VII : The Part of Tens

Chapter 23: Ten Quick Projects

Cooking Up Herb Vinegars

Making Cut Flowers Last

Drying Flowers

Making a Flowering Centrepiece

Creating an Autumn Harvest Wreath

Forcing Narcissus Indoors

Creating a Water Garden in a Tub

Preparing a Salad Basket

Finding Treasures from Twigs

Cleaning Containers

Chapter 24: Ten Tips for Creating a Wildlife Garden

Choose the Right Plants

Plant a Tree

Plant Up Walls and Fences

Choose Hedges Instead of Fences

Create a Pond

Convert Your Lawn to a Meadow

Bear with the Bugs

Compost Your Waste

Don’t Be Too Tidy

Be Environmentally Friendly

Introduction

The more you discover about gardening, the more satisfying it is. Gardening is all about a process that delights the eye and fuels the soul with a connection to the earth. As countless teachers and community workers have learned, gardening is one of the quickest (and cheapest!) ways to reduce vandalism and crime, and to increase community pride. Gardening is good for the body. An hour or two of weeding, harvesting, or cultivating provides just the right kind of light exercise we all need. Responsible gardening also does good things for the environment: materials get recycled and certain habitats attract wildlife, for example.

The point is, gardening has moved out of the vegetable patch and the flower bed. Gardening now encompasses our lives – if you have a garden, even a very tiny one, you are a gardener. If you have a sunny windowsill, you are a gardener. National surveys show that gardening has become the most popular, least exclusive hobby of all. Everybody’s doing it.

People are simply enjoying their time outdoors and striving to make their little corner of the world more peaceful and beautiful – a better place to live. And that’s what this book is about.

About This Book

You have in your hands a gardening encyclopedia in miniature – all you need to know to get off to a good start. No matter what area of gardening interests you – growing roses or perennials or just cutting the grass – you’ll find good advice here. In every chapter, our basic goal is to give you the information you need to go out and plant or prune what you want. But novices aren’t the only ones who’ll find this book useful. Gardening is such a huge topic that no one ever comes close to knowing everything about it. (That’s one reason why gardening has become one of the most popular hobbies of all time.) If, for example, you are a seasoned rose grower but know almost nothing about starting a salad garden or pruning trees, you can find excellent advice in Chapters 18 or 15, respectively.

This book offers lists of plants that you can choose from to create a beautiful garden. We list the plants by the common name first, followed by the botanical name. The lists are alphabetised according to the botanical name.

Conventions Used in This Book

To help you navigate through this book, we’ve set up a few conventions:

Italic is used for emphasis and to highlight new words or terms that are defined.

Boldfaced text is used to indicate the action part of numbered steps.

Monofontis used for Web addresses.

Foolish Assumptions

In this book, we make some general assumptions about who you are:

You’ve bought a place with a garden and suddenly realise that you don’t know your begonias from your buttercups. You want to know the basics on how to get started on creating an outside space that you’ll love spending time in.

You need a helpful reference guide to answer all those questions you have about when exactly to plant bulbs, how much room certain plants will take up when they mature, and how to improve your soil.

You want easy-to-understand information that explains exactly what you need to know about raising plants from seed, pruning, weeding, and controlling garden pests.

How This Book Is Organised

Gardening For Dummies is organised into seven parts, each covering a general topic. The chapters within each part go into more detail so you can easily find the information you need.

Part I: Getting Going with Gardening

Before you buy your first six-pack of bedding in spring, you need to decide just where and when to start digging.

Chapter 1 begins at root level, guiding you through what your plants need to what you want from a garden.

Chapter 2 gets into the details of designing or planning a garden, with emphasis on making a plan that you can work to as your plot develops.

Chapter 3 is all about planning your plantings, how to choose the right plants for your garden and those that work best for you.

Part II: Designing with Plants

Chapter 4 goes over the garden’s skeleton – the trees, hedges, and shrubs that form your garden’s foundation and frame your plot.

Chapter 5 goes down to ground level and discusses lawns and ground covers, while the vertical dimension (climbers and wall shrubs) gets similar treatment in Chapter 6.

Part III: Colour Your World

Here’s where the real fun starts! This part is the heart of the book because, for most people, the essence of gardening is putting in colourful plants and watching them grow.

Chapter 7 tells you about those comets of the garden, flowering annuals.

Chapter 8 is about the colourful stalwarts, the perennials. We also talk about ornamental grasses.

Chapter 9 deals with bulbs for all seasons – not just spring.

Chapter10 covers the world’s most famous flower, the rose.

Part IV: At Ground Level

This section is the nitty-gritty of gardening – literally. The three chapters in this part are about working with soil and getting your plants started.

Chapter 11 helps you understand and improve your soil.

You find the basics of starting seeds in Chapter 12, and planting methods for a whole range of seasonal, permanent, and other plants in Chapter 13.

Part V: Caring for Your Plants

In a nutshell, this section covers long-term garden maintenance.

Chapter 14 covers everything you need to know about the basics of plant care: watering, feeding, and composting.

Chapter 15 covers pruning, Chapter 16 common sense pest control, and Chapter 17 all those tools you need to help you.

Part VI: Special Gardens

It’s back to the fun stuff – plants and planting – in this section!

If you want to grow at least some of your own food, check out Chapter 18. In Chapter 19,discover what it takes to create a moveable feast with containers.

In Chapter 20, you figure out how to achieve one of the most important gardens of all: the kind that’s made with wildlife in mind.

Don’t worry if you have just a small patch of garden; Chapter 21 lets you in on some limited-space gardening secrets.

Chapter 22 is all about creating a fragrant garden.

Part VII: The Part of Tens

No For Dummies book is complete without the Part of Tens, so we offer a compendium of expert tips for ten quick projects (Chapter 23).

Chapter 24 gives youten hints on how to make your garden even more attractive to wildlife.

Icons Used in This Book

Icons are a handy For Dummies way to draw your attention to special bits of information.

Bear these important nuggets of information in mind as your green fingers develop.

Flags information that can save you time and effort in the garden.

Demystifies gardening lingo. Although we’ve made this book as jargon-free as possible, you need to know some terms.

This icon alerts you to avoid bad gardening experiences, including some that may cause injury.

Where to Go from Here

This book is organised so you can skip to wherever you want to find complete information about a topic. Mad about roses? Dive straight into Chapter 10. Want to prune that shrub that’s taking up half your lawn? Find out how to tame it with the help offered in Chapter 15. You can use the table of contents to find broad categories of information or use the index to look up more specific topics.

Of course, you can always start with Part I – what a novel idea!

Part I

Getting Going with Gardening

In this part . . .

Y ou’ve probably heard about the green thumbs and the brown thumbs. Some people seem to have an almost magical ability to raise beautiful, healthy plants, whereas others seem to turn out only withering brown husks.

No matter which group you identify with, take note: Anyone can become a gardener. Like any other interest that’s worth pursuing, gardening requires knowledge, experience, attention, and enthusiasm. If you’re willing to dedicate some time and attention to gardening, you can move from the brown thumb camp into the green thumb camp. If you already consider yourself to have a green thumb, you undoubtedly know that gardening never ceases to surprise you, and you never finish learning.

Part I gives you a basic understanding of some of the key issues that gardeners face: what plants require in order to thrive, how to plan your garden to suit your lifestyle, what to do to cut down on maintenance, how to choose the best plants for your garden, and how to take the space you have and maximise it.

Well, what are you waiting for? Get going!

Chapter 1

Just a Few Ground-Level Questions and Answers

In This Chapter

Understanding what plants need from you

Knowing what your garden can do for you

Speaking the garden language

If you want to learn more about gardening – and you must if you’re reading this – just where do you start? We could start with some heavy-duty science, tossing around terms like cotyledon, cambium,and the ever-popular pith. Or we could start talking about beautiful gardens like critics of fine paintings – employing words like composition, energy, focal point, and the like.

We don’t mean to suggest anything but respect for scientists and artists. In fact, the chance to combine science and art is what draws many of us to gardening in the first place – especially if you throw in a little farming and a few old wives’ tales (of course you shouldn’t plant sweet peas at the full moon).

All we really want to do here is to get you through a few basic principles of plant growth and garden planning so that you can rush out into the garden when the weather’s right for planting and the soil’s ripe for digging.

First, any questions?

How Do I Make My Plants Grow Rather than Die?

Like other living things, plants have certain requirements for good health. For example, they require the right amounts of light, temperature, moisture, and nutrients.

When selecting plants, you can meet their requirements in one of two ways. The first (which we don’t recommend) involves selecting your favourite plants and then doing your best to alter the growing conditions at the planting site to meet their needs. You can change the growing conditions by adding irrigation, incorporating fertiliser, hauling in fresh topsoil, pruning some trees, or covering plants with blankets in winter. But this is the backward approach that costs you loads of time, money, and hassle.

By far the best approach is to work with what you have. Get to know the conditions at the planting site first and then choose plants that will thrive there. The better you match plants to the planting site, the longer the plants live, the better the plants look, and the less work (watering, pruning, fertilising, and controlling pests) you have to do to care for them. Your garden looks great, and you have more time and leisure to enjoy it – a win:win situation all round.

The plant pioneers

The plants you can buy at garden centres today originate from countries all around the world, from as far afield as the United States, New Zealand, South Africa, and China. Even if you didn’t pay much attention in geography classes at school, it’s not hard to realise that climates vary enormously in all these countries and the plants have adapted to suit.

If you fancy learning a bit more about the origins of some of your garden plants, the history of the ‘great plant hunters’, as they’re known, makes for gripping reading.Men (sorry, ladies, it was usually men in days of old) who, as the world was explored over the last 400 years, travelled to these new countries to bring back plants never seen before. Theirs are stories of bravery, endurance, and even death: Robert Fortune single-handedly fought off a band of pirates; Joseph Hooker was taken prisoner in Tibet and nearly executed; and David Douglas met a horrible end by falling into an already occupied bull pit in Hawaii. You see plants in a whole new light with centuries of history stretching behind.

Your climate and microclimates

You need to match a plant to a planting site on both a large and a small scale. On a large scale, a plant needs to adapt to the general climate of the area in which it lives. Can the plant withstand winter’s low temperatures and summer’s high temperatures? Is the annual rainfall enough to keep the plant alive, or will it need watering? Understanding your climate is a huge step towards successful gardening.

On a smaller scale, can the plant grow well in the localised climate of your garden or the particular spot where you want to plant? Smaller climates, called microclimates, can be quite a bit different from the overall climate of your area. For example, because of the shadows that your house casts, the northern side of your house is cooler and shadier than its southern side. Or a planting site located beside a white, west-facing wall can be several degrees warmer than the rest of the garden because of the reflected heat from the wall.

Sun and shade

All plants need light to grow properly. However, the amount of light that plants need varies. The main terms to determine a plant’s needs are full sun, partial shade,and shade.

Plants that require full sun need at least six to eight hours of sun per day. Plants that don’t get enough sunlight become leggy (develop long, spindly stems), as if stretching out for more light. Sun lovers that don’t get enough sunlight also tend to flower poorly. Sites that get full sun face south or south-west.

Plants that prefer partial shade need to grow in sites that face east or west to north-west, where they have sun for several hours but not enough to bake. Other plants also create partial shade – trees and large shrubs.

Some plants prefer to be out of the sun entirely, growing in shade. Heavy, all-day shade appears on the north side of buildings, and under trees. Note one obvious rule for gardening in the shade: Put shade-loving plants in the shade. Sun-worshipping plants just won’t make it. Don’t fret. Hundreds of incredible shade-loving plants (some with showy flowers and others with attractive foliage and form) are available to choose from.

To make matters just a little complicated, a plant’s shade tolerance may vary both by region and by specific garden conditions. For example, many plants that need full sun in cool climates tolerate or require some afternoon shade when growing in warm southern climates. The label on the plant, or the information in this book, can help you figure out where to put your plants.

Soil and water

The kind of soil in your garden – heavy clay or porous sand, for example – is closely related to soil moisture. Chapters 11 and 14 detail the importance of these two factors and the ways in which they affect plant growth. Those chapters also cover cultural practices such as cultivating, watering, and fertilising. Wet, soggy clay soil is very difficult to correct, but certain moisture-loving plants can grow, and even thrive, under those conditions.

Similarly, if your soil is free draining (sandy or stony, not holding water for long), you’re well advised to go for drought-tolerant plants that have developed various strategies for conserving water, such as waxy or narrow leaves, or fleshy leaves that store water. Choosing plants to fit existing soil conditions is a great deal easier than altering the soil conditions themselves.

What Can I Use My Garden For?

A garden can make your life more comfortable, healthier, more colourful, and more convenient. A garden lets you expand your living area to the outdoors, harvest fresh food, and pick your own flowers. Take a look at the different ways that a garden can enhance your life.

A private getaway. Imagine taking a break in your own back garden or relaxing in a shady spot, secluded from the hustle and bustle of daily living. This dream can be yours, if you begin by creating a private area for your own pleasure.

A place for entertaining. Whether you like large get-togethers with family and friends, or a quiet dinner à deux, your garden can provide an ideal atmosphere. You need a few key ingredients to make your garden perfect for entertaining, such as comfortable seating, shade provided by a pergola or parasol, screening to create a secluded atmosphere, fragrant plants, plus lighting and heating for evening use.

A site forchildren and pets. Everyone in the family has a stake in the garden, so take account of all their interests. A garden isn’t just for the grownups. If you tell your kids to keep off the garden they may just obey you – for life – and miss out on a fascinating and absorbing hobby that can give them a lifelong interest in gardening and the environment. Not to mention art, science, and an excuse to get joyfully grubby.

A way to get close to nature. Unless you live in a treehouse, your garden is the nearest and probably the best way of getting in touch with your environment. Gardens are increasingly vital for the survival of wildlife, with natural habitats disappearing fast. Feeding the birds, watching the butterflies, and listening to the bees is a fabulous way of de-stressing, and high on the feel-good factor too – you know you’re doing a bit for the environment. Research has shown that walking barefoot on the grass significantly reduces heart rate and blood pressure!

Your own flower stall. Cutting a bunch of flowers from your own garden and arranging them in a vase indoors is hugely satisfying. Some flowers are better for cutting than others, so be sure to include a few in your borders. If you have enough space, consider having an out-of-the-way patch for a ‘cutting garden’ so you won’t feel guilty about robbing the borders.

Harvesting the fruits of your labours. A delicious aspect of your garden is that it can produce wonderful vegetables, fruits, and herbs. No shop-bought produce can ever beat the taste of your own crops, picked and eaten straight away, like crisp crunchy salads, and strawberries still warm from the sun. Mmm. You can grow gourmet produce, or rare and special crops, and grow them organically.

A practical work area. Being outdoors means more than fun and games. You’re likely to need a place in your garden to keep your garden tools, barbeque, firewood, clothesline, or rubbish bins. If possible, organise all of these less than attractive outdoor necessities in the same out-of-the way location – separate from your entertaining and play areas. Ideally, the location should be handy, near the garage or driveway, but screened from view.

A haven to relax. Anywhere that seems cosy and pleasant is a great place to put a secluded seating area. The area doesn’t have to be fancy, just a place for you to relax. If you put in an all-weather surface – gravel, paving, or mulch, for example – you can sit outside regardless of the soil conditions.

The possibilities for your garden are almost endless. Take some time to jot down everything you may possibly want in your garden. Chapter 2 shows you how to pull together all your needs and wishes in a garden plan.

Do I Have to Learn a Foreign Language?

The language spoken in gardening circles can be a little odd at first. For example, dirt isn’t just dirt, it’s soil. Dirt is what you make mud pies with; it’s the stain on your shirt. Soil, on the other hand, is full of promise and good nutrients. And some gardenaholics tend to go on and on about plant names. You may catch them at the nursery asking ‘Which Latin name is most correct, the old one or the new one?’ or ‘What is the proper pronunciation for that plant?’ Real garden snobs even get into heated debates about how to spell a particular plant name. Don’t be too hard on these people. Not only can they not help themselves, but you may find yourself behaving the same way someday.

Plants usually have tongue-twisting scientific names and easily-pronounced common names.

The fancy name

The proper (scientific) botanical name of a plant consists of two or more parts, much in the same way that people have a first and a last name. However, in plant language, the last name comes first.

The most important name is the genus –the ‘Smith’ of Joe Smith, if you will. (The genus name always begins with a capital letter when part of a multipart name.) A genus is a group of closely related plants. Just as in your own family, some of the plant cousins look a lot alike, while others don’t bear much resemblance at all. Also like your family, some closely related individuals have very different comfort levels. One uncle lives in the sun and warmth of the south coast, the other loves the cool damp Scottish climate. It’s the same for plants.

The second name, the ‘Joe’ part of Joe Smith, is the species name. The species name usually describes some feature of the plant or its native origin, or serves as a tribute to whoever discovered the plant. But the species name is in Latin, of course, just to keep things interesting. Consider, for example, Hosta undulata. Hosta is the genus name. The species name, undulata, describes the undulating shape of the leaf.

The plain old-fashioned, natural species of some plants acquire new status in face of prodigiously hybridised plants – tulips, for example. In those cases, the norm for the plant is some kind of hybrid of indeterminate botanical origin. That’s why when gardeners finally have in their gardens an actual natural, nonhybridised type of tulip they say something like, ‘And this is my species tulip.’ Gardeners are funny, aren’t they? (In this book, we use the abbreviation sp. for species.)

Occasionally, a third name follows the species name – the variety. Varieties are members of the same species but are different enough to deserve their own name. Just as you may have one redhead in a family of brunettes, some plants are quite dissimilar to their siblings. For example, Lychnis coronaria bears magenta flowers. Her sister Lychnis coronaria alba, however, wearsawhite (alba) flower.

Another part of a botanical name is the ‘cultivated variety’, or cultivar. Whoever discovered or created the plant decided that it was special enough to have its own name. The cultivar name appears after the species or variety name. The cultivar name is the only part of the botanical name that isn’t in italics but is always enclosed with single quotation marks. For example, a very nice form of Lychnis coronaria with a pink blush is called Lychnis coronaria, ‘Angel Blush’.

The common name

Of course, ordinary people don’t go around using long Latin botanical names in everyday conversation. Instead, they use a sort of botanical nickname, called a common name. Common names are less formal and easier to pronounce than botanical names. They’re also less precise. Just as your Aunt Betty calls you ‘pet’ and Uncle Bob calls you ‘bruiser’, many plants have several nicknames.

Often, the common name describes some distinguishing characteristic of the plant. For example, the plant called blue star has starry blue flowers. Sometimes, the origin of the name is lost in the mythology of a former time. Does anyone have a clue just who was the Susan of black-eyed Susan fame?

Finding that several unrelated flowers share the same common name isn’t unusual at all. Unfortunately, regular English flower names are often just as silly as their highfalutin Latin cousins, if for different reasons. For example, two distinct plants share the name ‘mock orange’, while ‘flowering cherry’ refers to literally dozens of different varieties. At least three unrelated perennials are called coneflowers: Echinacea purpurea, the Rudbeckia genus, and the Ratibida genus. On the other hand, many plants have no common name! Figure that one out.

The long and short of it is that you do need to pay some attention to plant names – if only to avoid buying and planting the wrong plant.

Chapter 2

Planning Your Garden

In This Chapter

Taking stock of your property

Tackling an overgrown garden

Making your wish list

Cutting down on maintenance

Drawing up the plan

Whether your garden consists of a brand new bare plot, an overgrown jungle, or any situation in between, your property is the canvas on which you create your garden masterpiece – your place to relax, entertain, welcome visitors, watch your children play, hold barbecues, and so on. A well-planned and planted garden becomes an extension to your home and creates a relaxing environment in which to unwind and enjoy getting in touch with nature. A good garden not only adds value to your home, it can also solve problems such as bad views, noise, and lack of privacy.

We strongly recommend that you tackle your garden by making a plan. Most gardeners benefit from planning a design on paper to a lesser or greater degree, but it’s possible (although unlikely) that a loose mental plan may suffice. In any case, the goal is to figure out the best ways to make use of your outdoor space. Base your decisions on what looks good to you, how you plan to use the space, how much maintenance you want to do, and what you can afford. This chapter should give you enough information to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your site, and sketch out a plan for a garden that suits your lifestyle.

Your garden is likely to be a large investment of your time and money, so it’s well worth considering the benefits of professional advice and calling in a landscape architect or garden designer. Their input can vary from a one-off advisory visit to a full and detailed garden design and planting plan (with varying costs to suit, obviously). If you just want some advice, you can show the professional your own plan and ask for suggestions or confirmation of your good sense. However, even if you go down the route of a complete plan, we recommend reading through this section to put your thoughts in order.

Taking Stock of Your Existing Garden

The results of your landscaping work depends, to some extent, on what you have to work with, so you should begin your plan by assessing the current condition of your garden. This up-front site analysis is an important starting point in planning your garden.

Recording your thoughts and observations on paper is always best, unless you’re blessed with a memory that gives you total recall. Start your site analysis by pencilling out a rough drawing of your garden on a large piece of paper (at least A4 size). Be sure to include important existing features of your property such as the outline of your house (including windows and doors), existing hard landscaped areas such as the patio, paths, and driveway, and permanent structures like the garage and garden shed. Remember to add general compass directions to your sketch. The sketch doesn’t have to be very precise at this stage. Take lots of photographs right from the start too; as well as serving as memory boosters, they’re also great morale boosters later on when you look back at the changes you’ve made.

Put your drawing on a clipboard and walk around your house and garden. Note the following:

Views. Note the good and bad views that you want to preserve or block. Good views are easy to recognise, but what about the neighbours’ views of your garden or your view of theirs? Envisage what you’re likely to see if you add new features too; if you put in a raised deck, what will you see then?

Prevailing winds. Make a note of exposed areas that may benefit from screening. Filtering the wind with a hedge or ‘gappy’ fence is better than trying to block it completely, because a solid barrier creates turbulence on the lee side (facing away from the wind).

Slope and drainage. Draw in some arrows that give you a rough idea of the contour of the land. Sloping ground or uneven terrain can become an interesting part of the design, especially if you accentuate it with retaining walls or dry streambeds. But sloping ground also can present erosion or drainage problems that can threaten your house or garden. Record any areas that seem overly wet or where moss or algae grows. Watch where excess rainwater flows. Some plants not only live in wet or soggy soil but also thrive in it; these are the plants you find in bog and water gardens. Drainage problems are sometimes complicated – consider consulting with a landscape architect or engineer who has experience with water drainage problems.

Soil. The soil in your garden provides nutrients, moisture, and support for plants. But soil types differ, sometimes even within the same property. Soils come in a huge range of textures and pH levels (the measure of acidity or alkalinity) and contain different amounts of organic matter, nutrients, and moisture. See Chapter 11 to find out more about soil characteristics so that you can choose plants that will thrive in your garden.

Interesting natural features. If you’re lucky enough to have rock outcroppings or a small stream, they can become special landscape features.

Noise, smells, lights. Open up all your senses and then write down anything else you notice – lights at night, noise from next door, and even unpleasant odours. You may be able to mask or conceal such nuisances to some degree.

Existing plants. Draw in plants, such as shrubs and large trees, that you want to preserve. Make a separate note of other, smaller plants like shrubs and perennials that you want to keep but that you can move to a new spot.

Sun and shade. Note areas that are sunny or shady and at what times of day. Different plants prefer different conditions, and matching the right plant to the right place is always best for an easy life and a successful garden. This information may also give you ideas about creating a more comfortable living space. Sunlight changes direction and intensity dramatically according to the season. For example, in midsummer, the south and west sides of the house are sunniest and warmest. If you live in a cool summer area, you may want to take advantage of the warmth in those areas, but if you live in a hot summer area, these may be places where you want to create shade with a plant-covered pergola or arbour.

Views from indoors. When you look out of your windows, what do you see? Can you improve your view out by removing or reducing plant growth, or even removing walls or fences? Also consider who can see into your home via the windows from the street or next door, and if you’re happier blocking such views.

To help you organise the different areas of your garden, you can draw goose eggs. Drawing a goose egg refers to pencilling in roughly circular areas that you think work well for specific purposes, as shown in Figure 2-1. After you finish the first goose egg, draw several more to consider alternatives and decide which works best.

Don’t forget to use your property’s natural strengths to your advantage and take time to get to know your garden before making any changes. If at all possible, after moving to a different property, wait a full year to see the changes that take place in the garden and to find out exactly what plants are growing there. You soon get a feel for the most sunny or sheltered spot for a patio; the location of the best flat lawn for ball games; where’s the most discreet place to hide the compost heap, dustbins, and other essential but ugly paraphernalia; where the sun beats down on late summer afternoons – perfect for the herb garden – and where the neighbour’s oak tree casts a pool of shade.

Figure 2-1: The shape of your property doesn’t determine how you use it. In these examples, two differently shaped properties are organised similarly using the goose egg method.

Tackling an Overgrown Garden

Unless your house is brand new, it’s unlikely that you’re starting with a blank slate. Indeed, sometimes the slate is cluttered up to such a degree that it’s hard to see through all the overgrown plants and out-of-date garden features. Inheriting someone else’s garden can be a mixed blessing indeed.

First, try to live with your garden for a while before making any major decisions – for a full year, if at all possible. The tree that looks so overwhelming in autumn, for example, may cast much-needed shade in summer; a tall hedge or bank of shrubs could screen a grotty view of a factory, or shield you from the neighbours’ prying eyes. Bear in mind that certain plants only reveal their full glory in certain seasons – bulbs are a prime example – and by bringing in a digger during autumn you could be ruining a wonderful spring display. As the seasons turn, make notes and take photos of what is happening in your garden.

Existing plants can be a puzzle too, particularly if you’re new to gardening and one plant looks like another. Although overgrown shrubs may well have passed their ‘sell-by’ date and you need to dig them up, others may be worth saving and rejuvenating with some careful (or even brutal!) renovation pruning. Here’s where a little expert knowledge can go a long way. If you have a knowledgeable friend or relative, fantastic, but if not then you can pay a garden consultant for a one-off advisory visit. Ask at your local garden centre for a recommendation.

Dreaming Up the Perfect Landscape

To get the most from your property, you need a design that meets the requirements of your lifestyle. A good way to start is to develop a wish list of everything that would go into the garden of your dreams. Be sure to consider the needs of all members of the household. Take a look at some of the things you may want to add to your wish list:

Patio. No rules say you have to site your patio bang next to the house, or that you’re limited to having just one. Think outside the box and have a look at the sunniest, most sheltered spots around your garden that you can use at different times of day. Maybe a little paved spot for breakfast or morning coffee, a large patio for lunch and evening gatherings with family and friends, or a secluded little arbour where you can sit with drink in hand to watch the sun go down. If you’re lucky enough to have a good view, make that your prime patio spot.

Conservatory or summerhouse. Location tends to be obvious for immediate build, but if this is somewhere down the road in your five-year plan, remember to allow space in your design.

Lawn. Again, no rule book says you have to have a lawn (though most people want one). In a very small garden where a lawn would get lots of wear and tear, and be a hassle to mow, hard landscaping may be a better alternative.

Water features. From a half-barrel mini-pond to a small lake, you can make water fit any size of garden. Remember that moving water, such as a fountain or waterfall, requires access to electricity and needs to be close to a power source.

Gardens have to serve a wealth of practical purposes too, so along with the features you’d like to have, remember to include those that are boring but essential.

Extra living space. Garden buildings such as existing sheds can improve your lifestyle in all sorts of ways should you need a home office, summerhouse, hobbies’ room, or kids’ playroom, yet without the bank-breaking costs and hassle of building an extension.

Garden buildings generally don’t need planning permission, but it’s always wise to check with your council first.

Storage. Essential to a lesser or greater degree for gardening equipment, furniture, bicycles, and children’s toys. For winter furniture storage, bear in mind that you can use tough plastic covers rather than investing in a huge shed.

Dustbins and compost bins. You can hide them behind screens of trellis, plants, or woven willow hurdles. Always make space for compost if at all possible – it’s a great way of recycling your garden and kitchen waste back into improving your soil and making a better garden, for little or no cost. And, from an eco-friendly point of view, you reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

Washing line. Youneed an open, sunny spot to dry washing, which, in a small garden, is probably the one earmarked for your patio. However, nothing stops you from having several sunken sockets in different sites for a rotary line, which can be put out of the way when necessary. Pull-out, retractable washing lines are great for small gardens.

Paths. All-weather access is essential for garden entrances and highly recommended for frequently used spots like sheds and washing lines.

Watering. Set up a water butt (several, if possible) to collect rainwater. Not only is it good for the environment, it’s also fantastic for reducing water bills.

Who will use your garden?

Plan your garden so that it gets maximum use and provides plenty of enjoyment. Make sure that you think about issues like the following:

If you have young children, safety, as well as fun, is a consideration. Avoid all but covered water features if children are very young. Play equipment is best set in a fenced back garden, close to the house if children are small; further away for big kids. Think about a storage area for all those toys, too. Older children who you don’t need to supervise can probably make use of any garden at the front and sides of the house.

If food production is high on your agenda, perhaps you can keep the back lawn smaller so that you have room for a big vegetable garden. Or even space for a few chickens? (Check the deeds to your house in case you’re not allowed to keep livestock before counting your chickens.)

Keen gardeners may want to include a greenhouse. Allow enough room for a cold frame and a little ‘nursery’ area for growing plants on.

Do you barbecue enough to warrant a built-in barbecue? The ideal place is close to the kitchen door.

What about Fido? A dog run is a great idea if you’re worried about what he may do to the new landscape.

When will you use your garden?

Think about the time of day and the time of year in which you plan to use your garden. Consider the following tips when planning your landscape and when you’re going to use it most.

If you like having breakfast outside, create a sheltered little seating area that gets the morning sun.

If you plan to be outdoors after work in the late afternoon, where will you be most comfortable at that time of day? Maybe that shady spot under the big tree out back, or somewhere that catches the last of the evening sun? On the other hand, if summer sunshine heats up the patio area, maybe you need an overhead structure or a patio umbrella for shade.

If you like to use the garden at night, good outdoor lighting and heating are a must. Create a sensory evening garden with plants that give off their perfume late in the day (see Chapter 22 for plants to delight your senses).

Creating a garden with a sense of place

Most neighbourhoods have a distinct character created by gardens and homes in similar styles. When you dream up your new garden design, remember to keep any regional or neighbourhood character in mind. Try not to be so different in your landscaping that you disrupt the overall continuity of the community, particularly in front gardens, which often tend to blend together (save any wild ideas for the back).

Don’t forget that little thing called ‘resale value’. Lots of people find themselves landscaping simply to enhance the overall appearance of their home for potential buyers. If you’re landscaping for resale, play it safe. Go for the gardening equivalent of the ‘warm neutrals’ so often advised for use indoors.

Matching your garden to the style of house and area is an easy jumping-off point. Consider an old-fashioned cottage garden for a charming cottage, a minimalist contemporary style for a modern house, a smart formal look for a town garden, or an informal mix of lawns and borders for a new estate.

Cutting down on maintenance

All gardens need a certain amount of regular maintenance, but how much depends a great deal on your garden design. If you love gardening and pottering outside, skip this section right now. But if, like many garden owners, you want to relax and enjoy looking at your garden rather than working on it, then plan for low maintenance right from the start. Here’s how:

Design your garden with lots of hard surfaces like paving and gravel and relatively little in the way of lawns or planting.

Avoid planting too densely, which, although it gives immediate impact, requires more pruning and replanting later.

Permanent plants are low maintenance, particularly if you’re careful to select varieties that need little or no annual pruning. Avoid having lots of annuals, which, although they add brilliant colour, need replanting every year.

Choose plants that like your garden environment and they need virtually no attention once established. By contrast, if you put plants where they’re not happy it means more work for you (moisture lovers in dry soil, for example, mean you spend a large portion of your spare time attached to a hosepipe).

Instead of a lawn that needs regular mowing, consider alternatives such as a meadow or ground-cover plants for some or all of your garden (see Chapter 5).

Use paving rather than decking to cut down on future work. If you plan to include wooden decks and fences, you have to paint or apply preservatives every two to three years. Consider some of the recycled plastic wood look-alikes for fences and decking, which look quite acceptable and are more environmentally friendly into the bargain.

Containers are very labour intensive, especially if you use bedding plants that need replanting every year. However, permanent plants in containers are a whole lot less work. Or do away completely with patio containers and have raised beds instead. They still need some watering, but much less often.

If you have to water essential plants in containers, set up an automated irrigation system (as explained in Chapter 14), which can water even when you’re away from home. Otherwise, it’s down to watering by hand.

What Goes Where: Designing the Plan

After adding the elements from the wish list to your sketch, you may want to create a more accurate and specific site analysis, drawn exactly to scale. (Check out this section’s sidebar, ‘Making a scale drawing of your property’.) You may be able to get exact dimensions of your garden from the building plan if it’s a recently built property, or from the title deeds.

Figure 2-2 is a sample of what your site analysis may look like after you transfer the details of your inventory to the plot plan.

Figure 2-2: A completed site analysis that includes problems to solve.

Using your space effectively

Make sure that you think of the entire garden as living space. Overcoming the traditional approach – back gardens are where we actually live, front ones are for show, and any bits round the side are mostly ignored – can be difficult. Why not make your whole plot into your living area? The following are some off-the-beaten-track ideas that allow you to make good use of all your space.

Front garden. If you shield the front with walls of greenery or a privacy-creating fence or hedge, then you can do what you like with your front garden. Bear in mind that you may cut down the amount of light reaching your front rooms, though. If you’re inspired to plant a prairie or a meadow out there, talk to the neighbours first so that they know what you’re doing, and keep paths neat and tidy so that the landscape looks intentional instead of frighteningly wild.

Some areas, such as housing estates, may have restrictions on what you can do with your front garden. Be sure to check before embarking on any do-it-yourself makeovers.

Ornamental edibles. You don’t need to relegate your vegetable patch to the furthest corner of the garden, but grow your crops wherever the light, soil, and convenience are best. Edible plants can look as good as they taste; a well-tended patch out the front, planted in an interesting design of diagonals or squares that intersperses veggies with flowers and herbs, can look as grand as its posh name, a potager.

Side areas. The land around the side of a house is often narrow, usually shady, and generally seen as nothing more than a through route between the front and back. Create a feeling of light and space with crafty touches such as painting a fence in a pale shade; adding containers or a seat to make more of a feature and a reason to linger; and for the ultimate illusion of space, incorporate outdoor mirrors (using mirror-finish plastic rather than breakable types). Or add a surprise to be discovered – such as a whimsical garden ornament.

Creating garden boundaries and pathways

Try to imagine decorating a living room with no walls. You’d have a hard time putting your furniture in the right place. Outdoor living rooms work the same way, except now you need to work out where to put the flowerbed instead of the sofabed.

Structures and plantings can define the boundaries of your landscape, creating ‘walls’ to set off different areas of your garden. For example, surround your herb garden with a hedge of lavender and install a gate at the entrance. Add a trellis screen to your patio and grow flowering and foliage climbers on it if you need a bit of seclusion. See Chapter 6 for suggestions on climbers for privacy.

After you establish the boundaries of your garden, both internal and external, turn your attention to the pathways. Make pathways simple and practical. Everyone who uses the paths frequently goes as the crow flies, so any curves or meanders should only be slight or they’ll ignore the path. You also want an easy-access path for getting to your car in the morning or lugging in groceries after work. Plan a wide, flat, solid path for where you need to trundle wheelbarrows full of compost, manure, or grass clippings.

Exercise your artistic side by planning scenic routes through the rest of your garden. Guests can enjoy wandering along paths that go through flowerbeds and meadows – space permitting. When you start playing with paths, you find that they’re a great design trick for making your garden seem bigger. Obscured by shrubs, ornamental grasses, or other tall plants, paths can double back, twist and turn, and proceed for much longer than you’d think in a limited space.