CREATING A NEW GARDEN

If you are a kind of person who likes to have things done your way and if the most important factor is self-satisfaction then you are very much welcome to this site. Here we teach you to create the Garden of your dreams. Our guidelines will help you bring your dreams garden in to existence. Creating your own garden is not a project that will be accomplished in a day or two, unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money to pay for landscape designers. These professionals do beautiful work, but the finished product will only reflect their own ideas, concepts and personality. It will be their dream garden, existing upon your property.

However creating your own garden will give you the self-satisfaction that is the resulting reward of own imagination, planning, and hard work that it takes to create this personal work of art. Gardening is a lot of hard work, but it is an enjoyable work. Each hour of hard work and efforts that you put in your garden will give you rewarding results. When you see your plants and flowers grow and blossom in glory you will realize that your dream garden has really become a reality and you are its proud owner.

The first and probably most important consideration when putting in a new garden is what type of soil you have. A perfect garden soil should have a small percentage of clay and sand and a large proportion of silt and organic matter. A good soil will crumble apart when it is dug. The soil you use should not prevent oxygen from reaching the roots and the roots should have space to grow to their full potential. The soil should also be able to hold water for the plants. The Ph value (acid or alkaline) of soil is also an important factor. With a little work, and a few amendments to the soil, the texture can be improved and either of these can become useful and productive gardens. You can perform a simple test to determine the composition of your soil. Put 2 cups of soil taken from the top 6 inches of your garden into a glass jar. Fill with water, cover and shake vigorously. After 24 hours the organic material will be the layer floating on the surface; the next layer is clay; the third layer, silt; and the bottom layer, sand. This profile will show you what basic materials you have and their relative proportions. Only after the site has been prepared, and the soil and conditioners mixed, watered well and settled should you test the pH of the soil.

Preparing the ground

To begin preparing the ground, double dig the entire area rather than just spotting individual plant holes. Start at one end and dig down the full width of the garden, removing loosing the soil and thus making it freer. Then dig down a second row of cuts; this time placing the soil where you previously dug. Break up dirt clods and remove large rocks as you go. Continue doing this till you reach the other end of the garden where you will add the soil, which was first removed. Once the entire area has been dug, you can begin to recondition and prepare the soil.

Sandy soils
Sandy soils may be all right for certain plants, but for the most part are useless because they won't hold water for the plant. Large quantities of organic material should be added to sandy soils. The addition of compost and other organics will help to hold nutrients and water within the soil.

Clay soils
Clay soils will gum when wet and almost turn to stone when dry. Clay soils prevent oxygen from reaching the roots, and inhibit the roots from growing to their full potential. They have low levels of organic matter and can be very difficult to work with. The addition of organic matter open up clay soils and improve porosity. When the soil has begun to dry somewhat, and become workable, coarse organic materials such as compost, grass clippings, leaves and manure should be added. The addition of some coarse sand, granite grit, or other aggregates will greatly aid in the drainage of the soil.

Only after the site has been prepared, and the soil and conditioners mixed, watered well and settled should you test the pH of the soil. You can buy an inexpensive pH test kit at most nurseries, and many good garden centers will gladly test a soil sample for you. The best way to adjust pH is gradually, over several seasons. If the soil is excessively alkaline, you might be better off to build a raised bed using topsoil purchased from a nursery.

Planting
Once you have conditioned and prepared your garden's soil you are ready to set your plants. Keep in mind that if you have had to drastically changed the texture of the soil you may have to continue working on it for a couple of years before it becomes stable. It may be more appropriate to use annuals for planting rather than perennials during the first year so that you won't have to disturb permanent plants. Starting a garden from scratch this way is a lot of work and the most rewarding one too.