Your Summer Garden Landscape

When you plan your summer garden there are many things you must consider. The natural landscape or terrain of your yard and garden areas would be the first consideration. Some gardeners choose to go to great lengths to change the actual natural landscape. It is always best to deal with the natural beauty of your current landscape than to spend a lot of money and time to change it.
To begin you should make a sketch of your current yard and gardens. I use a piece of graph paper and identify the house, any outbuildings, existing garden areas and hazards such as sink holes or drop offs. Take a tape measurer with you and as you walk the property, take down measurements of the different areas. Draw in the various slopes and inclines. Take notes about the kind of soil that you have. Is it loam, sandy, rock and dirt that is mixed, etc.?

You might consider using a water feature as the answer to a barren piece of the property. Next determine the light conditions of your yard. Which gardens will utilize plantings that are shade or partial shade. How many hours of sunlight to you have in a particular area for tomatoes, peppers and other sunloving plants? Do you need to create artificial shade in order to satisfy the needs of some of your other vegetable plantings? Do you need to plant a tree or a trailing vine or flower on a trellis to provide more shade? 
Vegetable gardens are the easiest to plan and plant. Checking the soil content will help you know where to plant tomatoes and corn – some of the heavy feeders of your soil’s nutrients. Since aesthetics are not a high priority with vegetable gardens, your biggest decision may be to either plant in rows or to used raised beds. Keep in mind, however, that you can get at least 2 crops a year if you plan correctly and keep an eye out on each section of your garden. Make sure to check out companion planting literature which will help to make the best use of the space you have available.
When planning for a flower garden decide if you would like a color scheme that provides several shades of the cooler colors – blues, purples and greens. Many full sun flower gardens use the other side of the color wheel with plantings of yellows, oranges, reds. Or you may choose to plant the entire color spectrum in a flowing garden which circles the perimeter of your property and floats over the slopes and inclines you previously measured while doing a survey of your yard’s terrain.

Another consideration is how much time you would like to spend in the garden. If you like the look of colorful gardens, but don’t have the time to put into them, utilize plantings that have minimal maintenance. On the other hand, if you enjoy being outside much of the summer time a specialty garden might be just the ticket. Perhaps a bed of roses is more to your liking.

If after having taken your measurements, you are still uncertain of how to begin, it might be a wise idea to consult a landscape designer to get ideas. The designer you choose may be able to give you recommendations on a landscape service that can maintain the look you have chosen. If you are not interested in having someone else maintain your yard, ask the designer for a low maintenance type of landscape that you will be able to maintain yourself.
Your yard is a reflection of the person living there. Visit gardens in the area to see what plantings work well in your area. There are plenty of television garden programs, public arboretums and many gardening clubs that can also serve as a treasure trove of information in regard to your landscaping project.

The popularity of raised beds is increasing due, in large part, to the number of people renting apartments and condos who find themselves with little space on which to plant a garden. Many seed companies are also now offering compact or “bush” type plants which lend themselves well to this type of gardening.
There are positives and negatives about this form of gardening, so I will offer you a few suggestions to highlight both sides of this question.
Raised beds are especially effective if you have difficulty in stooping or leaning over.  The variety of raised bed heights and shapes is only limited by your imagination and the building materials used to construct the outer edge. Wheelchair bound gardeners can work very well with this kind of a set-up as long as the width of the construction is within arms reach from any side of the bed’s construction.
These beds also tend to have far less soil compaction since gardeners work from outside the structure instead of between rows.
Gardens which tend to be very soggy after a rain will be much less likely to remain in this condition as the heighth of the plants will allow the moisture that was not immediately absorbed into the ground to evaporate.
Plants which need several inches of soil to produce a crop will do well in this environment.  Leeks, carrots, turnips, Jerusalem artichokes and onions are just a few of the plants with this kind of soil requirement.
It is very easy to adjust the soil amendments in raised gardens to fit the needs of each set of plantings. Before the structure is set in the garden or garden location, the soil can be tilled, fertilized and amended to match the needs of each set of plantings. The raised bed is then built and placed over the soil and more can be added to the desired height.
The actual number of plants to be placed in these gardens is larger than a typical garden since no room needs to be left in order to provide rows between.
One negative to raised bed gardening may be that some gardeners prefer to remove the raised bed at the end of the season.  This can be difficult to do and storage of the raised bed could present a problem.
If you are blessed with a large yard you might consider combining the two for a nice variety.
There are also many fine books available which can help you decide. In the end it will be a personal choice which fits your available time and lifestyle.