7 Secrets to Creating The Garden of Your Dreams Secret #3: Know Where to Invest Your Time, Energy, and Money

 If you feel unsure about where or how to invest your time, energy, or money, you're not alone.

Making choices about how much money to spend, whether to grow your own plants from seed or cuttings, which plants to choose, etc., must also take into consideration where you are in your own life cycle. For example, if you want to plant oak trees in order to enjoy watching wildlife eat the acorns, remember that the trees will not produce any nuts until they are 20 – 30 years old.

To begin, create a bubble diagram that shows your planned activity areas; hardscape and plantscape; an inventory of what will be left once you’ve moved, or removed, what you don’t like; and a rough indication of where you want various types of new features, ornaments, and plants.

For some gardeners, the next step is the most difficult: Choosing how you want your garden to grow. Do you want to look out on masses of a specific color? Do you want to collect a variety of the same species of plants, such as roses, or hostas? Do you want to create a particular kind of garden, such as an alpine garden, a Japanese garden, a vegetable garden, or a cutting garden? Do you want the garden to have a casual look, like a swath of rough grass and meadow? Or do you favor a formal look with edged beds or parterres framed with boxwood? Each of these choices calls for a different selection of plants. To be continued .....

For more on this topic, go to http://cultivatingtheinnergardener.blogspot.com .

Rehabbing an existing garden, or starting a new one? Start with my e-course: http://bit.ly/bhQk9k .

The topic of the June 2011 Cultivating The Inner Gardener e-newsletter: Transform garden ideas from the inner space of your imagination into the material world. To sign up, enter your e-mail in the Yahoo Groups box in the right-hand column.

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