Making a garden is one of the pleasantest of pastimes. and planning it is an important step. In the beginning, it is best to select flowers or vegetables that are easy to grow in your area. It is best, too, to start with a small garden so that you will be able to care for it properly.
If you would like to have a flower garden, you can plant either a bed or a border of flowers. A bed can be any shape you like, but for a beginner a rectangular garden is easiest to work with. In it you might plant rows of tall flowers for cutting, like asters, snapdragons, marigolds, and zinnias.
Or you might have an informal garden made up of masses of flowers of many heights, colors, and fragrances. Gardens of this kind are called English, or old-fashioned, gardens. Hollychocks, foxgloves, marigolds, stock, candytufts, and pansies are some of the flowers usually grown in them. If you have a big flower garden, it is nice to have a grass path or two leading through it to tie it in with the rest of the yard.
A border of low-growing flowers can be planted to edge a walk, lawn or driveway or set-off a garden of taller-growing flowers.
If you decide to raise vegetables, you will probably want to start with a small garden where you can raise just enough for your family’s use. This is called a kitchen garden.
It is also possible to raise flowers and vegetables together. Flowers can be used as a border around a vegetable garden, and certain vegetables and herbs are nice in a flower garden or around the edges of it. Carrots look good in a flower garden, because they have lovely, graceful foliage. Peppers are decorative, and kale has beautiful curly green leaves. Herbs like parsley, savory, basil, sweet marjoram, sweet lavender, and thyme can be grown with your flowers or separately in an herb garden. If you have a trellis or fence, you can train climbing flowers like morning glories and sweet peas or vegetables like cucumbers and red cherry tomatoes to grown on it.
Once you have decided in the kind of garden you would like, the next step is selecting the best place for it. It is easier to take care of a garden if it is near the house and near a source of water. The spot you select should have sunlight at least 5 or 6 hours a day. A sheltered spot with a southern exposure is best of all.
The ground should be almost level, with just a little slope for drainage. Try to stay away from trees, shrubs, and stones. It is hard to work around them, and tree roots may rob your garden of moisture. The best soil is well drained, loose, and high in humus content. Humus is a soil in which leaves and other vegetable or animal matter have decayed.