THE HEAT IS ON!

DESIGN YOUR GARDEN TO ENJOY THROUGH THE WINDOW IN SUMMER

It does take some planning but its pretty easy to achieve.

We have done this on our farm for decades. Our goal is to get all the main work on the farm and garden done before Memorial day. After that here in zone 7a/b it gets too hot to do much major work outside.
For a gardener it does mean a bit of work during the springtime but once the major garden is designed there should be less work on following years.

The objective is to grow plants that will basically take care of themselves during the summer months and flower beautifully so you can sit in the cool air conditioned house and look out through the window on your beautiful flowering garden. Enjoy watching the butterflies and hummingbirds while you relax in comfort. Easy to do? Yes it is.

HOW TO DESIGN YOUR SUMMER GARDEN.

• Determine which window or windows you want to design for.

• Measure out how much space you have outside the window and what area of the garden you can see from there.

• What is the light availability of the area you are planning. Is it full sun, shade, partial shade what?

• What kind of soil to do you have? Sandy, clay, loam, stony.

• What plant zone do you live in?

NOW TO THE PLANNING.

You may want to get a pencil and paper and draw out your garden. See our article on Planning a new garden
This article talks about a simple vegetable garden but you can use the principle for any kind of garden of any shape.

PLANT LINEUP.

Once you have determined how much space you have and what you can see then its time to decide on the plants. for looking out the window you need to choose shorter plants to be close to the house so they wont grow up and obscure the view. Choose a selection of shorter plants for the area close to the window so their flowers can be enjoyed without obscuring the rest of the garden view.

We recommend planting mostly perennials that flower at different times during the season for maximum floral beauty. This will reduce the amount of work needed in future years when working on the garden. If possible reserve some spots to add annual plants in a few sections. These can be varied from year to year to give the garden a different look every time. Plus annuals tend to bloom more profusely and for much longer periods than perennials do so you will have flowers for a much longer period of time.

Experiment with your garden layout. Moving plants around from year to year can vary the view and make the garden seem fresh every time. Take care which plants you move however as some perennials do not like being moved, often they produce tap roots and digging them out can kill them. It can also disrupt them enough to not flower for one or more seasons until they re-establish themselves. Our detailed information on each plant seed we sell will alert you to which plants can be easily moved and which need to be left alone once planted.

The best designs offer an open space between the flower bed near the window and the further flowers. This gives the garden the appearance of space and coolness even if its really hot out there. If you don't want grass you may consider using a low growing ground cover such as thyme which flowers profusely for much of the season, can be mown down and beats out the weeds wonderfully once its established. While it still needs to be mown its not as often as grass. Plus the butterflies love it.

Back behind the open space is where you plant much larger shrubs or perennials that either flower profusely or have large flowers. We love to use Hibiscus manihot as one of the plants as it has HUGE yellow flowers that can be seen for quite a distance. Choose shrubs that bloom in summer such as hardy hibiscus which comes in a variety of colors, chaste tree or mimosa that blooms in summer or other tall perennials such as balloon flower, bee balm and culvers root. There are many others to choose from.

CHOOSING THE PLANTS.

• Use our category breakdown to determine which plants you want in your garden.

• Pick plants that will grow in your zone and on your soil and the light levels that you have. If your garden is bright and sunny then pick hardy annuals that bloom in the summer and mix in with bright flowering annuals.

• If your area is more shaded or even wooded perhaps ferns and some summer flowering plants like black cohosh and American Spikenard would be best for you.

• The possibilities are endless only limited by your imagination and a few good plant and seed catalogs.

OTHER NEW GARDEN INFORMATION

Starting a New Garden

How to start seeds to get the best possible plants.

Tools You Need To Make A Simple Garden.

How to Choose a Potting or Seeding Mix.

Making Planting Containers.

What Plants should I grow in my new Garden?.

Planning your New Garden

Designing your garden for summer heat

Potting on your seedlings get get the best possible plants.