So now you've picked out what type of garden you will have, what
the location will be, and what kind of fertilizer you need, now
is the time to really get started in choosing your garden
environment. First you'll want to choose what your garden
barriers will be. What will separate your garden from the rest
of the world? Next you'll want to choose the decorations and
support for your plants. Often some kind of metal mesh is
necessary to keep your plant standing up. You will also want to
choose how much soil and fertilizer to buy, and how to arrange
all the plants in your garden.
Choosing a border is actually a fairly important step in getting
your garden started. It might not actually affect the well-being
of the plants, but having a garden is a fairly aesthetic ordeal
for many people anyways. So usually you will want to choose
between metal and wood. You can stack up boards around the
perimeter of your garden, and give it a rather nice cabin look.
If you're looking for a more modern look, you can obtain some
metal lining at your local home improvement store for rather
cheap, and installation is medium difficulty.
Finding something nice-looking to support your plants can be a
little bit more challenging. Sometimes a short metal pole can
work well, but often for plants such as tomatoes you will need a
wire mesh for it to pull itself up on. You can find these at any
gardening store, usually pre-shaped in a sort of cone shape
ideal for plants. The plant just grows up through it, and
usually it will last until the plant is grown enough to support
itself. After that you can take a pair of wire-cutters and just
snip it free.
Deciding how much soil to buy can be slightly easier. Look up
information on your plants and find out the ideal soil depth.
Then dig out that much from your garden, take the measurements,
and find out the exact amount of
cubic feet of soil that you will need. Go to the store and buy
it, preferably adding on a few bags just so you can replenish
the supply if it compresses or runs out. If you live in an area
where the ground is rough, dry, and barren of nutrients, then
you might even want to add a few inches of depth to the original
recommendation.
Arranging the plants is rather important to the success of your
garden. I'm not talking about some kind of feng-shui thing, but
depending on your watering, some plants might hog all the water
and leave the other plants
high and dry. Some plants have longer roots than others, and are
more aggressive in the collection of water. If you place one of
these plants next to a plant with weaker, shorter roots, it will
quickly hijack the water supply for itself, and choke out the
other plant.
I hope I've led you to realize that placement isn't the only
important thing about a garden. There are many other factors
that might not seem very significant, but spending a proper
amount of time considering them could change the outcome of your
garden. So if you're working on building a garden, use and
reference you can (the library, the internet, and magazines) to
look in to some of the factors I've mentioned.
