Landscaped Gardens on a Budget

Landscaped Gardens: Gardenscape on a Shoestring
by: Sara Noel

Many of us flip through magazines fo landscaped gardens, all the while thinking that it takes years, a professional, or tons of money to landscape the gardens featured in the glossy pictures.

This isn’t necessarily true. You can design a breathtaking garden and be the envy of the neighborhood by following some of these tips:

Know What You Like and What Works
Drive around your neighborhood and see what’s out there that grows well in your zone. You can jot down what you see on index cards, so they are organized and handy.

Start gathering page clippings from magazines and collect some pictures of the designs that interest you. This can help you decide what style of landscaped gardens you like. You’ll have an easy reference for plants and placement too.

Select Location and Color
Look at your notes and clippings and choose the color scheme you‘d like to have in your garden. Don't forget to keep in mind if you’re designing and planting in shade, sun, or partial shade or partial sun. Are you looking for something bright and vibrant or something more calming and soothing?

Decide on a shape that compliments your house style. Straight styles give a more formal appearance, while curves give a more informal feel. If you don’t feel confident selecting colors, you can use a color wheel to help pick contrasting and complimenting colors.

Budget and Create a Plan
Decide how much you are able to and want to spend on your new garden. Do you want to start with a foundation and add to it gradually? If so, start by purchasing your most expensive plants and shrubs first. Use these as a focal point for your garden. Start watching for sales and discount plants at garden centers and nurseries.

Tell everyone you know that you’re starting a garden and would love it if they could give you divisions of their perennials or seeds they have saved from their garden. Let family and friends know that you have a wish list of plants that would be the perfect gift idea.

If you have access online, do a search for seed swaps. Many gardeners love to help a new gardener. Many are willing to send seeds for the cost of postage or will trade for something else that you may have that they are looking for.

A great resource for free items is www.freecycle.org. Look for a group in your area, join the group, and post letting the group know that you would be interested in garden plants and seeds.

You may get lucky and find that a member of the group has already offered some plants up for grabs. Don’t forget to ask your local garden club when they are having their sales too.

You can also start some plants from seed yourself. Many seeds are very easy to direct sow and a little can go a long way.

Easy to grow seeds:
Candytuft
Asters
4 o’clocks
Sunflowers
Pansies
Violas
Impatiens
Dianthus
Larkspur
Salvia
Cupid's Dart
Morning Glories
Moonflowers
Zinnias
Calendula
Marigold
Cosmos
Sweet Alyssum
Bee Balm
Poppies
Nasturtium

If you decide to sow into containers, you can re-use containers such as yogurt containers, milk jugs, egg cartons, and plastic ice cream buckets. You can also call your city and see if they have free mulch available.

Design - Now you’re ready to design. You can sketch out your idea beforehand. Keep the following in mind as you design.

Scale - Judge the size of the area and choose plants that aren’t going to be too large, too wide, or too small for the area. Keep in mind the plant’s size when it’s met it’s mature growth.

Balance - Don’t place your plants where one area is too compacted with plants and another area is too airy. Try to achieve a good balance of small, medium, and large plants.

Balance offers visual stability. It can be created with space between plantings or the visual weight of your design. This can be created with lines so that your garden is pleasing to look at from all angles.

Focal Point - Your focal point is the area that the eye is drawn to first in landscaped gardens. This can be your prized flowers, tree, or shrub.

Rhythm - This is the visual flow. The eye wanders throughout the entire garden design, but comes back to the focal point. Rythm can be achieved with repetition and contrast.

Harmony and Unity - This is when plants have a way of appearing connected and a part of one another. This can be achieved with color, texture, and groupings. Unity is lost when your plants look too separate or your color choice makes one plant look lost amongst the rest.

Color - Color impacts upon the entire design process. Choose colors that go well together.
Accessorize - To add some interest and whimsy to landscaped gardens, consider some homemade items or trash-to-treasure works of art. Ideas such as making your own stepping stones, garden markers, terra cotta bird baths or toad houses, painted rocks and pavers, and fun wind chimes are simple projects that can add a lot of interest to your garden area.

Look around for unique items you could add to your garden such as milk cans, wooden chairs, ladders, tricycles, wagons, trunks, roofing shingles, mailboxes, or even dressers. The sky is the limit on what you can create. Use your imagination.

There you have it, and you didn’t have to hire a professional, spend thousands of dollars, or take years to achieve a pretty garden. You won’t be a new gardener for long. Soon, it will be you sharing starts, cuttings, seeds, divisions, and tips.

Sara Noel, editor and publisher, www.FrugalVillage.com and www.HomesteadGarden.com