A garden can be an outdoor refuge that allows you to escape the stress of everyday life, show off your gardening skills to family and friends, or even be an outlet for your creativity. You can make your design truly unique with labyrinths made from tall hedges, cobblestone paths and strategically placed water features. There are many different ways to create a garden. No matter what your design preferences, you’ll find something that speaks to your gardener’s heart and soul.
Hugelkultur
Hugelkultur is a process for composting. Basically, fallen wood and other natural debris is used as the base of a raised bed with a growing compound placed on top. The process is similar to what happens in the forest naturally, creating a nutrient-rich, moist environment for plants to grow. This type of gardening works well for areas that are a challenge to gardeners, such as urban lots or areas with poor drainage.
Hanging Gardens
If you don’t have a lot of ground space, hanging gardens may be the perfect addition to your home. Hanging gardens are a beautiful accent to your indoor or outdoor décor. The best veggies and fruits for hanging gardens include: lettuce, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, peas, some smaller types of peppers and Asian eggplants. Herbs also make excellent plants for hanging.
Keyhole Garden
Keyhole gardens are popular in Africa, but have made their way to the United States in areas where it is hot and dry. If you were to look at a keyhole garden from above, it looks like an old-fashioned keyhole, round with a notched area on one end. This notched area is where a compost pile is kept to add rich nutrients to the raised-bed structure of the garden. Use stones for a natural look to build up your keyhole garden. You can also add a pipe down the center for better irrigation.
Vertical Gardens
Urban areas in particular can benefit from vertical gardening. This means utilizing a wall and allowing plants to vine up it. One example might be to place a long rectangular container against a wall and plant tomatoes in it, but to also have cucumbers vining up a trellis that is placed against the wall.
Hanging vertical bags can be used to grow strawberries. You can also build a vertical herb garden out of two-by-fours and rectangular planters. A PVC pipe with holes drilled in it can hold a variety of smaller plants.
Enchanted Food Forest
This is a design that is meant to mimic food being grown the way it would in nature. The key to this type of garden design is to make sure everything is working well together, including anything living in the garden — plants, animals, bugs. For an enchanted forest garden to work well, you must plan out how each plant works with others and place them so they help one another. For example, you have to create layers of vines, tall trees, shrubs and groundcover.
These are just a few of the garden designs you can use to overcome gardening challenges and make the most of the space you have. Today’s gardening focuses on sustainability and making maintenance easier. The right design will allow you to get the most out of your garden and feed your family healthy foods for a fraction of the cost of store-bought.
