Best garden planner?

[rgrace]

What do you use to plan your garden? Do you just wing it? Pencil and paper? Or do you have a favorite website?

I tend to just "wing it", though I wouldn't be opposed to finding some good and easy way to actually plan out a garden and lay it out properly. It would probably end up looking better, lol!

 

[claudine]

To be honest, I've never tried to plan my garden. I prefer to be completely spontaneous. When I see a nice plant at a store, I buy it, then I go to my garden and I plant it Of course I always try to find the best place for it, but still, my garden looks pretty messy. Fortunately, I like it this way

 

[gata montes]

Although I usually have a rough idea in my mind of what I would like a garden to look like -as well as what I would want to see as the end result in five years time - I always plan them and in a way that they are looking their best and fully established within a five year time frame - which is what works best for me and so far I have never been disappointed

I would of course have taken into account which areas of the garden - were more exposed to the elements - as well as which had sun or shade - but to give you a brief and fairly rough idea of what I mean by planning - it would include taking measurements and drawing to scale, selecting the type of landscaping materials I wish to use as well as working out the quantities required - together with choosing the right plants for each area - as well as considering how they compliment each other, how quickly they grow and what they will look like throughout the year plus drawing up a planting plan.

 

[warmweatherwoman]

I found this awesomely cool website a while back that helps with you planning and found it to be of great use!! It even has sample plans you can go by!

http://smallblueprinter.com/garden/planner.html

 

[Pat]

I have always just flown by the seat of my pants, but now that I can use the above website, I will give that a try.

Thanks for the share.

 

[warmweatherwoman]

You are very welcome. I love to share things that make things like planning a garden much easier. There are soo many different ideas and concepts for gardens sometimes I have a hard time putting everything together in my head...so being able to plan it out "on paper" so to speak is an awesome tool for someone like me..and I hope it is as much help to you as well.

 

[LindaKay]

Wow; thanks for the suggestion. I think that's what I need. Maybe those who are really good at gardening can thrive without a plan, but I definitely need one if I'm going to try to succeed this year.

 

[RedNeckCowBoy007]

My wife does our garden planning, and she just takes a sheet of paper and draws out the garden a couple or five times until she gets it figured how she wants. Ends up working out rather well.

 

[cmckinney01]

I wing it, too. I have a general idea of what I want my garden to look like. I never write it down, though. It's in my head until I go outside. Then, I start planting away.

 

[claudine]

I found this awesomely cool website a while back that helps with you planning and found it to be of great use!! It even has sample plans you can go by!

http://smallblueprinter.com/garden/planner.html

Thank you for sharing this link, it's a really interesting website. It's so helpful. Who knows, maybe it will encourage me to start planning my garden Currently, it looks completely chaotic My parents hate it, I bet they regret giving me some space for my plants.

 

[Rzashida]

I bought a garden planner book from Micheals and I have used it for years. I need to purchase another garden plan book because the book is almost full. I always draw my ideas however, never mimics my plans. But, it is good to keep records.

 

[happyflowerlady]

I tried planning out the garden, and it is more like a rough idea of what i want to see planted in an area, than an actual planned out garden. When i am deciding what can go in each are, it is important to look at whether it is shady or sunny, how dense the clay is, or if there are tree roots in the dirt that prevent me from digging very deep.
I do want to plant more of the taller plants along the fence line, so it will make the back yard more private when they grow up, at least during the summer when they are growing. I will also put in some bushes, but those take longer to mature, and some of the things like cannas will be much faster growing, as well as making the yard look a little more "tropical".