How to Plan an Organic Landscape

An organic garden isn't necessarily quirky or devoted to any one thing, like vegetables. Incorporate food plants into your landscape while maintaining strong design principles. Devise an elegant landscape plan that's simple to maintain with organic practices.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Growing Shrubs
• Annual Plants
• Bird Feeders
• Birdbaths
• Perennial Plants
• Pencils
• Graph Papers
• Highlighter Pens
• Rulers

1. Draw the site on graph paper: buildings and plants, sunlight and drainage. Take photos and arrange a panorama of present conditions. Decide what to keep and what to change.
2. Use colored highlighters to designate public, utility, private and problem areas on your drawing. Mark highly visible areas (front yard, entertaining garden) pink for public. Locate the utility areas (trash can corrals, storage sheds, above-ground meters) and color them yellow. Denote private sitting areas in blue and mark problems such as impossible-to-remove rocks and poor drainage in green.
3. Plan to spend half your budget - of both money and initial time - on the public areas, to create welcoming but low-maintenance plantings. Draw in beds to feature evergreen ground covers, reliable flowering shrubs and a small lawn.
4. Locate any truly lousy views - neighboring properties, garbage cans, utility boxes - and lose them organically. Consider making a trellis (see "How to Build a Trellis," under Related eHows) or pergola for roses or grapes if fast-growing blueberries and blackberries aren't enough.
5. Create a desirable view as the focal point of the private garden - right out the back door usually works - and make it a diverse garden of food and flower. Plan fruit trees for shade here and as a backdrop to your herb and perennial flowers.
6. Provide room for a garden center to make caring for the landscape easier. Build a potting shed or add a covered area to an existing storage building. Remember to leave room for compost bins.
7. Add a water feature and bird feeding center to encourage beneficial insects and winged visitors. Plan a diverse garden full of flowers, herbs and vegetables for the same reasons.

Tips & Warnings

• Add seasonal color spots and perennial bulbs to public area plantings when time and budget permit.
• Tackle the worst problem areas first - drainage, tree roots - especially if fixing them later will mean digging up your precious organic soil.
• Build planting beds and mulch them even if you cannot plant right away - organic soil only gets better with time.
• Diverse plantings encourage beneficial insects and reduce the need for pesticides. Add compost bins, and make public areas low-maintenance.

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