How to Plan Next Spring's Garden This Spring

As soon as those first crocuses start blooming, you can start planning for next year's spring display. Keeping track all season long to prepare for fall planting will allow for a spectacular garden next year!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Camera
• Journal
• Annuals
• Bulbs

1. Take photographs of your garden every one to two weeks throughout the growing season. This will show you where current bulbs and perennials are currently located and where the bare spots are. Especially important are the early perennials that may die back later, as you don't want bulbs growing in the middle of them!

2. Take close-up photos of the plants and foliage. This way you can identify what you already have. With hundreds of bulb varieties from which to choose, it's easy to forget what you already have!

3. Note the timing of the bulbs to determine if you have a good enough mix of early, middle, and late spring flowers. Then when you go shopping in the late summer and early fall, read the packages to see when each choice will bloom.

4. Mark the spots where you want to plant more bulbs by using annuals or small containers of plants. Practice a color display with corresponding annuals.

5. Sketch your plan for the garden in a journal. Make a list of what you want for it. Then, as the end of summer nears, you can start shopping at your local nurseries or gardening supply stores.

6. Choose a variety of bulbs. Crocuses will bloom first. Other early spring bulbs include hyacinths, daffodils, anemones, and early tulips. Mid-spring bulbs are more tulips and grape hyacinths. Late spring bulbs are late tulips and narcissus.

7. Plant bulbs in clumps for more impact. Dig a wide hole and put late-blooming bulbs in first, mid-spring ones next, and early ones on top. Then, as one set is dying back, another will be emerging to take its place!

Tips & Warnings

• Use a bulb planter to ensure proper depth.
• Keep your photographs from year to year to watch how your spring garden changes and which bulbs need to be replaced.
• Forget-Me-Nots provide a beautiful blue contrast to spring bulb displays. Plant seeds this year and the flowers will reseed themselves for next year.
• Deer like to eat tulips, so if your yard is prone to deer, plant something else.
• Squirrels have an annoying habit of digging up your bulbs and moving them. At least you will be surprised every year!

[debinflorida]

on 6/4/2009 Good plan! I am doing an entire re-do of my yard, so I'm taking lots of pictures to see how things look before and after. I'll be making so many huge changes, and I want to post some before and after pics online.