A garden without design……

With a little romance in our soul and passion in our hearts, we all dream of having our very own enchanted garden. Our thoughts drift back to a time we had a frosty glass of lemonade and fresh baked cookies in our grandmother’s garden. Memories of soaring high in a swing hanging from an old oak tree, enjoying the color of nearby daylilies as the fragrance of roses drift by from another corner of the garden fill our mind. Butterflies dancing among the delicate blossoms bring the magic of the garden to life.

Knowing that it is possible and quickly grabbing the largest vehicle in the driveway, we speed off to our favorite plant nursery. Full of enthusiasm and anxious to get our hands in the dirt, we dash along the aisles of lush greenery and vibrant colors to gather our selections of plant treasures. The choices are fabulous and it’s just too hard to decide so maybe it’s best to get some of everything.

Arriving back home and feeling more enthusiastic than ever, unloading the living cargo doesn’t even seem like a chore. Gloves on and with all the proper garden tools close at hand, the digging starts with great expectations of the garden that these efforts will bring. Thoughts of the joy a garden will bring to family and friends fill our mind as we work and water.

With all of our plant selections snug in the ground we watch and we wait with great anticipation. But somehow it’s never what we expect, not quite what we envisioned. It looks a little random and things just don’t relate. It’s a potpourri but not the beautiful potpourri we expected and worked so hard to achieve.

This frustration and disappointment along with the money spent is a sentiment shared by many. To start off on the right garden path the best approach is to work with a professional garden designer. The design always comes first, starting with the concept of your garden and developing a landscape design plan that works to develop your property to it’s fullest potential.

Whether you want a patio garden or a full-scale landscape, a good designer brings experience along with a good sense of style. Your designer will analyze your site to consider soil type, topography, drainage and any existing features you have. Once this information is collected, it is combined with your needs and the garden style you want. It is best to have a master plan prepared, even if you prefer to schedule the work in phases, you can feel confident knowing that the final results will be what you want and your landscape budget will have been used wisely. This will avoid a piecemeal effect and your designer will know ways to save money in the process.

Feel comfortable knowing your property value will increase with the “right” landscaping. It’s smart to protect and enhance your real estate investment. The National Garden Council reports that from the resale of your home you will recoup a higher percentage from your landscape investment than some other home renovation projects.

Your design plan will enable you to visualize your garden before the work begins and you will enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that everything is going in the right place the first time. During the design process many new ideas will come to light that will enhance and personalize your garden.

The atmosphere you want to create will be done through a combination of the garden layout, focal point, features and the plant material selected. Formal gardens have long been associated with traditional architecture, however formal geometry does work extremely well with modern architecture. Basically “modern” is classic design stripped down to it’s bare essence. Or you may dream of a cottage garden with a softer and more relaxed form. Maybe a little touch of whimsical is exactly what you wish and makes you smile.

Gardens are as individual as our fingerprints. They are a place we can ponder our dreams or share time with family and friends…..a lot of things can grow in a garden.

For additional information, contact Sharon St. John, garden artist and designer, at 417-0968.