What makes this the perfect time for garden planning is the very fact that nothing is blooming in the backyard. At this very moment, your garden is in its most basic state. This gives you the opportunity to start from scratch.
To begin, you can either draw up a plan of your yard the way it looks right now, or take the easy route and grab your camera and take some photos. If you take pictures of your yard, then have the shots enlarged and copied on a photocopier, you'll be able to draw your plans right on the pages (and get a very good picture of how it will look).
Here are a few ideas to get you started on your plan for the future.
Plan your purpose
Before you start drawing your new garden, think about how you want it to work. For example, what will you use the area for (for example, growing flowers, a play area for the children, a place to entertain, all of the above)? What style of garden do you prefer (options include formal, natural, Zen, English country garden, water garden, etc.)? Do you need to camouflage or block out an area (possibly the garage or, for privacy purposes, the neighbour's kitchen window)?
Make room to grow
Once you've decided how you want to use your garden, you can begin to plan the areas. An easy way to approach this step is to think of your garden as a house. For example, you may want to create an area for dining. You may need a play area. You may prefer space for solitude. How you want to use the garden will usually point out where to put these separate "rooms" (for example, dining area closer to the house and kitchen, and a place for quiet furthest away).
Build your bones
The next step is to build your garden foundation, or what gardener's call "bones". Bones include structures (such as decks, patios, fences, garages, benches, statuary, pathways and ponds) and permanent greenery, including coniferous and deciduous trees. Keeping in mind the "rooms" you want to create (dining, play, etc.) will help you set up the structure of your garden. For example, you may want to separate your rooms with small boxwood hedges or with stepping stones or pathways. You might decide to lay a floor for your dining area (be it a deck or flagstone patio), and choose grass for the play area. Maybe you want to use a trellis to separate your quiet space from the rest of the yard. Then again, you might prefer to create a quiet spot (and a screen from the neighbour's window or the garage) with a hedge of tall cedars, or make a focal point with a bench, a birdbath or a pond. Not only do these permanent structures help create the basic design of your garden for the summer, they also work to enhance the space in winter, when the garden is bare of foliage.
Now that you have your basic plan, you can continue by adding the extras — your favourite perennial flowers, annuals, shrubs, climbing vines and containers. Grab an armload of gardening magazines or books for ideas and reference and continue to design your dream garden.
