Where do i begin?

Most of us are not lucky enough to inherit a garden when we buy a house. In my case my house was pretty blank. A Townhouse in Virginia, with a juniper hedge out front and azaleas on the side, i didn't even have a privacy fence. Here's what it used to look like...

Lame i know...

But there's always potential to turn our gardens into something we can enjoy and the people around us can enjoy or at least enjoy to look at. Whether we're starting from scratch or renovating and remodeling what we have there's lots of things we can do, for example i dug up all the juniper and got rid of it (it was hell, more on that later), moved the azaleas to form a separate hedge and now i have a yard i actually enjoy and appreciate.

The purpose of this blog is to help maybe guide other do-it-yourself homeowners in improving their spaces or maybe just so they can have a laugh at my struggles with my yard. I laugh at myself so is all good. 

So where do I begin?

Before considering what to plant, construct, landscape we have to consider practical matters such as budget, skill, time for maintenance, time for building and exactly how we plan to use our garden. I'll write this from my perspective, i have a very low budget (in the hundreds of dollars maybe), reasonable skilled with a shovel and a hammer,  time is weekends and afternoons, maintenance as little as possible except for watering, and i plan on using my garden to relax, entertain and grow some food. 

So my first tips are these, evaluate your space. Try to visualize what you want to see there eventually, do you want to grow food? entertain friends and family? play with your pets? Make a list, it helps, i have so many lists i have lists of lists.

Next assess your yard conditions, how much light and shade does your garden have, how is the soil and moisture? Is it windy? All these factors affect what you can do in the yard, and what plantings you can get. 

Now plan what you want to do, an outdoor room? beds for crops? a place for flowers? maybe you just want grass and a couple of shrubs, clean and simple (sometimes i wish this was the route i took).

Lastly now think of your own style, this is highly personal, and it should reflect your personality but also keep it in bounds of what your community allows and make sure it is somewhat consistent with the rest of your neighborhood, you want your garden to be a source of inspiration not discord with your neighbors. That would suck. But always remember its supposed to make you happy.

Now write it down, Make those lists :)