Gardening For Dummies

Shirley Stackhouse, Jennifer Stackhouse

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118560112
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Horticulture
• Index: Biological Sciences

Brimming with advice, resources and suggested planting choices, this friendly guide shows you step by step how to create the garden of your dreams. From basic cultivation to garden design, this book is just what you need to start playing in the dirt? even if you?ve never picked up a garden trowel in your life.

Part I

Your Patch of Dirt

In this part...

Gardening is about improving your surroundings and making a beautiful and comfortable environment in which to relax and play. Garden-making is not only a practical and down-to-earth pursuit, it’s also a way of expressing yourself and being creative.

In Part I, we show you how to discover your garden’s potential by working out how much sun and shade it gets and the direction it faces; we give you an understanding of soil and drainage; and, importantly, we finish with advice on how to deal with some of the climate extremes that nature throws at us from time to time.

Chapter 1

Analysing Your Garden

In This Chapter

Finding your garden’s aspect

Delving into the soil

Checking out the drains

If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, find out what fertiliser they’re using.

Whether you’ve got an established garden or just a patch of bare earth waiting to take shape, you need to ‘read’ your garden and assess what you’ve got before you can begin to plan and plant. Take the time to get acquainted with your particular piece of ground. Discover your garden’s sunniest and shadiest parts. Feel the soil and look at where the water naturally goes. All these factors affect the success and wellbeing of the plants you grow and the garden you make.

If you’ve bought a house with an existing garden, you may be tempted to rush out and buy new plants or chop down existing ones. Don’t! You may want to make your mark on your new territory, but you probably won’t be doing what’s best for your garden in the long term. Wait until you’ve had a long, hard look at your new garden and its surroundings.

In this chapter, we show you how to start building your garden’s dossier — its personal profile, if you like. You need to be observant, so have your mental notebook ready (oh, and a compass may help, too!).

Which Way is North?

The direction your garden faces is known as its aspect. Your garden’s aspect is important because it can determine whether you’ve got a sunny garden or a shady one. To find what aspect you have, just figure out which direction is north (easier said than done on a dull day!).

To work out which way is north, watch the sun. It rises in the east and swings in an arc across the northern sky to set in the west. Structures such as your house, the neighbour’s place, fences or natural features such as cliffs or large trees will cast a shadow if they lie to the north of your garden. If you flunked scouts or guides and are unsure about working out directions, just cheat — use a compass to find north. Alternatively, check on your house plans.

Knowing which way is north is absolutely crucial if you want to grow plants — not so you can find your way to the nursery without getting lost but because north’s the direction from which the sun shines, and plants need sun to grow. To a certain extent, the kind of home you have defines your scope for gardening. If your house is free-standing, you have more options: some parts of the garden are certain to be sunnier than others, depending on which side of the house they are. However, terrace houses, villas and units often only have a back garden or a balcony, with a single aspect. If this sounds like you, we have loads of creative solutions! Here we describe the four main aspects (as well as the aspect you have when it’s half and half):

North-facing aspect. If your garden faces north and nothing blocks the sun (such as a house, a high fence, a tall tree or a rising slope) it will be warm and sunny all year round with full sun most of the day. These gardens are described as having a sunny or northerly aspect.

The canny gardener will check out the aspect before buying a new property. If you add sunny north facing aspect to your selection criteria, you can be sure of having a sunny garden where you can grow all your favourite plants, herbs and vegies without too much trouble.

To grow shade-loving plants in a garden with a sunny aspect, you’ll need to create some shade (for example, with a pergola) or find a more sheltered spot to the east or south. If there are trees or other tall structures to the north, your garden will get filtered sunlight or shadows as the sun moves across the sky.

A sunny aspect is ideal for roses, hibiscus, vegies, annuals and lots more.

South-facing aspect. If your garden faces south, it’ll be mostly shady because your house casts a shadow over it throughout the day. In summer, though, you’ll get early morning and late afternoon sun. Away from the shade of the house, the garden will be in full sun. In the winter, the shadow cast by the house will be longer and your south-facing garden could become very shaded and cold. A south-facing aspect is the ideal place to grow deciduous plants such as hydrangeas, as well as clivias, fuchsias, ferns or even make a moss garden. Some of these shade-lovers will need protection in summer from the late afternoon sun, which could scorch their leaves.

If you’ve been looking for the ideal plant for your south-facing garden, consider starting a clivia collection. Clivia miniata (or the Kaffir lily) has gorgeous heads of salmon-coloured flowers in late winter and spring and is a dark green, leafy clump year round. Even more exciting are the new flower colours now available, including white, yellow, red and bicolours.

East-facing aspect. If your garden faces east and sunlight isn’t blocked by a neighbouring house, an overhanging tree or a fence, it will bask in morn...