New to Gardening? Now's the Perfect Time to Begin

With the fresh start of a New Year, now's the time to plan for the coming growing season. Sitting inside when it's snowy and cold outside is the best time to imagine your first garden. If you're new to gardening, the following will help you get started.


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With the fresh start of a New Year, now’s the time to plan for the coming growing season. Sitting inside when it’s snowy and cold outside is the best time to imagine your first garden. If you’re new to gardening, the following will help you get started.

Things to Consider

What kind of garden do you want?

  • wild or formal
  • flowers or vegetables
  • xeric (water-wise) or oasis

Is there a particular purpose or goal for the garden?

  • meditation
  • to supply culinary herbs and cut flowers
  • as a back drop for garden art
  • attract birds and butterflies
  • a plant collectors garden

Are there restraints or extreme conditions to be dealt with?

  • small yard?
  • narrow space?
  • shady and damp or sunny, hot and dry?
  • short, high altitude growing season?

More Things to Mull Over

  • Height of plants—put the tall ones to the back, plan for groundcovers that will readily spread
  • Texture—vary feel and look of flowers and leaves. A garden is more interesting when you mix up the types of foliage; include smooth, fuzzy and variegated.
  • Color—do you like all purple, then go for it? Or do you prefer blending colors from one end of the palette? How your garden colors up can become a very personal. There are really no rules here.

“The designed yard can have different kinds of gardens in it,” says Katherine O’Brien, the director of the Landscape Consulting Program at Santa Fe Greenhouses. “Just decide how the space will be used, what your interests are? Do you want a pretty entrance?”

To the beginner even these simple questions can feel big. So do it the easy way. We have many pre-planned gardens that make a no-stress way to begin gardening. Pre-planned gardens come with a list of plants that work together. They give you a diagram of where to place the plants to create a pleasing, professional look.

A few of our pre-planned gardens include:

  • August Afternoons Perennial Garden
  • Cold Hardy Mediterranean Garden
  • Lauren Springer’s Butterfly Paradise Cottage Garden
  • The Inferno Strip Garden
  • The Xeric Aroma Garden

These gardens bring instant success and boost confidence, something everyone needs when first starting to garden. Remember to start small and not overwhelm yourself with too many plants and too big a garden to maintain. A great garden is never finished; it’s just in between new projects.