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Designing your Child's Garden

© Linda Mazar

The growing season is coming to an end up here in Minnesota. A killing frost is just days away. Soon the gardens will be tucked away for the winter season and minds will turn toward the spring. Now is the time of year to evaluate what happened in the gardens and to think about improvements for next year. If your gardens are like ours, there may be some aspects you wish to change as well. If the children's garden turned out rather messy and wild looking, you may consider thinking about design changes for the new year.

We want the children to have control of their garden, but we know they will be happier and more satisfied if the garden looks nice. Spontaneously casting seeds, planting wherever without prior thought, and not understanding some design principles can lead to chaos. Chaos can be fun, but order makes the garden pleasant to be around.

Let's think about plant size: At the end of the season, may find that we have planted some things was too closely so that the plants choked each other out and others to sparsely so that the garden looked bare. We may have planted tall plants in front and small plants behind where they disappeared from sight. Height and width of mature plants need to be considered for good garden design. If you buy your plants and seeds, tags or packets often will state how big the plants get at maturity and how closely to plant the seedlings. Use this information to help you and your child decide where the plants should go. Remember that not all marigolds (or whatever plant) grow to the same size. Big plants go to the rear of the bed generally and the smaller ones go closer to the front. This insures that the flowers can be seen. There are exceptions to the rule, but the basic principle works.

Let's think about plant texture: Look at the leaves and style of blossoms on the plants. Some plants have big wide leaves and some have spiked ones. Some plants have crinkled leaves and some are smooth. Some flowers are trumpet-like and some are more full. Some flowers are held high above the foliage and some are placed low. The variety continues on. It's nice to mix things up a bit and put in plants that have a variety of looks to them in the same bed so that things don't get boring. For a nice show, you may want to put groups of the same plant together so they show up, but put different plant style groups side by side. The differences in the plants show up best next to something that is different. This creates more interest in the garden.

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