starting a new garden

It’s been a long time since I started a garden. Recently one of my friends bought a house, and with it came a garden. They had never gardened before. They had never picked up a shovel or a pruner or a rake. They are total newbies. They asked if they could have some of my divisions, or cast-off’s. I gave them some irises.

Planning for those pretty flowers in May is very satisfying, but what will the garden look like when the flowers are gone?

One of my gardening books says to start a garden by focusing on one season. In this way, the new gardener will learn gardening in a smaller step than trying to design a year-round garden from the get-go. They can learn how plants with a similar life-cycle grow and bloom, what kind of care they need and when they need it, instead of trying to do it all and getting overwhelmed. Then as the new gardener gains experience, they can start planting things that bloom in other times of the year, and learn different gardening techniques. The easiest season to start with, and to plan for is the main perennial bloom season, and in Albuquerque, that season is May. That is when most of the common old-fashioned flashy perennials bloom, like irises and peonies. These are good plants to start with because they are easy, and they are a lot of reward for the effort, given that you can have big impressive flowers the first year after planting. They are also rewarding for the experienced gardener as well. Of course, these old-fashioned perennials are not native plants. They also tend to have a very short bloom season.



Starting off with the structural plants may seem boring, but I actually love the structural plants.

If I were starting a garden, or if someone asked me how they should start a garden, I would have a different approach. I would say start with winter. By starting in the winter, you may not get the feel-good experience of easy perennials, but there are long-term benefits to this. First of all, you start your garden off  with structure. Because I do have experience, I do know what this means, and how to design this though. The benefit for the beginner, is that the garden starts off with year-round structure, and that, ultimately, is more satisfying for the garden as a whole, than the flash in the pan perennials that leave a lot wanting at other seasons. Even more important is that if you start with the short season pretties, you may find yourself doing a lot of work moving those perennials once you realize that they are in the way of creating a design that would be pleasing all year round. You might end up planting the structural plants around the seasonal perennials, which is like the tail wagging the dog. If you start with winter, then it’s relatively easy to plant the seasonal plantings around the structural plants and you don’t end up with holes, or a lop-sided garden. Starting with planning for  and planting the winter garden, not only do you start off that first winter with a beautiful winter garden, but keep in mind that the winter season here is at least 4 months long, where the garden doesn’t really change. That’s a long time compared to the week or two of bloom from the seasonal flowers. May as well make the best of it.