Garden Design

Garden design can be intimidating, and it’s easy to feel judged by designers. And the notion of design makes us nervous that we’ll have to give up our favorite plants because they clash with each other, or just aren’t cool enough. But with truly minimal attention to design, you can have it all! Really.

Articles on this Site

• Curbside Gardens, with examples from both coasts and in between.
• Top 10 Landscaping Blunders and How to Avoid Them by Don Engebretson, the Renegade Gardener is fabulous.
• Design/Install Lessons Learned follows the redo of a large border, with photos.
• What I learned about design in Master Gardener School.
• Plants and Design for Screening includes my favorites and those of Scott Aker at the National Arboretum.
• Container Gardening includes design considerations, planting, care, and plant choices.

Eye Candy on this Site

• Cool combos — just photos with plant IDs.

Stories from the Garden

• Have a Seat makes the point: What’s a garden without seating?
• The Myth of Planning stirred up quite a row over on GardenRant.
• Me and My Landscape Architect is about the make-over of my own front yard, with a little help from a professional. (It served as my response to the Myth of Planning.)
• Uncool Plants can be used in cool ways, as seen in Michele Owens’s Upstate New York neighborhood.

More Great Info on Line

• Landscaping 101 is essential reading for anyone starting out. It’s written in the always-entertaining style of Minnesota writer/landscaper Don Engebretson — the “Renegade Gardener”.
• Fast Privacy is a good article about the all-important design challenge of screening for privacy or to block some nearby ugliness. Excellent plant suggestions, too.