Home improvement

A good place to start when choosing plants for your garden is to make sure that they like the climate you got in your garden. If you choose suitable plants for your area you can have a stunning garden that requires a lot less work than a garden with less suitable plants.

If you live in a damp area you should choose plants that are adpated to such conditions. If you live in a dry area you can as an example seek inspiration from classical mediterranean gardens. Many gardeners in warms areas assume that all tropical plants will like their garden. This is however a misconception, since any tropical flower hailing from dry areas will not adapt well to damp areas and plants from the rainforest will not do well in dry gardens.

You need to know that a lot of different factors affect which plants are suitable for your garden. You must also decide how much work you wish to put into altering the conditions of your garden. Do you need new dirt, e.g. by adjusting its nutritional content or tampering with how fast it drains? Do you wish to have large trees put in to provide shadow and increase humidity? Do you have the time and money to maintain the garden you are considering? Do you wish to keep plants that require a greenhouse?

One of many advantages of having a “natural garden”, i.e a garden based around plants that actually likes the prevailing conditions, is that you will have more time left to spend on a few darling plants that may not be as though as the others. By forming a garden base consisting of durable, no-frills plants you will free up time for a few special projects, e.g. a wetland plant that needs a lot of extra watering or a delicate flower that require constant protection against parasites.

One way of going about when choosing garden plants it to visit gardens in your local area and talk to the gardeners. Which plants need constant tending to survive and which ones love the conditions so much they are almost turning into weeds? What is the ground conditions where they will grow? Do they prefer sun or shadow? You can normally get a wealth of information by chatting with local garden keepers; gardeners who are familiar with local conditions and know what will work in the long run.

You can get help choosing the right plants by allowing your self to be inspired by different areas with similar climate around the world. There are for instance parts of New Zeeland and Australia that are surprisingly similar to the Mediterranean, while numerous plants native to the slopes of Himalaya have proven highly suitable for gardens in Scandinavia, Canada and parts of Russia. Plants that are prune to spread and cause havoc in your country should not be used. Always check with local authorities to make sure you aren’t importing anything that is illegal or unsuitable.