Garden Planning

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Success requires planning. This statement should not be forgotten by those who start building a garden in their suburban area. Each tree and bush that you plant in your garden has its own needs for lighting, food area, fertilizers and even neighboring plants. And it would be frivolous to assume that they will adapt to the whims of the owner of the site and change their nature. So what do you need to consider when planning your site?

Every meter and centimeter is in its place

In the process of planning a site, you literally need to draw up a detailed plan for planting. Take a large sheet of paper and on a scale of 1: 100, where 1 cm will mean 1 m, transfer to it the location of existing capital buildings, utility rooms, paths at the dacha, preferably focusing on the wind rose of the area and the direction of the cardinal points.

This is very important in order to determine the shade of the area, possible drafts, the installation of barriers in the cold season for snow retention. Indeed, for the most part, plants grow better in areas well-lit by the sun and sheltered from the wind, and also have their own requirements for soil moisture. In addition, on paper, it is easier to correctly calculate the maximum possible number of trees and shrubs that are reasonable to plant on your site so that they do not compete for light, water and fertilizer.

Friends and enemies in the same area

Of course, planning a personal plot is a creative process, and quite naturally we want the garden not only to bear fruit, but also to give aesthetic pleasure. But it should be borne in mind that not every neighborhood of plants will benefit them, or at least they will not interfere with each other. Some of them, during the growing season, emit such chemical compounds that negatively affect - inhibit or suppress - the development of others. This property is called allelopathy. Let's take a closer look at such unsuccessful pairs:

• apple, pear, irga are not planted next to walnuts, mountain ash, actinidia, plum, cherry.

• cherry does not tolerate acacia, horse chestnut, fir, viburnum, apple, pear, black currant.

• apricot is incompatible with cherries.

In addition, when setting up a garden, one should always take into account which plants have a high allopathic activity, and they should not be planted next to other crops. These include:

• trees - walnut, Manchurian and black walnut, horse chestnut, white acacia, Japanese quince, fir, wheatgrass, beech, spruce, cedar.

• shrubs - rose hips, lilacs, viburnum, chubushnik, barberry.

• flowers - rose, magnolia, chrysanthemum, wormwood, salvia.

Some gardeners, gardeners, in order to save money in the aisles of the garden, set up vegetable beds. But it must be remembered that a good result is unlikely to be achieved when potatoes are planted in an apple orchard - it harms trees with its root secretions, in turn, apple trees inhibit the development of the vegetable. Also, not every plant will like the neighborhood of tomatoes and cucumbers. For the same reason, it is important to immediately get rid of wheatgrass in the area - it not only quickly fills the area with weeds, shading young shoots, but also poisons the soil with root secretions.

Gooseberries, currants and raspberries are placed further from the apple trees. At the same time, gooseberries and red and black currants are planted at different ends of the site - when caring for one type of plant, drugs are used that harm others.

At the same time, some plants not only get along well, but also help each other to develop. Favorably affect each other:

• thuja and tulips, daffodils;

• carrots and legumes with onions;

• celery and tomatoes with cauliflower;

• cherry plum and apple tree;

• black elderberry and raspberry, currant, gooseberry.