Make a sketch of the garden before ordering plants. © Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
This time of year is one of the most tempting for gardeners.
Most of the mail order catalogs have arrived and daily, we get e-mails offering seeds for delectable vegetables, plants for the cutting garden, the latest tool and attractive garden accessories. If you’re like me, you want everything in sight.
But before we place an order, sketch out a few things.
- Determine the dimensions of the area you want to plant and make a sketch. It doesn’t have to be fancy or drawn to scale. It will serve as a planting guide before digging in the garden. This information helps you determine how many plants to grow there and their size.
- Is the area in full sun, shade or somewhere in between? In summer, does the soil tend to stay wet, seem excessively dry or average? This knowledge will help you select plants that will tolerate the particular conditions of your site.
- Decide how much work you want to put in the garden. Some plants, such as tea roses, can be a lot more work than other plants.
When you order from mail order or Internet garden retailers, the plants will come in pots, cell packs or bare-rooted, wrapped in paper, peat moss or plastic. Plants will be shipped at a time appropriate for planting. For the best results, read and follow the planting instructions that come with the plants. Get the plants in the ground as soon as possible after arrival. If you can’t, you can hold them longer by potting up plants in quart or gallon size nursery pots filled with a high quality potting mix. Transplant from the pots to the ground when you are ready.
Mail order or online garden retailers have a wide selection of seeds and plants. However, there are risks. Weather that is too hot or too cold during shipping can damage plants. You are buying sight unseen and can’t always tell the size of the plant you will receive. What looks large in a photo may arrive in a 2-inch pot. Keep a detailed copy of your order and any plant guarantees.
Before ordering, ask neighbors, friends, family, coworkers and other gardeners if they’ve had experience with an online or mailorder catalog retailer. Also, check out Dave’s Garden [1] for its vast repository of consumer comments and ratings on hundreds of garden catalogs and online retailers.