Confronted by empty yards front and back? Here’s your detailed guide to creating your dream garden from scratch.
Design
Punctuation in the garden
Punctuate your garden to create a compelling narrative. Here’s how to use trees and plants as exclamation marks, periods, commas and other signals.
Design a white garden
Be it day or night, sunlight or moonlight, white plants will add a wondrous effect to your garden. Two designs for a white garden in part shade or sun.
8 plants for dry and shady gardens
Gardening in full shade and dry soil is a challenge. Tips on how to cope, with ideas for 8 plants that will survive in dry and shady gardens.
16 plants for soggy soil
Don’t let soggy soil bog you down — these 16 perennials don’t mind wet feet and provide a steady succession of blooms as well as attractive foliage.
6 steps to a beautiful perennial border
Perennial borders can be located in front of fences, hedges and walls. 6 steps from planning to planting day for a new flower bed of perennials.
5 patterns for using pavers in garden design
There’s more than one way to lay down bricks or concrete pavers to make a path or patio. Five patterns to consider for pavers in garden design.
How to use a bloom chart in your garden design
The Garden Making bloom chart will help you plan a succession of flower blooms in your garden design.
Two spring plant combinations to try
Two of Beckie Fox’s favourite spring plant combinations that would be easy to recreate in most Canadian gardens. The first is inspired by Longwood Gardens.
Garden design ideas for all season blooms
Get garden design ideas for all season blooms in your garden. Enjoy non-stop flowers from spring right through to fall. Lists of plants and planting plans.
6 planting plans for beds and borders
Here’s 6 planting plans for beds and borders with plant combinations: drought-tolerant; fragrant; ornamental edible border; deer-resistant; night; dry shade
Visit new gardens to explore garden design
Visit gardens helps you explore the creativity of garden design – how someone else arranges plants, combines colours, positions paths or places ornaments.
Visits inspire garden design ideas
Visiting gardens farther afield also offers up lots of inspiration, especially garden design ideas that can be transplanted to your own space.
Front garden design changes
Removing a large fern-leaf beech from front garden became necessary because of its eventual size. Dwarf conifers will replace it in front garden design.
A garden designer’s view on trends
Catherine Geraats of Aphrodite Design Group was the garden designer who designed Garden Making’s feature garden for Canada Blooms in 2012 in Toronto. We asked Catherine about what’s new in garden design. And she had some advice for new homeowners hiring a landscape designer.