Through 20 years and 175 gardening articles I’ve published in the Gazette, I’ve never written, I realized, about beginning one. I’ve written about every color of flower, color contrasts, compliments, and echoes, several specific plants, the principles of design, herb gardens, vegetable gardens, rock gardens, cottage gardens and cutting gardens, garden paths, walls, fences, furniture and ornamentation, the gardens of other neighbors, states and countries, gardening in winter, spring, summer and fall, in sunshine and in shade, in the desert and in the quagmire, attracting birds, bees and butterflies, waking the garden up, and putting it to bed. But I’ve never written about beginning a garden. And that’s what many residents are beginning to do: garden. There aren’t many positive consequences of the pandemic, but this is one.

The first consideration when starting a garden is siting it. Location is the most important contemplation because the amount of sunshine and shade the plants require, and receive, is the most essential ingredient for success in growing them. Situate your first garden where you can appreciate it. That might be where it’s most visible from a window, or an entrance to your home, a place where your family congregates, or in a secluded corner of the yard if privacy is your primary motive.

The second consideration is size. Though your garden needs to provide interest through at least three seasons, limit it to a space you can maintain. There is nothing as discouraging to novice gardeners as labor intensiveness, and new gardens are far weedier habitats than established ones. The floor of the new garden is not yet filled, and weeds will seek every inch of freshly turned and fertilized soil. You can always enlarge your garden later — I expanded a garden that was established twenty years ago this spring, simply because tall plants spread to the rim where I wanted to showcase smaller ones. And if you decide on more than one garden, limit it to three. I have forty – yet I installed only a couple of new ones at a time, and by “new” I mean that it’s not only the first, but definitely the second, and sometimes even the third year before the garden matures enough to be responsible for some of its own maintenance.

Soil is the third deliberation. Gardeners must determine whether their soil is overly alkaline, or “sweet”, or acidic, or “sour”. Test the level with a simple pH kit; under normal circumstances, your soil will fall within a healthy range. If not, lime will neutralize acidic soil, and sulfur will neutralize alkalinity. Take advantage of your conditions and select plants that will thrive there. Naturally sweet soil? Plant lavender and delphinium. Naturally sour? Azaleas and astilbes.

Fertilizer, which will also neutralize the soil, is essential. The presence, or absence, of worms will inform you of the health of your soil and the amount of nutrients needed. After eradicating the turf from the area, remove and save the top soil, mix organic material into the subsoil, smooth the surface with a rake, and cover everything with the reserved soil. Though you’ll have to rid the garden in the first year of whatever weeds the cows included in their diet, I’ve always relied on dried manure from a local farm mixed into our compost – a pile of leaves, grass clippings, the remains of fruits, vegetables, coffee grinds and egg shells.

The mulch with which you cover the garden’s surface will also leach into the soil, neutralizing and fertilizing it. Mulching the soil is necessary to retain moisture, improve aeration, and suppress weeds. There are many options– shredded bark, wood chips, chopped leaves, pine needles, peat moss, straw. The type you select will depend on the nutrients each provides, price, availability, and aesthetics.

The most exciting aspect is, of course, the flowers. List all the ones you love — favorites from memories of your mother’s garden, a friend’s, books. Garden catalogs are a great source for familiarizing yourself with flowers and the particulars of nutritional needs, blooming times, and eventual size. Select plants for all seasons. In Connecticut, perennials usually bloom from May’s bleeding hearts and columbines through October’s chrysanthemums; however this only accounts for half of the year. Incorporate an evergreen or berrying shrub for winter and order bulbs for February through April. This is a joyous task, for in spite of the planning, daffodils are always a surprise when they bloom, and they never fail to delight us. Bring a list to a local nursery, but be prepared to spend more than you anticipated because you’ll be overwhelmed with the beauty of several flowers when you view them in person.

Along with reserving room on your list and in your wallet for flowers that prove irresistible, leave ample space between the plants. Though you’ll have patches of empty soil, the perennials will spread in their second season to mingle with one another. Your soil will also invite wildflower seedlings, many of which you’ll want to include: Joe Pye weed, goldenrod, daises, wild asters, mullein – are all welcome additions to the garden, and it’s always preferable to unite with nature rather than fight against it.

We also have many gardeners in town – and I’m one of them — who happily share plants. There’s no need to purchase familiar favorites, like phlox and lilies, which are readily available and easily transplanted from your neighbors’ gardens. Save your money for the rarities you fall in love with at the nursery. Neighbors’ flowers often come with unexpected companions in the form of desirable seeds or seedlings. Another fringe benefit: hardiness and rapid spread. The flowers we inherit from neighbors grow as generously as the gift itself.

Dayna McDermott