Chicago gardeners know that the middle of January is the time to plan for the coming growing season. Many possibilities exist for the coming gardening year, and decisions must be made in order to experience a glorious garden.
The first step in this process is to examine your Chicago Garden Notebook. Take notes about all your successful plants, and the ones you want to grow again. Write down the plant’s name, genus and species. Write a short statement about why you liked it. Thirty minutes to an hour should be enough time to do this.
Now it’s time to decide what kind of a garden you want this year. Maybe you’d like to try organic gardening. Perhaps you’re a history buff, and you’d like to try a heritage garden. Survival gardens are popular. Maybe you’d like to plant one. How about a bulb or perennial garden? What about incorporating rare plants in your garden this year? How about all the above?
Once these decisions are made, it’s time to order gardening catalogs. If you don’t have any, you can do an online search using the term “seed catalogs.” There are so many free catalogs it might be wise to order those, unless a catalog has extremely rare offerings. Most catalogs offer seeds, bulbs, plants, shrubs, fruit, deciduous and evergreen trees. If you choose a rare plant, observe the plant’s hardiness zone or be prepared to reproduce the environment it needs. Gardening supplies are also available through catalogs.
The last step is to follow your gardening budget when making your decisions. Weigh your choices of using local nursery products or ordering through catalogs.
Planning your garden carefully insures success.
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