When we moved into our home the previous owners had planted a few trees and three or four perennials.  I had cultivated about 3/4 of acre at our little "farm" in Woodinville, near Seattle.  

The first step in planning a garden is deciding what you want to grow.  Near the house on the north or east side is a good place for plants like begonias and impatients.  They do best with lots of shade and will take a lot of watering if planted in the direct sun more than four hours a day.  A shady part of the lawn is also a good place for your lettuces in the summer.  Here in Lexington the spring and fall are warm enough to grow cool weather cole crops like broccoli and cabbage in full sun but probably too warm most of the summer.  Lettuce and cole crops will bolt if they get too warm so try to avoid planting them in direct sunlight during the middle of the summer.

I enjoy growing a variety of flowers and I especially like good cut flowers.  I currently have a zinnias and snapdragons blooming as our mainstay for color but the gladiolas are beginning to show color.  Kathy loves petunias and they ones I transplanted have finally rooted well .  Kathy isn't much enamored with day lillies so we currently don't have any planted.  All of the aformentioned flowers like full sun.

 However we both like the asiatic lilies and the fragrant lilies like stargazer.  Lillies do better if they are not exposed to full sun.

All of the hot weather vegetables should be planted where they get as much sun as possible.  If you have less than 6 hours of sunlight a day I suggest you  prune back some shrubs or trees if possible.  Trying to grow hot weather crops without enough sun is a frustrating experience.  The garden should serve as a place to recover from stress and not be a producer of stress.

One predominant theme you will discover in my garden writings  is a strong passion that gardens should be places of recovery, places to rest, places to enjoy creation, places to daydream and places to feed the soul. If your garden is only a burden and a place of work then join a support group for gardeners.  If  such a group does not exist then start your own group.

 Thomas Jefferson said, "Though an old man I am but a young gardener."   In so few words he captured the essense of  how gardening can make one feel.

It is my hope that if you have ever even thought about gardening that you will check out a few books from the library and begin reading and daydreaming about what your garden may look like. I suggest any of these books by Eliot Coleman as terrific books to help you begin a vegetable garden.

 If you are most interested in flowers that give your garden lots of color see if you can find "Color Guide" at the library or ask a loved one to give it to you as a gift.  

I plan to write about how to build healthy soil when I next write about gardening.