20 Basic Perennial Garden PlantinG & Maintenance
The site of Hayden Run
Garden in Hilliard, Ohio, before
weed control, grading, and
soil preparation. This massive
community garden is 300
yards long and about a football
field wide.
The beginnings of a section
of Hayden Run Garden—some
soil preparation and stone
wall construction in the autumn,
to space out the work, prior
to a very busy spring of further
bed prep and planting. In large
gardens, installing in phases
can ensure proper execution.
over the shorter ones in front for light. Plants can also suffer from disease as a
result of lack of air circulation in the back of the border. With the catwalk, an
8-ft.-wide border gives you 6 ft. of growing space that can easily be reached from
either side of the bed, preventing excess compaction on any one side. The only
problem is that 6 ft. isn’t really much space when you start putting a garden
together. So, as with many so-called design rules, this one is sometimes meant to
be broken—but such rules do give the beginner a place from which to start. You
will invariably step into your garden while working or cutting flowers anyway, so
you might as well make the bed a bit wider. You can reduce the incidence of
compaction by avoiding stepping on the bed while it’s wet, or using small pieces
of wood to step on and distribute your weight. I design small paths of stepping
stones or mulch into large beds to assist with maintenance. You can also aerate