Digital Gardener

Right now, I have no visible garden. I can imagine where my lovely new beds are but unless I dig through feet of snow I won't see them for a long time. So instead I spend hours online looking for gardening ideas or pouring over idea books or checking my mailbox for seed catalogs. So much desire and yet so little dirt! Today, I intend to sit at my kitchen table with my garden journal and my graph paper. Why not spend these cold wintery days planning and plotting until I can do the digging and the mulching. With three easy steps I can get a jumpstart on my spring chores.



Step 1: Using my digital garden photos I can find weak spots easily. It's easier to spot where there is color lacking, where the height isn't quite right, or where a plant isn't thriving like it should be. Also black and white copies of your garden photos will point out where the garden needs more texture or an architectural element.



Step 2: Tape tracing paper to the top edge of the photos to create an overlay. Write plant names and any additions onto tracing paper.



Step 3: Use graph paper to plot out your gardens in relation to your house. Use a second sheet to begin adding your 2008 projects to your landscape.