Your Garden Story: Where to begin?

Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved stories. My love of story has led me down so many paths, from telling other people’s stories for magazines to telling my own stories in literary publications. Creating a garden, for me, is a lot like crafting a story. Today, I wanted to tell you the storyline I follow when I start creating a new garden.

We start, of course, at the beginning. Whenever I meet a new client, I start by asking about their experience in gardening. What’s worked in the past? What hasn’t? What’s frustrated them? What’s excited them? The answers are always different, from the white flies that demolished their tomato plants to the one perfect heirloom tomato they managed to tenderly raise from seedling to harvest. Each of these experiences tells me a story about the gardener, about their priorities, and it helps me identify where we need to go on the next step of our journey.

Once I have enough information about my client’s past, we turn our attention to another key element in their story: the setting. Where can we find the best balance of sun, space and water? Where will we walk by the garden every day? Where can we see it from the house? These elements are crucial to discuss when we start designing the garden for obvious reasons.

The two other resources I discuss with my clients are their budgets for time and money. Most clients I meet have already tried their hand at a DIY garden, they’ve spent time and money trying to make a garden grow. I ask them to estimate how much time per day or week they can dedicate to tending their garden, how much time they have to cook or prepare meals and whether or not they enjoy a DIY project. I’ve got a good estimate of what a garden will cost in time and money just based on its square footage, and knowing these numbers before I create a design ensures we’re both on the same page.

An example of one of my designs

After we’ve identified our present resources and chosen a location, I start dreaming up a future garden. I craft a design that lays out the size of the garden area, the materials we’ll use to build it out and the amount of planting space that will be created. I even outline exactly how much food my client’s will get to grow in that space in both the spring/fall and the summer seasons. You’d be surprised how much food you can grow in a small space with my methods.

Once the design is complete, I present it to my client, along with an estimate for the garden’s installation. I answer questions that come up and we talk about timelines to make this garden a reality. Once we’ve agreed on a design and make a deposit on the estimate, I schedule the installation and we start building the garden in reality.

A garden in progress

As you probably know by now, the food we produce in our gardens is hugely important to me, but it isn’t the only reason I’m out there creating kitchen gardens. Making the kitchen garden part of my client’s everyday story ensures that no matter what happens out there, they grow more confident. As the seasons progress, they can start telling themselves a new story. Instead of feeling like a failure, someone who couldn’t even keep a tomato plant alive, I set them up right, so they can feel the joys of gardening every single day. Watching gardens grow, seeing each green leaf sprout or each new fruit ripening, unlocks something primitive in us. Growing our own food is part of our story in a deep way, it makes us feel accomplished and satisfied in ways our desk-and-screen lives don’t.

I hope that if you decide to make a kitchen garden part of your story this season, that you’ll contact me to help. I’d love to hear your story, see your setting and bring your dream garden into reality for you.