As the weather continues to warm up, there’s more and more reason to get outside and enjoy the sunshine! We absolutely love our urban garden here at Serendipity and we can’t wait to get this season’s fruits and vegetables planted. We use the produce from our garden to fantastic seasonal dishes, and you can too! That is, if you decide a produce garden is the right garden for you. We know that growing produce takes a lot of planning, preparation, and maintenance, and that it may not be the best style of garden for your home or lifestyle. So we are going to give you the rundown on a couple different types of garden you could create!
Serendipity’s own Urban Garden!
We have our very own produce garden here at the Serendipity Kitchens. We always get so excited when planting season comes around and find out what beautiful fruits and vegetables we’ll be harvesting this year! Since most everyone at our kitchen is constantly busy making sure our events are perfect, we employ a Master Gardener, Helen, to ensure we get a bountiful harvest. Helen helps us to get the most out of our garden so that we can turn around and use our freshly-picked, seasonal food in our catering! Pro Tip from Helen: “Never plant a dry plant, it’ll shock the roots, too aggressively and the plant may die
Produce Garden
We will start with the produce garden. After all, it is probably what most people would imagine when a garden comes to mind. As the name suggests, this garden produces fruits and vegetables that you can eat, give away, or save for later! A produce garden is arguably the most difficult to raise and see the yields from. Your soil needs to be very fertile, every crop will likely require different amounts of water and sunlight, and you have to keep it protected from critters who want your fruits and veggies too! While having a produce garden can be very rewarding, there are many variables that must be kept track of for it to be successful. We only recommend pursuing a vegetable garden if you have some experience, ample room to grow, and free time to maintain it.
Herb Garden
An herb garden is very similar to a produce garden in that you can consume the things you grow, but there are a few key differences. Herbs tend to require less maintenance and can be easily grown indoors. Herb gardens also tend to be much smaller in size, making them very practical for yards with limited space. It’s much easier to dry and preserve excess herbage than it is to preserve fruits and vegetables.
Flower Garden
Flower Gardens are likely as popular as vegetable gardens and can feel just as rewarding to cultivate! Some people opt to grow just a single flower in their garden like roses, tulips, or orchids. Others plant a variety of flowers to enjoy. Whichever route you choose, it is important to know some information about the flowers you’ll be growing. Things like how much sunlight they need, how much water, and what kind of fertilizers to use are crucial to getting the beautiful blooms you imagine. Consider planting flowers that are native to your region as they will grow the best and benefit the local ecosystem! You can also decide if you want your flower garden to be annual or perennial. Annuals will grow, flower, and then die in a single season. They have a long blooming season and tend to be brighter, more showy blooms. Annuals will need to be replanted every season, so they require a little more startup time than perennials. Perennials will bloom for multiple seasons with no replanting. They will require trimming and maintenance throughout the full year, but can be more cost friendly since they don’t have to be repurchased annually.
Butterfly Garden
Butterfly Gardens serve a dual purpose, not only do they provide an aesthetically appealing ‘natural’ look to a yard, they create a space for butterflies and other pollinators to live and grow. This can contribute to an overall healthier local ecosystem. Local butterflies will get the most benefit from your garden having two different types of plants: host plants, and nectar plants. Nectar plants will attract the butterflies to your garden with their vibrant, food filled, blooms. Host plants, like shrubs and woody stemmed plants, provide a place for butterflies to lay eggs, food for growing caterpillars, and eventually a pace to hang a chrysalis.
Using native plant species will be most beneficial to your butterflies and their work in the region as pollinators. Not to mention that native plants will be the easiest to cultivate, and be the lowest maintenance. Just be sure that you do not clean out and manage your garden until late spring when the threat of freezing is gone. Many butterflies will spend the Winter in the warmth of dead leaves and hibernating plants, clearing the garden too early may lead to lower butterfly population in the Summer.
Succulent/Cactus Garden
A cactus or succulent garden can be a great, low-maintenance, garden to plant. For most species of cacti and succulents, Colorado winters will be too harsh for ground planting so a potted garden is most recommended. This will allow you to move them somewhere warmer during the coldest winter months. This type of garden is also perfect for the water-conscious gardener since these plants will thrive in sandier dry soil. Many cacti will also produce beautiful flowers very abruptly and only for a short time, giving a cactus garden a fun sense of surprise. Succulents and cacti also require the least upkeep and can generally be left to their own devices. This type of garden can pose risks to young children and pets due to the spiked nature of cactus.
Rock Garden
This is by far the lowest maintenance garden in our list. Rock gardens can be used to accent your lawns natural topography, create a calm space for meditation, or simply serve as aesthetic cover for places will grass won’t grow. The concept is simple. Find a clear space and arrange rocks you like in manner that pleases you. Some rock gardens are permanent and can be planted with drought resistant plants that provide beauty with little to no upkeep. Zen rock gardens are popular in Japan and serve to create a meditative space. They also tend feature moveable elements that can be adjusted to fit the current gardener’s ideas.
Community Garden
If you do not have the space or time to create a garden all for yourself, consider joining a community garden! These gardens are typically set up on community property and are maintained by the community. These gardens tend to be produce gardens that everyone in the community can benefit from. Every garden will have its own set of specific rules regarding how much food an individual can take and from which areas. A community garden is great place to make friends in your community and learn about gardening if you don’t have much experience. The Denver Urban Gardens website is a great resource to learn about community gardening and find out where your closest community garden is!
Garden Styles
Now that you’ve chosen the type of garden you wish to cultivate, you can what style of garden is best for you!
Ground
Planting directly into the natural soil is certainly the easiest option. For this style you must be sure that your yard’s soil is very fertile and contains the right composition of nutrients for the plants you’ve chosen to grow.
Raised Bed
If your natural soil isn’t quite up to snuff, you can always do raised bed gardening. This involves creating garden boxes that sit on top of the ground and are filled with more fertile planting soil. This style provides a little more certainty that your garden will thrive since it can be difficult to know how fertile the natural soil is.
Potted
Having a potted garden can provide another level of creativity to your garden space since it will allow all of your plants to be portable. This type of garden can be switched around and moved to create difference spaces using the same plants. It’s also beneficial during the Winter because you’ll be able to move your plants indoors while its freezing, but then move them back outside to get their fill of sunlight. Potting is a way to have a garden if you don’t have access to a lawn or if you can’t implement a more permanent garden bed.
Vertical
A vertical garden can be very effective for people working with limited space such as a balcony or small patio. As the name suggests, this garden involves planting vertically rather than horizontally. Depending on how you choose to set up your vertical bed, this style can be more labor intensive on the set-up side of things. The benefits of vertical gardening include bringing beauty to what otherwise would likely be an empty wall, and vertical arrangement can allow for plants to get more airflow and sunlight leading healthier and happier plants.
