4H Garden Projects

One of my non-gardening activities is leading a book group for the senior high girls at my church. We met last Wednesday and ended up talking about “the Fair.” (Today is the last day of the Fair, and life will go back to normal, but it really does dominate conversations, media, and lives for 12 days.) I asked if they stopped by the 4H building. Some had, but some of the girls had never heard about 4H.

I’ll have to admit that until I started going to the Fair with my friend, Annie, most of my 4H experiences were in the animal barns. But, Annie is a costume designer and knew about a myriad of other 4H projects and activities, which she happily introduced me to. This year, in addition to looking at the clothing booklets and watching the variety show (they pull together a 30 minute program with only one week of rehearsals), I checked out some of the garden projects.


These two projects are about sunlight and plant parts. Budding botanist?







These two are about soil and compost. (Hooray for compost!)






And, this one is about garden design! The 4H’er who did this project took before and after snapshots of her site, selected plants (and included colored photos), and drew a map of the site, which she documented on her board.






Regardless of whether she grows up to have a career in landscape design, the skills she learned/used to create this project (and the garden) will remain with her for a lifetime.


Note: I’m not related to or affiliated with any of the projects I took snaps of. I was looking for projects that were related to gardening in one way or another.

Odd Rules and other Good Design Principles

The other day, I talked about bad garden examples. Yesterday, I visited my sister, whose mostly shady garden is on my list of favorites and I thought some more about the qualities that make it so lovely. When I listed the qualities, I realized the sunny gardens on my favorite list exhibit these same qualities. While today’s list is not exhaustive, I hope it will give you some ideas for your own gardens. Here we go . . .

Odd Rules. Unless you’re planning a very formal garden, buy plants in odd numbers – 3, 5, or 7 – rather than in pairs. It’s a more natural look. And, stay away from “one of everything.” It produces a hodge-podgey effect. Buy one of something if you plan to use it as a “specimen” or focal point in your garden.

Clumps not Rows. Use curves and scalene triangles when grouping your plants rather than lining everything up. When the row ends, your eye doesn’t know what to do. And, if one of the middle guys dies, it’s really obvious. Triangles don’t sound “natural,” but they really do work.

A Little Elbow Room. Remember that your plant will not stay the size it is today. It will get bigger. Leaving a little “elbow room” not only ensures that the plant will have room to grow, but it also produces a restful feeling. Think about how you feel in an elevator with 16 people versus how you feel with only 3 or 4.

One of the things I always do before I stick things in the ground is to set the pots out in the space and see how it looks. It’s much easier to move the pots around above ground than it is to move a plant once you’ve got it in the ground.

Try these ideas in your own garden and see how it feels.