grape-vine-closeupHave you even gone to your local garden supply center only to be completely overwhelmed by all the selections? We certainly have, especially the summer of 2008.

We were ready to start planting and had all these plans to have a great flower garden and vegetable garden in our backyard this year but when we got to the garden center there was so much to choose from it was just too hard to decide.

We ended up just getting a few things and coming back another day. Being less prepared that we thought we were cost us money and time because we had to return to do it right and on our first trip we bought things that we really didn’t need.

We are already planning our backyard garden for next year so we know what we want and why we want it. We have also added eBay into the mix. We can buy certain garden supplies on eBay and get great prices.

I think the biggest part of our confusion was due to poor planning on our part. We didn’t take into consideration the height of plants and where they would need to be located for the best lighting conditions.

We have two grape vines growing on our backyard garden fence and it became very clear how important the lighting conditions are. One vine gets the early morning sun while the other gets the afternoon sun. Totally suprising to me was the fact the one getting early morning sun and shade all afternoon has grown twice as large as the one getting the sun all afternoon and evening.

Poor planning just makes for a so-so backyard garden and that’s what we have so far this years, a so-so very ordinary flower garden.

Our plan for next year’s flower and vegetable garden includes a drawing of our front yard and back yard along with the location of trees, shrubs and bushes and buildings that cast shadows on our property.

We now have a gardening book that shows us tons of trees, shrubs, bushes and flowers. They are all displayed so that we can see their height, color, lighting requirements and more. This is giving us a much better idea of what we want for each garden area.

I am sure we will save a bunch of money over the winter by finding and buying affordable garden supplies on eBay . When there is no rush to get the job done. That is where we spend more money that we should, on those last minute purchases we didn’t plan for.

Instead of being limited due to financial commitments we can buy for less and then buy more and that makes my wife and myself extremely happy gardeners.

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Filed under: backyard gardening • garden tools

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