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" I have relocated from Georgia to Minnesota. I have been gardening since I was very young. My loves are herbs, perennials, wildflowers and gardening to attract birds and butterflies. The previous owners had a sketchy landscape plan, but I want to expand it. Where do I begin and when can I start?  Cecelia H. Fecho  Dear Cecelia, You can start right now with the most important phase of garden design: planning. My grandfather used to say, &amp;quot;Plan twice, plant once,&amp;quot; and he was absolutely correct. Even while there is snow on the ground, you can take measurements of your house&amp;#039;s footprint, locate trees, outbuildings, etc., and site major features. Place on your plan every important element of your yard. Then, start to decide what changes you might want to make to your new place: flowerbeds, vegetable gardens, outdoor seating areas, etc. In plan view, it&amp;#039;s very easy to see how these things relate to each other and to the house, and whether or not they work in the locations you&amp;#039;ve intended for them. You can chart this all on graph paper, of course, but you might also want to investigate some of the new landscape design programs now commercially available for homeowners. One final tip: Try to muster your patience and not make any major changes for the first 12 months or so, until you&amp;#039;ve had a chance to live through a complete cycle of the gardening year. Things that seem out of place or wrong in one season often turn out to be quite beneficial in another, so it pays to wait and see what&amp;#039;s what. Good luck! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.countryliving.com/gardening/garden-ideas/q-and-a/a86/plan-twice-plant-once/>