How to Choose Plants for a Garden Plot?

Decided to start a garden but haven't figured out what to plant? Experts from Derevo Park share how to make a choice and what to consider when buying.

Assess the planting conditions. This is important for new plants that haven't adapted to your soil yet. Check sunlight, soil quality, and topography. Based on this, experts can recommend a suitable option.

Look at neighboring plants

Once you've decided on the plants, take a look around. Do your neighbors grow similar species? Sometimes it's better to get cuttings from a neighbor, especially for perennials. Plants on their plot have already adapted to the conditions and will easily survive transplanting.

By the way, perennials should be divided and thinned every few years. So you can be sure that plants for your garden will be found among your neighbors.

Choose a suitable nursery

First, check customer reviews. Make sure that the plant's species, variety, origin, and other details are clearly listed.

If it was grown in a nursery, inspect the density of leaves or needles, condition of young shoots, presence of buds or flowers on flowering plants. Check for changes in bark, leaf, and shoot color, and look for new growth on the vegetative parts.

Examine the root system: if it's a perennial in a container or a small shrub, ask the seller to remove it from the container. If the soil clump doesn't crumble and roots look fresh, everything seems fine.

If you're dealing with a plant from a European nursery and its condition is satisfactory, find out what hardiness zone it was imported from. Are you trying to buy a non-winter-hardy Lawson's Cypress (which looks like our yews and junipers) or Magnolia with Glycine — these plants won’t survive the winter in open ground.

Also, avoid buying saplings from untrustworthy sellers who promise tomato trees, climbing lilac, ampel strawberry the size of an apple, or watermelons for open-ground cultivation in northern regions.

Pay attention to details

For example, if you need plants for a fruit orchard, find the nearest nursery that grows rootstocks and performs grafting. It's important that they have their own mother plant stock or buy grafting material only from verified, certified suppliers.

Otherwise, you may wait for a harvest for a long time without success: many garden centers near roads, fairs, and markets sell southern saplings that won’t survive in our climate.

Consult professionals

Especially if you're planning large-scale plantings with large trees. Heavy machinery, up to 100-ton cranes, might also be needed.