Landscape Planning

When you have decided to design your garden it is the landscape planning that comes first and must be the most important job to get right. Many people are nervous of designing something themselves and look to experts or professionals to do the job for them or reassure them in some way that what they are doing is right. Of course, that is what the professionals are there for but if it is fear of doing it yourself that causes you to turn to help then a few tips might take that fear away and show you that you are not only capable of doing it yourself but, in fact, you may well even prefer it.

Before you do anything else you need to know some basic essentials about your garden. You need to know what the local climate is like: is it predominately sunny, rainy, wet, windy, old, etc? You need to know what sort of soil you have in your garden and what kind of plant life it will support best. You need to know which direction the sun rises and sets and where the areas of shade are in your garden. Together, these details will provide an outline of what sort of plants you can support ion your garden and what sort of an environment you have to work with. This may seem simple but it is absolutely essential and you may be surprised to know how often hapless gardeners waste time and money on choices they would never have made if they had done this simple research.

There are probably as many different approaches to planning a garden as there are people to do the planning. So while I endorse this approach I cannot assure you it is the only or best one; but it is productive. When you make yourself familiar with the climate and conditions of your garden you can make yourself familiar with the kind of plants and environments it can support. As you do this, as you familiarise yourself with what your options are, you must try to remain aware of how you respond to each option. Some plants you might automatically like, others you may feel less enthusiastic about. It may be a colour, it may be a shape, it may be the name of a plant or something about its history or prior use that attracts you. This response is important because it can direct you towards a theme, by remaining conscious of your reactions as you research then you become aware of what sort of a garden would be the sort that you would enjoy.

If you find the shapes of plants appeal to you then use this as your predominant organising theme, if it is colours then that is the way to go; if you are intrigued by historical aspects then use that interest as a means to arrange your garden’s design. In so many ways it is the indulgence you allow yourself which assists you in making decisions about your plan, and as these decisions are made the next steps are dictated by their requirements; Landscape planning isn’t a dry pursuit but an extension of the enjoyment you experience in researching your new garden.