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Designing a garden can be overwhelming, even for experienced gardeners. So we called on two leading design firms that specialize in sustainable landscapes, Larry Weaner Design Associates in Glenside, Pennsylvania and Exteriorscapes in Seattle, Washington to get their counsel on creating a comprehensive design plan for any landscape. We then took their advice and broke the design process up into 5 easy steps, with lots of fill in the blank questions, tips, and processes to help you get started.
Step One: Ask Questions First, Design Later You can't start designing your landscape without first identifying how you want to use it. So before you break out the graph paper ask yourself the following questions:
1. What do I want to do in my yard? Barbecue? Relax? Entertain? Watch wildlife? Vegetable Garden? Play lawn games?
2. How would I prioritize these activities?
3. What seasons will I use the landscape in?
4. How much time do I want to spend maintaining the landscape?
5. Does my family have any special needs (i.e. young children, dogs, physical limitations) that would impact how we use the garden?
6. Do I have any privacy issues that could be minimized with landscaping or hardscaping?
7. How do I move around the yard?
8. Does my design need to address any drainage, erosion, or access problems? If so what are they?
9. How much can I afford to spend on landscaping each year?
Tip: Fill out this questionnaire and then put it away for a few days. When you come back to it, make sure that your priorities are realistic for your lifestyle, budget, and site.
Step Two: Make A Style File Our design experts help their clients identify what they want by leading them through a research process that you can duplicate at home.
1. Take pictures. Carry a small disposable or digital camera with you for a few weeks. Snap photos of gardens, fences, gates, paths, plants, and materials that you like. Consider taking a field trip to different neighborhoods for additional ideas.
2. Be a bookworm. Check out a ton of gardening books at the library, gather back issues of gardening magazines, print your photos, and sit down with an ample supply of sticky notes. "Mark what you like and what you don't like," says Nancy Evans a designer at Exteriorscapes. "And make sure to write down why."
3. Tease out your personal style preferences. Exteriorscapes asks their clients the following questions to help them identify their personal style:
a. Describe the decor and architectural style of your home
b. Who are your top three artists and why?
If you don't think these questions seem particularly relevant, think again. The designers at Exterioscapes find that the answers often repeat words or themes that offer insight into their clients' aesthetic.
Tip: Tell a friend what you like or don't like about each piece of your research. They might be able to identify a theme that you didn't notice.
Step Three: Develop Your Design Criteria Draw up a list of design criteria based on the research from your style file and your answers to the landscape usage questions. Take a cue from this example design criteria list when writing your own.
1. A kitchen garden with raised beds
2. An outdoor entertaining area with fire pit
3. Mixed borders (trees, shrubs, perennials) designed to attract birds and wildlife
4. A play area
5. A chicken coop and run
6. Space for an 80-pound dog to run around
7. The use of recycled or sustainable materials whenever possible
8. A budget of $15,000 over a 4-year period for materials and plants.
Tip: Don't forget to ask family members what they want in the garden and why.
Step Four: Make A Base Map A base map--a bird's eye view of your yard--gives you a real-life idea of your site, says landscape designer Robin Haglund, a Washington certified professional horticulturist at Exteriorscapes. "A base map drawn on a scale allows you to see what you can fit where and also allows you to price out materials easily," she says. Using graph paper simplifies drawing a map to scale because each square can be used to represent a certain dimension. Make sure your base map includes elements that you know will remain, such as:
Houses and outbuildings, including the locations of windows and doors, spigots, gutters, heating and cooling devices, and utility boxes
Paths
Driveway
Garden beds
Specimen plants
Property lines and fencing
Underground and overhead utility lines and boxes
Note any areas with drainage, erosion, or slope problems
The compass points (orientation) of your yard
Tip: Make several copies of your basemap!
Step 5: Time To Design Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the design process is making your ideas tangible. Our experts suggest using trace paper to brainstorm ideas.
Still don't know where to start?
Then grab a pencil and several sheets of trace paper and try this process:
Sketch in the spaces you will spend the most time in first, such as patios, lawns, sitting areas and decks.
Next, outline the general area where you want to place major planting beds, then play with their shape, orientation, and dimensions.
Add in paths to connect major components of the design and entrance points to the landscape
Place plants and/or fencing that will add privacy and screen your property from neighboring views or the street.
Once you have the general character of the design in place you can begin to play around with the placement of specific plants.
Tip: Make general drawings first. "Draw a bubble where you want your patio to go or a pathway. That way you make sure you are using the space well and including all the elements you really want," says Robin Haglund of Exteriorscapes.
