Spring is just around the corner. Lets get ready to design your gardens now.
A garden plan on paper has several advantages. Your spaces, or "outdoor rooms," will have the best look and feel. A plan enables you to draw in your plantings at their mature size. This will help to prevent overcrowding or plantings too close your home or other structures.
The easiest to create a plan on paper is with your plat-of-survey. This document is typically given to you when you purchase your home. If you can't locate it, perhaps your county recorder of deeds, city hall, or mortgage company can give you copy. You can also hire a engineer to create one, but the cost might be several hundred dollars or more. You can also create a plat yourself by measuring your property and the buildings and putting this information on paper.
Many plats have a scale of 1 inch = 20 feet. This scale may be too small to easily create your garden and landscape plan. I recommend a scale of 1 inch = 8 feet (1" = 8') or even 1 inch = 4 feet for small properties. You can easily enlarge your 1" =20' plat to 1"= 8' by using a copier and enlarging by 250% (1/8" is 250% larger than 1/20").
Shown here is a sample plat-of-survey that in the days ahead we will develop into a finished garden and landscape plan. You should follow along. Using our techniques your gardens will practically design themselves. It's a lot fun!
