GARDEN PLANNING
GARDEN PLANNING
Contributing Editor John Brookes
INTRODUCTION
The best gardens grow out of good design and planning. A successful garden is, above all, one that is appropriate — appropriate to surrounding buildings, to the landscape, whether rural or urban, and to its function, whether productive, decorative, or recreational. Gardens that are well made and individually styled usually work best both for their environment and for those who use them.
But the way you want to use your garden should determine how it evolves. Long before putting pencil to paper to draw up a plan, let alone putting spade to earth, ask yourself what you want your garden to do for you and your family.
Location is a major influence on design. The country garden, for example, is part of its surroundings in a way that a small
urban plot can never be. It can contribute significantly to the look of the countryside. Creating and maintaining a country garden involves much more than just horticulture and recreation. It involves caring for a piece of the natural world — features such as old trees, ancient walls, streams, and ditches that may fall within your boundaries, but are part of a much wider network.
In an urban setting, on the other hand, a garden has a different function and is for people rather than plants and wildlife. It becomes an enjoyable and possibly stylish extension to your home rather than an interruption in the flow of the countryside.
Whatever style of garden you choose to work toward, the key to its eventual success is design —planning and styling your space to suit your way of life, the character of your home, and its surroundings.
Creating the Garden Structure
Once you have a clear idea of the pattern and form of your future garden, you can begin work outside. Creating the garden structure is about building the framework in hard materials, such as walling and paving, fencing and decking. Permanent structures, such as pergolas and storage sheds, also need to go in at this stage. Plants come later.
MARKING OUT
Older gardens may need unsuitable planting removed or wildly overgrown areas cleared. Always think hard before removing a major feature, such as a tree, an area of paving, or a line of hedge.
You will probably have to clear your site before you can start marking out the new design on it. If you are starting from scratch in a new garden, it may be builder’s rubble that has to go. Older gardens may need unsuitable planting removed or wildly overgrown areas cleared. Always think hard before removing a major feature, such as a tree, an area of paving, or a line of hedge. Perhaps it can be incorporated in the new design. Trees can be thinned and branches removed or braced to make a new shape — work best done by a qualified tree surgeon. Overgrown hedges can be cut back. Also think hard before leaving .1 major feature. It will be more difficult to remove an old shed or greenhouse after the garden has been created, particularly if the rubble has to come through the house.
Clear all weeds from the site. You can used herbicide (being sure to keep children and peli away when newly applied) or burn them oil, long as there is no danger to boundaries, neighboring properties, or trees.
Now is the time to test your plan by translating it into reality with white string and pegs. If you have kept to a grid system, it will be easy to line up the shapes of the plan with the buildings which provided the reference Pand existing features should fit neatly into place as anticipated.
First peg out the straight runs. Next tackle the circles, which will be easy to deduce if you have worked to a scale plan, with a piece of string attached to a central peg. Secure thee and scrape out arcs in the earth with a nail or stick at the end of the piece of string. Peg these lines out too.
Once you have described all your patterns with pegs, join them with string. This will enable you to read the overall layout
when you stand back from the garden. Look at the pattern from several vantage points from an upstairs window, from ground level, from outside the site. Walk the pathways you have outlined, making sure there is room for a whee barrow or mower, and that you can easily get round corners. If there is an access path to the front door, it should have a comparatively straight way down the middle, even if the outline twists, for otherwise visitors will cut unnecessary corners. If you have marked out a sun deck, estimate the course of the sun in summer and ensure that there is no unexpected area of cast shadow. If your plan includes a drive, there should be enough width for people to get out of a car on either side and, if possible, to turn the car. Check that your planning ideas are practical as well as visually satisfying from all angles.
MARKING OUT
The Plan So Far
Your garden plan will be looking something like this, right. You will have resolved the positions of surfaces, boundaries, features, and areas for planting. As yet three will be no detail about materials to be used, although you will probably have a fairly detailed mental image of the finished garden by now
Pegging Out
Having evolved your plan on paper, peg out the outline on the ground using stakes or pegs and white string. If you have worked to scale from an accurate outline survey, your measurements will translate to the real garden. Adjust outline as you go to delete any awkward corners that are created.
Assessing the Layout
Before you start digging or building, go indoors and study the pegged- out pattern from all the windows that look on to the garden, imagining steps and changes of level where necessary. You might see aspects of the plan that require slight modification to take account of all the different views from the house. The view from an upper story can provide the mind’s eye with a clear impression of the future garden.
PAVING AND EDGING CHOICES
LEFT: Proprietary conrete paving blocks
MIDDLE: Two size of rough edged granite sett
RIGHT: Foundation bricks manufactured in many local clay colors, they create a clean, crisp effect
LEFT: Smooth, round concrete slab
MIDDLE: Hexagonal concrete paving slab
RIGHT: Textured blue stock brick
LEFT: Wire-cut clay blocks
MIDDLE: Plain concrete edging
LEFT: Concrete coping
1 2 3 4
LEFT: Fluted neo-classical edging
MIDDLE: Glazed barley-sugar edging
The range of type of paving is bewildering. While natural, local paving materials are usually the best suited to the environment, many people settle for concrete in one form or another, persuaded by price and availability. Mixing materials can often be a good compromise
Plants and Planting
The hard structure of your garden will mow be in place. Choose plants in scale to the layout and features of the garden. Use distinctive shape, form, texture, or smell to give year-round strength to your planting. Consider the composition of each grouping of plants, and plant in masses rather than singles.
PLANTING —THE COMPONENT
Whether you are devising a planting scheme for a single bed or starting a new garden from scratch, consider and select the components by type. Start with trees, the largest elements — consider size now and five years from now, characteristics, and location Go on to permanent shrub planting. Add in perennials, taking account of how they affect the mood of the garden. Sketch in spring and autumn bulbs and annuals for summer color.
The Most Important—Trees
The most important characteristic of any tree that is used in garden planning and design is shape. Trees will ultimately be the largest element in the garden, and their positioning is crucial to the overall design. Always consider the size and shape of the mature tree five or ten years from now — well-maintained trees grow quite quickly both upwards and outwards. Think also about where shadow will be cast, whether the tree will impinge on neighboring gardens, and whether it might undermine any nearby buildings with its invasive root system, Carefully consider the scale of any background trees you propose to plant. Few small gardens can accommodate a forest tree, such as a beech (Fagus sp.), an ash (Fraxinus sp.), or any of the large conifers. Poplars (Populus sp.), which are often planted as screen trees, may be categorized as medium-sized trees, although they can grow to great heights. In hotter climates taller trees are useful for providing shade. Trees with less dense foliage are good here, so that some light gets through. Trees needed to screen a bad view may be more profitably sited closer to the house rather than at the garden’s perimeter. Not only will you need more trees if they are further away from the viewpoint, but they can all too easily draw the eye to the precise point you are trying to disguise.
Choosing Smaller Trees
There is an extensive range of smaller trees suitable for the smaller garden. They may either be grouped to provide a screen or become decorative elements in their own right. Smaller trees tend to have shorter lifespans than forest trees, but they reach maturity more quickly. They grow naturally on higher ground, where wind and cold inhibit growth -a point worth noting for roof gardens.
Various factors will affect what you can grow where. Different locations at the same latitude might not support the same tree because of contrasted altitudes. Climate will also affect your choice. The long, cold winters and hot summers that occur in much of North America will not support the same trees as the less extreme conditions of the British Isles.
Decorative Trees and Conifers
Some small trees are useful as “filler” for planting, while others can be considered decorative. The genera Prunus (cherry and plum), Malus (crab apple), and Crataegus (hawthorn) are decorative, since they all flower, fruit, and have a degree of autumn color. They have no sculptural quality, however, and you will look at a bare tree for half a year.. Conifers, on the other hand, have their full shape the whole year round, but when used en masse provide a shape that is too demanding to fit most planting plans, and too boring to view. A uniform conifer planting cannot match the diversity of broad-leaved trees. Certain conifers, however, have a place within
the garden’s layout when carefully used, for their strong forms can be an asset to emphasize a point. Their strong coloring must be considered carefully though, for one glaucous blue spruce (Picea pungens `Glauca’), for example, will, in maturity, dominate all around it. Many of the dark, matt conifers make admirable background and shelter.
Feature Trees
Preferable alternatives to conifers include the smaller variety of silver birch or the thin weeping head of the willow-leaved pear (Pyrus salicifolia), and gnarled old apple trees, whether alive or dead. More exotic, good value small trees include many of the maples (Ater sp.), admired for their leaves, branches, and autumn color. Magnolias are grown for their magnificent flowers, but also have a good shape. The golden catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides) is spectacular when in flower, but is most memorable for its huge, heart-shaped leaves. The showering sprays of golden Mount Etna broom (Genista aethnensis), and the midsummer gold of Koelreuteria paniculata followed by bronze bladder fruits, are also attractive. Amelanchier lamarckii, the service-berry, is a charming spring alternative to the cherry and has the advantage of distinctive sculptural qualities. Trees for the wild garden include whitebeam (Sorbus aria lutescens’) and the autumn-fruiting rowan (Sorbus aucuparia). Also alders (Alnus sp.), hornbeam (Carpinus sp.), and hazels (Corylus sp.).
1. Shrubs 2. Hedge
3. Roots working towards water
Root systems
Some species of tree and shrub have almost as much root below ground level as they have branches above, especially when they are growing in good, loamy soil. Much of such a root system consists of minute feeder roots that penetrate the film of water surrounding each individual granule of soil. Wherever there is a water source, roots will grow towards it. Large trees, therefore, should not be planted too close to any drainage runs. As a general rule, the thinner the foliage the less anchorage is needed and the lighter the root run. When you are planting near existing trees or adding new ones to an established planting, any nutrient held in solution in the ground will be absorbed by the rooting system of the tree to the deprivation of all the surrounding vegetation.
The complete practical guide to every aspect of planning a garden, from choosing a style to preparing plans and creating the new look.
