The Birth of a Garden Design
Since I'd read about the importance of a garden's sun exposure but knew nothing about ours, I went outside at different times over the next few days to make more notes. This prompted my neighbor to wonder aloud about my sanity, but it paid off. I discovered a shady patch one morning that I thought would be ideal for begonias, only to find it was a sunny afternoon spot perfect for roses. (My neighbor, who's now received several bouquets, no longer thinks I'm crazy. If only I could grow tasteful bathing suits.)
With the basics recorded and our wish list complete, it was time to fill in our landscape diagram. Here's where a few common sense rules apply which, although simplistic, I learned the hard way. First: Make copies of your diagram. You'll avoid the mess of multiple erasures. (Who said 'common sense' is common?)
Second: Unless you can argue archaic property laws, follow your local building codes. Ours required 6 feet between the property line and potting shed, making it a focal point that would also cast shade on the vegetable bed. Another messy erasure, and the vegetables lined one fence.
Placing the dining area in a far corner that had extra privacy thanks to my neighbor's wood fence (built shortly after I began recording sun exposure), taught me the third rule: Think about placement in relation to your house. I had no intention of juggling plates all the way to the back corner, so the dining area moved to a shady spot under a maple tree outside the kitchen door. To enhance the setting, I put the pond next to it so we could listen to splashing water while we dined.
As Hubby started digging the pond last October, I learned the next rule. Think about how locations work with, and against, each other. Unless you enjoy picking up leaves, dining areas and ponds should be placed away from deciduous trees. Ours moved beyond the maples' reach and we plan to shade them with towering hedge roses, whose petals will look lovely on the pond. Luckily for Hubby, winter set in before he could start digging again, and browsing through seed catalogues with me proved much less tiring. Our landscape diagram grew dust as the wonders of mail-order seeds diverted my attention for the next several months.
When last month's warmer temperatures caught us off guard, we hurried to lay paths so we
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