Bare Bones - Part II - Designing Your Garden: Site Consideration
Before you start designing, you need to determine what kind of a garden you want. Is your house traditional, contemporary, no particular style? Are you tidy-minded or do you prefer the rough and tumble of 'naturalistic' plantings? Whatever you prefer, it should compliment your lifestyle and the architectural style of your house.
Think about how you use your ground now and how you would like to use it. Do you have a place for stockpiling mulch and other bulk deliveries? Do you need space for children to play or dogs to run? Where is your compost pile - or where could one go and be out of sight but still accessible? Are there any views you would like to emphasize or hide? Even views across someone else's garden can be captured and emphasized as long as you realize that you won't have any control over changes made to them. Do you need privacy from the street? Where do you park your cars? Where do guests park? What door does everyone use to come into the house? These are only some of the many questions you need to ask and answer for yourself before you can start working on the bones of your garden. They provide the preliminary data that will help you determine your design.
Designing a garden is very much like designing anything and the more questions you can answer before you begin, the easier it will be to arrive at something that satisfies you the first time around. It is much easier to change your mind on paper than it is after the walks are in and the trees planted!
If you're new to gardening and aren't sure exactly what you really want, do some research before you start trying to design. Visit local gardens; check out books from your library. Get a pile of garden magazines and look at all the pictures. Note what you like and what you don't. Start a file on things you'd like to have in your garden. Take photographs when you visit gardens. Research really pays off. You won't find exactly what you want, but you will find more ideas than you can use in a lifetime. Even huge display gardens can provide ideas that can be adapted for the tiniest backyard.
Time Life's Virtual Garden site is rich in information and ideas. Check out my list of links for some downloadable articles and take a look at
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