Composing the Picture: Getting Your Plan on Paper

» Dubh_Sidhe - plan on paper

Yes, what you say is true. I have heard that on these garden programs, too, so it must be standard practice for the novice as well as the professional. That is hard for me. Putting a plan on paper is suppose to be done for interior furniture arrangement too, but I would rather move the furniture several times. LOL I appreciate your article, the steps, and advice-- and I promise I will try to do as you say, Cercis.

Listen, I have a smallish area that puddles when it rains. If I empty a bag of stones into the area and pour garden soil over the stones, will it still puddle under that too much for me to use the area for planting flowers? Or would it be better to spread grass seed into the soil over the pebbles?

-- posted by Dubh_Sidhe

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» Georgene A. Bramlage - Re: plan on paper

In response to message posted by Dubh_Sidhe:
Virginia, Sorry to be so long in getting back to you...I've been thinking about your two-part comment.
First, yes it is hard to try to put it all down on paper. I have to admit that I keep a lot of my planning in my head...but I doodle, make sketches, drive my husband crazy by getting up in the middle of the night to check on data or a fact. For me the basic ideas behind getting a plan on paper are: discovering and understanding the physical limitations of your property; coming to the realization of what can and can not be done; prioritizing projects; and having some sort of a record.
I joking tell people "if you want to grow good plants, you have to think and feel like a plant." What makes plants feel and grow good as well as your family and friends, should be in the discovery phases of the planning process.
As to the second part of your comments...I wholeheartedly encourage you to discover why that area puddles up. You didn't specify how large, small is. However, I think putting in gravel and then topsoil on top would just make a squishy mess. If you can discover why then we're almost home. Some ideas to investigate...is the area always wet? is it runoff from a roof or neighbor's drive, or whatever? is there a leaky pipe between the house and the street? (Pipes make me very nervous!)
Let me know more and we can work on this together. It's kind of like a detective story... The Case of the Small Puddle.
Take care! it's raining here, but we need the water in the ground.

-- posted by Georgene A. Bramlage

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