Garden Designing made easy (ish)

So... how do you fancy learning something new today?

Have you ever looked over the fence at your neighbours garden and wished that your garden looked as good as theirs? Have you spent hours admiring their water feature, or their planted borders? Do you want to have a poshly designed garden but can't afford the extortionate fees that professional designers charge? ( I sound like an advertisement, sorry!)

I'm going to use this blog to show you some of the techniques that I use to design gardens. As with before, these are only my suggestions and are in no way, shape or form, gospel. There are no set rules for how to design a garden and you may know of a better way. That's fine with me, but you may find a few tips here anyway,that you hadn't thought of.

Okay...are you ready? Let's get started.

Before you even dare to consider what you might like in your garden, you will need to carry out a site survey. This will give you a measured plan of your garden and provide a blank canvas with which to create your masterpieces. It sounds quite boring, and, I'm afraid to say, it is! However, it is the most important part of designing your garden. Get this stage wrong and your designs won't fit causing all sorts of problems later on.

Can't draw? Don't worry, you won't need to be an artist to do this. It's just a matter of doing things in a methodical and logical manner to ensure that you end up with an accurate site survey drawing.

Things you will need:

• A clipboard and pad


• Large drawing pad - graph or plain paper


• Pens and pencils (pencils work better if it's wet, but I recommend only going out when it's dry, just because it's nicer then!))


• Scale Ruler (I'll go into more detail about scale later on)


• Beam Compass - allows you to create larger arcs than a normal compass


• Measuring tapes - should be 2x 30 metres if possible


• A 10 metres steel retractable tape measure


• Magnetic Compass (unless your already know your site orientation)


• Strong bamboo (or anything else) canes, or poles with which to mark out areas


• One 1 metre spirit level


• Soil pH testing kit (you can buy disposable kits from any garden centre - I'll talk about soil types later on)


• Some clean plastic bags and labels for your soil samples


• A digital camera (you could use a camera that needs film but it is harder)


• A trowel


• A pair of secateurs (how overgrown is your garden?)


• A large ball of string, 20- 35cm wooden pegs and some lengths of timber (this is to measure any differences in ground level)


• You may like to consider getting yourself an assistant at this point to help with the survey

And that's it, you're ready to go measure that garden. You can of course, use anything else that comes to hand that you might find useful. Old bricks or stones for holding down tapes, etc.

Okay, so the primary purpose of a site survey is to accurately measure the plot. However, it is also at this time that you should make notes of anything that may influence your design. Become a detective in your own who-dunnit mystery and use your sleuthing skills to spot any potential problems. For example, there may be old electric cables running just underground, which if later dug up could prove rather dangerous.

Don't think that you can only measure the plot in one go. If you think, when you come to drawing up your site survey that you've made a mistake, get yourself back out to the garden, and measure it again. Take as much time as you need. As I said before, it's important to get this bit right.

When on-site ( this means you're in your garden but I'm going to refer to it as on-site now as it's quicker for me to type), you will need to make as accurate a record of all features as possible. You will not need to draw your plan to scale at this point. Which is lucky, as if it was pouring down with rain, it could prove tricky to be drawing a scale plan! You will however need to sketch a rough plan of everything you need to measure onto your graph paper (or whatever paper you chose to use). You may find it beneficial to record some of the main features (boundaries and baseline) to scale whilst you're on-site to ensure accuracy when you come to draw up the entire site survey. Your chances of success are greatly improved if you use a sensibly sized piece of paper for your on-site draft - using a small sheet of paper is just going to get too crowded with numbers for you to read it.

A quick lesson on how to use a measuring tape

Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs at this point, but it is important that you get to know your particular tools well. Familiarise yourself with your tape measures (you don't need to be on first name terms with them, knowing what they look like will suffice!). Some tapes are bound by metal ends which unfold to produce the start of the measure. Have a look at yours. It may be that it starts at 3-4 centimetres. If this is the case you need to remember this when you are using it.

When using your tape, make sure that the ends are up close to the position you want to record and that you hold it taut. Do not allow the tape to twist and keep it as low to the ground as possible. Holding a tape high could cause it to sag and you would not get an accurate reading. This could occasionally be unavoidable in the garden setting. For example, you may need to measure through large shrubs. If this situation occurs, don your camouflage paint and army trousers and head into ambush (or should that be "a bush"?). The only way to do this successfully is to get right into the thick of things. Your secateurs may come in handy at this point!

Measuring tape lesson over.

The first thing that you will need to establish on your site survey is the baseline. This is a line between two static points in the garden that you will take all major measurements from. It is usually taken from the line of the side of the house that faces the garden. This is because, with a bit of luck, the person who built your house, built it straight and so should provide accurate results. After this you can then measure the boundary walls, or fences, that come from the baseline. You should try, as much as is possible, to use the baseline to record all significant features. This includes any drain covers, trees, or plants that you wish to keep. At times, it may be necessary to have more than one baseline. If you're lucky enough to have a garden that surrounds your house, then you will need to create a baseline for each side of the house and take subsequent measurements for that side of the garden only. Are you still with me? Or have I lost you completely?

Let's look in detail at how to measure the baseline...

Arm yourself with your first 30 metre tape. Position its end at the left-hand boundary of the house and secure it there. Now run the tape along the edge of the house and to the edge of the garden (boundary) that is in line with your baseline (see diagram a). This is your baseline and will be referred to as the point of origin for all future measurements. Following this, you will need to plot every detail that happens along the baseline. For example, doors, drains, air bricks, etc.

The baseline in this diagram runs along just in front of the house rather than up against it. This is to allow for any protrusions such as doorsteps. Notice that all measurements are written at right angles to the line. This is to prevent numbers muddling into one another and creating chaos when you come to draw them up.

When you measure points along your baseline, you should measure starting from zero. Refer to diagram a again, you will notice that each feature is measured from the same point of origin, in this case, the left-hand boundary. You should never move your baseline, or point of origin as any mistakes made will acculminate and be made worse with subsequent measurements.

If, as is in the case of our made up house in diagram a, your fixed baseline has had to to be laid away from the house wall to allow for protrusions, then you will need to use your steel measuring tape to record where the house face moves in and out.

Once you are satisfied that you have all of the measurements that exist along the baseline, leave the measuring tape where it is, you will need it again.

The next thing to record will be all of the vertical measurements for the house face. I'll discuss that later though. For now, just focus on getting your baseline measurements accurate and we'll go from there.