Your Garden by Design
by Judith Irven

How to create a garden that is pleasing yet practical, that reflects your dreams and lifestyle, and responds to your site and environment.

Once I asked a group of students what the words ‘landscape design’ meant to, and a hand shot up. ‘It’s a journey!’ was her instant response. What a cogent and apt perception of the winding endeavor that culminates in a beautiful garden.

As our desire for beauty and serenity around our homes increases by leaps and bounds, landscape and garden design has become something of a ‘hot topic’. Information and suggestions sprout up all over. We are bombarded with advice from all types of media—in print, on-line, and through the spoken word. This wealth of information leaves many of us—even those of us who live and breath ‘gardens’—somewhat overwhelmed.

And talking of feeling overwhelmed, I am reminded of Ann Lamott’s telling vignette in her extremely readable book ‘Bird by Bird: Some Instructions On Writing And Life’. Her ten-year-old brother had left his school report on birds to absolutely the last minute. In frozen despair he looked at the unopened books piled up on the table, completely overwhelmed by the daunting task ahead of him. Then their father gently coached the boy to break the report down into manageable pieces, to approach it ‘bird by bird’.

Likewise, my own recommendation is to approach the design of your garden as a series of manageable steps—a ‘divide and conquer’ approach. I realize it is risky, and a touch arrogant, to try to condense a creative and intuitive process like making a garden, into a step-by-step process. But I see this functioning a bit like a roadmap on vacation; a way to get where you want to go with plenty of opportunity for creativity along the way.

And a little clarification on the side: When I talk about ‘your garden’, I mean ‘garden in the big sense’: that is the entire area around your home that you cultivate or otherwise maintain. Thinking of your garden in this way, it will typically be composed of several inter-relating garden spaces, often called ‘garden rooms’ (with the obvious analogy to the rooms of your house). And for many people, making a truly satisfying garden can become a sizeable undertaking, often spreading across several years.

Designing a garden falls in three distinct chapters. The first chapter involves listening to yourself and to your land —what you want and need in a garden, played against the inspirations and constraints of the land. The second chapter is about creating the underlying structure and framework for the garden—the design of the horizontal space and the vertical plane. The final chapter focuses on the use of plants—trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals—to paint pictures of color and texture. As plants are living organisms these pictures will change from month to month and from year to year— both a challenge and a delight!

It is a ‘plans before plants’ approach, where you define the structure and framework of the garden before diving into details of favorite plants and where to put them. It can be applied to all types of property, from a small in-town lot to an expansive country property; and to a brand new house sitting in the middle of a virgin field, or an established garden that could do with a bit of help.

Chapter 1
LISTENING

Listening to Yourself
If you want a personal garden—one that matches your dreams and lifestyle, one that satisfies without being overwhelming—the starting point is to really listen to yourself. Ask yourself what it is you want from your garden and how much effort your willing you expend to get there, and be sure to really hear your answers!

Many people, myself included, find it all too easy to romanticize the ‘idea of a garden’ and to create ‘mind pictures’ of flower-filled beds and rose-covered arbors around our homes. Hence the success of fancy gardening catalogs like Smith and Hawkin, which tend to be as much about cultivating dreams as about cultivating gardens. The implication is that, if you just buy the right props, a gorgeous garden can easily be yours in a single season.

But in truth, making a garden involves time to create and work to maintain. So one needs to temper these compelling pictures with a touch of reality before running out to dig up the lawn.

And, while some things can be modified as one goes along, it is hard, when a new idea pops up next year, to reposition the basic structural elements of the garden, like sliding a patio or a flowerbed over by some number of yards.

There are also a myriad ways to develop a single property, each leading to a different outcome, depending on the desires and visions of you, the gardener. And, depending on how it is planned, your garden can represent either a small or large commitment of your time and budget. I would hasten to add that gardens do not have to be large to be satisfying. You can have a small but very special garden as part of a larger property. And most certainly you can have a wonderful garden on the smallest property.

With all that is at stake, it is really important listen to your inner self. Ask yourself what, in your heart of hearts, you hope your garden will give you, and how much you are willing to spend for it, in both time and treasure.

And equally important, be sure to involve your family in these discussions too. Even though you have always felt that you and your spouse are on exactly the same wavelength, it may come as a slight surprise to find your spouse offering some interesting and different points of view of the garden-to-be!

Garden spaces
Beautiful garden spaces around the home can offer many pleasures, depending on your inclinations. Perhaps some of these strike a responsive chord: a welcoming entrance to your home; generous spaces for outdoor living and entertaining; beautiful views as the garden is viewed from inside the house; space to grow unique and interesting flowers; a kitchen garden to supply fresh herbs and vegetable all season-long; an exciting play spaces for the whole family. Only you and your family can decide which types of garden spaces you will include in your overall garden plan.

A picture is worth a thousand words
As much as anything, gardens touch us visually, and to a lesser extent through the senses of sound, smell and touch. So this is the time to bring out images of other gardens that excite you. These may be memories or photographs of gardens you have visited in the past, or of gardens you have only seen through another person’s eyes in books and magazines.

A garden notebook
A garden notebook becomes the place to assemble all the information about your new garden, whether organized or disjointed. Note down the outcome of your discussions with yourself and your spouse. Save photographs of gardens that emotionally move you, and clippings of magazine articles that appeal. As your design progresses you will add to the notebook and analyze its contents more fully. Right now it is simply a repository for ideas that are mostly unorganized.

Listening to Your Land
Your garden is a marriage between the dreams of your imagination and the inspiration of your land.

This step touches on the importance of carefully and thoughtfully assessing everything about your land: the good and the not-so-good’, its inspirations and its constraints. The structure of your garden will be shaped as much by the land and your response to it, as by your personal needs and desires.

To see this a little more clearly, think about a lovely site that also boasts a splendid vista to a distant mountain. This special view demands an outward focus for the garden to be created there. Furthermore the framework of this garden should be aligned so as to take full advantage of that view. By contrast, consider a similar site but without the view. Here the structure of the garden will be inwardly focused, with the garden’s beauty created strictly within the boundaries of the plot. This garden can also be aligned in any manner without external orientation constraints. Both gardens will be beautiful, but in very different ways.

And for a second example of site driven design, consider the forceful influence that the house plays in the design of any garden. It goes without saying that the house is the most dominant feature of the garden, and hence it is the starting point for outdoor design. For instance, paths start at doorways and outdoor living spaces are sited for convenient access from the house. Front gardens are primarily created to dress up the view of the house upon arrival. And, last but not least, most of us want to create pleasing views of the garden when seen from indoors, sometimes described as ‘bringing the outside in’. Start with a different house and you finish up with a different garden.

Thus the site, which includes the house, provides inspiration for the garden. Building on these inspirations you then make more detailed physical observations. And then specific ideas about your garden will start to flow. For instance you may note the existence of a flat area around the house backed by an attractive wooded slope. You measure the dimensions involved (the observation) and begin to visualize a formal planting that will be visible from the living room window (a specific design idea). This is the fundamental process of ‘listening to the site’.

Whether you are starting with a blank slate or enhancing a garden that already exists, it is same process that you want to unleash; one of inspiration from, and observation of, the site. Together these trigger new design ideas for the garden.

Such site inspired ideas may not flow all at once; so give this process time to work. In fact, if you are new to the property I strongly recommend waiting a full year before embarking on major garden making. Monitor the patterns of sun and shade as well as which plants flourish and where. Winter in particular, is an excellent time to observe the undulations of the land; without a camouflage of leaves, many prominent features, both good and bad, become far more apparent.

Here are just a few of the many site features that can inspire or influence your design:

Since the house is the basic starting point for every design, begin by noting the imaginary lines on the ground that run perpendicular to the center of main doors and windows; garden paths and structural axes will often flow directly from these points. Look also at the style of the house (formal or informal, colonial, county or contemporary); this may suggest a compatible garden style.

Pay special attention to slopes and grade changes. The inherent contour lines of the land may stimulate ideas for terracing and retaining walls.

Look for views, whether sweeping or peek throughs. You will want to your design to emphasize these.

Rocky outcroppings are wonderful garden features that can be exploited in your design. However, an underlying invisible rocky substrate or ‘ledge’ will present a problem for planting. Ledge is often best handled by uncovering it and encouraging moss and small plants to grow in its crevices.

Look for undesirable features that would be better camouflaged.

Think about the trees and shrubs on the site. Many are assets that you will want to incorporate into your design. Others, like a dominant evergreen planted years ago too close to the house, may be better removed; shut your eyes and imagine the site without it. Imagine too, how any young trees on the property will mature in the future; find out how large they are likely to become.

And last, but by no means least: learn all you can about the structure of your soil. Soil is the lifeblood of healthy plants. Read up about different soil types and how each can be improved to enhance plant health. Have the soil from different parts of your site tested by your local University Extension Service. Become knowledgeable about how the soil varies across your property. The unseen soil below will be as important for your garden’s happiness as all other features of your site put together.

Finally, as we have seen, landscape and garden design is an intensely visual process. Now and later in the process, photographs of your property will be immensely important as you develop new ideas and evaluate alternatives. This is the time to record in pictures the interesting parts of the land today as well as any problem areas. And, given the important role of the house in all landscape design, examine how it relates to the land and record this through pictures.

Measuring the Land
This step involves collecting site measurements of your project, and then making a drawing, to scale, called a base plan. This plan, which shows just the things that currently exist, is the underpinning of your design.

Why go to this trouble? As we have said, to a large extent, our appreciation of gardens is visual. Consequently the design process itself is also a strongly visual experience, during which you focus your mind’s eye on different ideas, playing one idea off against another.

A scale drawing or ‘landscape plan’ is a tool that helps your mind’s eye envision the garden-to-be, both this year and in years to come. It is also an integral part of the actual design process itself. For example you can draw up several possible shapes for a new patio and look at how well each will relate to the rest of the garden. Or you can draw in a group of shrubs to see much space the group they will require after five years growth.

A completed landscape plan can also be really useful when communicating your ideas with other people, including family members and contractors, who will play an important role in making your garden plans become reality.

One piece of advice when working on measuring and drawing the base plan: only include features you want to retain in your new garden. This will help you eliminate from your mind’s eye everything you plan on removing (like the front walkway that makes an ugly line from the doorway, or the large evergreen that is blocking the view to the mountain!). It is a way to un-clutter the mind and clear the way for new ideas.

Note on your plan the position of all utilities. This includes wires overhead, the electric meter, fuel filling pipes on the wall of your house, and the septic system that is out of sight below the ground.

And finally, I would like to stress that a reasonably accurate base plan is the cornerstone of a strong and workable design. While you are not necessarily after precision measurements, it is important to capture the correct spatial relationships between the external parts of the house (doors, walls and windows) and current garden features (trees, shrubs, driveway, patio or deck and external buildings). Also, you are not necessarily trying to create a beautiful drawing (although a beautiful drawing can be very satisfying in and of itself) as much make a tool that will help you think about new garden spaces and new plantings choices.

See my other article ‘Making a landscape drawing’ for detailed instructions on site measurements and scale drawing techniques.

Chapter 2
THE FRAMEWORK

Garden Spaces
The spatial layout (or floor plan) becomes the foundation of your entire design. Spatial layout involves envisioning possible garden spaces, or ‘garden rooms’, and the inter-relationships between them. And, like the floor plan of a house, it is hard to change later on.

It is always tempting to jump right in with a plan based on a single preconceived idea, skipping entirely this high-level thinking phase. Your minds-eye may be fixed on the garden as it is now, or perhaps on something you saw in a magazine. Then you take this one idea and develop it in detail without even seeing other possibilities for your site.

So instead, take your base plan and DOODLE! This is an exercise in creativity and right brain thinking, so let your mind run loose, and relax.

Since all design is an experimental procedure, use trace paper over your base plan. In this way you can look at the effect of different ideas without spoiling your base plan. This alone serves to loosen your inhibitions and let in outrageous or wild ideas; you never know, one may become the basis of something exciting.

Start by scribbling rough shapes for your garden spaces. For instance, show the patio and flowerbeds as blobs; a path as a snake; and an approximate rectangle will suffice for the driveway. Remember the garden spaces you want and need (from Chapter 1)…herb garden, patio, deck, gazebo and so on. Think about different arrangements on the ground.

Let go of preconceived ideas. Instead, working from the inspiration of your site, let your mind explore spatial alternatives, even though they may seem far-fetched.

We call the results of this exercise a ‘ bubble diagram’. Its rationale is strictly to stimulate new thinking and to experiment with space. You don’t need to show it to anybody else! But you may be surprised where this exercise will take you before you are done.

Start your bubble diagram at the house, since it will always be the heart of the garden. Consider the garden spaces that lead out from the main doorways, as well as spaces for things that you want close at hand, like the patio or the herb garden. Then consider garden spaces that will give you beautiful views from the windows. Working outwards to the further reaches of the garden will follow easily.

Then review your bubble diagram from the practicalities of the site. For instance you don’t want the vegetable garden over the septic leach field or in the shade!

As your spatial thinking proceeds, think about how you will move around outside. Is it easy to get to frequently visited places, like the garage, or herb garden? Will it be a comfortable walk to the gazebo? In short, mentally ‘walk the garden’.

Finally review the natural contours of the land. Do the various levels that exist on the property suggest creating distinct garden spaces at different levels?

Horizontal Design
The next step is to refine the all-important spatial layout for the garden. Poor spatial layout in the garden is all too apparent to the eye and difficult to rectify.

As before, use a right-brained approach, focusing on the shapes and how they inter-relate, rather than the specific names of those shapes.

Start by putting a new piece of trace paper over your base plan, and draw in actual shapes for the edges of the garden spaces: paths and hardscape, lawn and planted areas.

Shaping the garden spaces
Concentrate on the boundaries between the different areas. Use a relaxed, almost scribbling motion to experiment with different shapes until gradually you find shapes that are pleasing to the eye.

Start your design at the house, initially centering important garden spaces on those imaginary lines that run perpendicular to major doors and windows. As your design progresses you may want make them less centered, but make this change consciously rather than by accident!

Also, near the house you may decide to use either straight or curved edges for your garden spaces, but as you move further from the house gentle curves will seem more appropriate.

There are three basic types of space to consider: lawn, hardscape (including patios, paths, driveway and other hard surfaces) and planted areas. The shape of each area has to please individually, as well as contribute to a satisfying whole. It is all too easy to make a lovely curved path, only to find that the abutting flowerbed is a dissonant shape, or the lawn finishes with an annoying point. Work and rework these basic outlines on trace paper until you are pleased with the shape of each and every element as well as the cohesiveness and fluidity of the whole.

Viewpoints and focal points
Usually there are several key spots or garden viewpoints, from which you will most frequently observe your garden. Understanding your own viewpoints in the context of your personal lifestyle will go along way to helping you create a garden that will truly please.

You then deliberately design your garden so that it will look stunning from each of these viewpoints. One way to do this is to create a focal point when you look outwards from your viewpoint.

Look at how this concept plays out in my life:

I want to see something beautiful when I first wake up in the morning, so an extra special viewpoint is my own bed!

The kitchen window is a place where everyone stands at various times throughout the day. From this window we see a vista down to a small pond and out to the mountains beyond. The bench and a river birch at the end of the pond become a focal point.

The small patio leading to the front door is a picture we see every time we come home. It is also our guests’ initial impression of our house. To make a focal point last year I painted the front door an interesting shade of lavender which matched the flowers in the surrounding window boxes.

From May to October, my husband and I enjoy most meals, not to mention numerous cups of tea, in our screened gazebo. In terms of hours spent, this is probably our single most important garden viewpoint. A bird sculpture and surrounding plantings are a nearby focal point.

Identify your own viewpoints in the context of your property and your lifestyle. Now, as you evolve your design in this step and the following step, in your mind’s eye, try to envision the picture of the garden, as it will appear from your viewpoints. Sometimes one can identify a single special point which can become the focus for multiple viewpoints. This exercise may too suggest changes in your design.

Orphan trees
A small tree standing alone in an expanse of lawn has a forlorn and lonely feel. In the context of the visual design, it floats in space and offers very little substance. I call this an ‘orphan tree’. However, when this same tree is paired with other plants or garden structures, it becomes something of consequence. To say it another way, plants generally look better in groups! People instinctively recognize this concept when it comes to flowers in a vase or in a flowerbed, but often seem to miss it altogether when it comes to small trees randomly scattered in the lawn.

If you have an orphan tree in your lawn, use it as the main element of a new bed that includes shrubs and perennials.

Filled and empty space
Generally gardens need a balance between the space we see as filled ---normally the planted areas—and the space our eye perceives as empty, such as lawn or hardscape. A distant flowerbed embedded in an empty gulf of lawn appears insignificant and paltry. The simple change of moving it closer to the house will provide a visual unity between the house and the plants. Conversely when the entire garden space is completely planted there is no room for its human inhabitants. Even the smallest city garden needs a patio where people can enjoy the plants in a personal way.

It is sometimes hard to see the balance between the filled and empty spaces without the help of a drawing. So, with a fresh piece of tracing paper over the base plan, shade in just the spaces to be occupied by plantings. Look at the equilibrium between these filled spaces and the remaining empty space—the lawn and hardscape. Does this exercise suggest any changes to your spatial layout?

Ample space for both people and plants
Some gardens feel cramped and tight, which usually means inadequate space has been allotted for human activities— whether moving about or sitting down. If you are designing a new patio or deck, draw in to scale the outline of your tables and chairs; you will quickly see how much space is needed to accommodate them. And be sure to leave three feet behind the furniture for easy access.

Similarly make all main walking paths at least five feet wide to accommodate two people side-by-side; a smaller path for a single person can be half that width.

Speaking personally, I find a bed containing just a single type of plant is generally exceedingly flat and dull (although there can certainly be exceptions); whereas when we create a design by combining plants of contrasting colors, textures and heights the result is a visually complex composition that is both appealing and stimulating. This translates into spatial design guidelines for making flowerbeds that will be large enough to contain multiple layers of varied plants. Beds alongside the house or against a wall should be four feet deep or more to accommodate two layers of plants. For a compelling planting with three or four layers, an island bed should be from six to ten feet deep.

Utility practicalities
Look to see whether you have allowed for easy access for oil and propane delivery. Both involve pulling a heavy pipe right to the filler hole. If you decide to camouflage the pipes with a dense border of shrubs it will only be a matter of time before the shrubs get mangled. Instead leave a decent sized opening between the shrubs with a stepping stone path leading directly to the pipes.

Leach fields are also to be treated with great respect and are best left undisturbed. Also be mindful that the roots of many large trees, especially water seeking trees like red maples and willows, can travel large distances and entwine themselves around the pipes in a septic system resulting in costly repairs.

Plan now for too for wintertime snow removal. A commercial snowplow operator prefers to push the snow in a straight run to an open collection spot.

Garden floors
Hardscape is like a beautiful rug, patterned or solid depending on your overall design needs. Pavers and stone are available in so many different shapes, sizes and colors, enough to stir creative passions in all of us. Break away from designing a patio or a path as just a monolithic space; explore ways to compose a floor pattern that emphasizes your larger spatial shapes. Alternatively use two different materials (e.g. brick pavers and stone) to create a new pattern within its boundaries.

Strong Vertical Elements Create Structure

We Live in a Three Dimensional World!

A pleasing spatial design is like a good floor plan; while a necessary underpinning, it will not, in of itself, ensure a wonderful garden. We need now to build on that floor plan, placing both structural plants and garden architecture, to create three-dimensional outdoor spaces.

And a compelling vertical design goes far beyond merely emphasizing the garden’s floor plan. It brings focus, excitement, and mystery to the garden.

Framing
Framing an object draws our attention on that object and makes it appear more special. A well-chosen picture frame embellishes a piece of art. Likewise in the garden, carefully selected surroundings will highlight the house; and a group of trees on either side of the view to a mountain will dramatize that view.

To frame the house without obscuring the views from the windows plant a well-proportioned tree out from the corner of the house at a 45˚ angle. Choose a tree that will create a visual balance between the house and the tree—visual balance is a concept that will return many times in this part of the design process. You want a tree that at maturity will grow to be about as tall as the house itself. If you select something much smaller (say an eight foot high shrub) then the house will predominate and you will not have any framing effect. And if you plant a large tree, like a sugar maple, hemlock or spruce (all of which eventually grow to be 60’ or higher), and very soon the tree will completely dwarf the house. Instead choose a small tree like a crab apple or a serviceberry that grow 25’ or less at maturity. Always read the label, which spells out the expected height for that particular species and variety.

Defining the garden rooms
Special garden places, like a peaceful courtyard where you like to relax or a patio that you use for entertaining, deserve special emphasis in your design. One way to achieve this is through the use of enclosure. Surround these spaces, at least partially, with some small shrubs or a mixed planting, possibly in combination with a low fence. Not only will this heighten your personal awareness of these special spaces, but it will also help create a sense of mystery for your garden visitors.

Likewise visually define the entrance to your garden room with a strong vertical element, such as an arbor or gate, or perhaps a matched pair of tall shrubs.

If you have an in-town garden, think about separating the public space along the street from your front garden with an ornamental fence. An attractive fence enclosing a beautiful garden is in no sense unfriendly; it can actually enhance the neighborhood while at the same time giving you a sense of your personal space.

Creating a focal point
Imagine sitting in your quiet courtyard and painting a picture of what you see. Now continue adding vertical elements to your design to complete this picture. Like a painting on canvas, your garden picture will have a focal point, the spot where your eye is naturally drawn. This is the spot to add something dramatic like a beautiful planter, a group of special flowers, or a set of curving steps.

Visual balance
Now consider the overall picture you are creating. Here is an easy way to go about it. Take a digital photograph of your house, and print it out on 8 1/2” x 11” paper. If you have a ‘photo merge’ function on your computer, take several pictures and merge them as a panorama that encompassing the whole width of your house. This mimics the way we actually look at gardens and landscape… we look wider rather than higher.

Next, with a piece of trace paper over the picture, sketch the approximate mature size and shape of the trees and shrubs you are contemplating. (Use your plan as a guide for their placement). Also show the outline of any architectural structures you are considering, such as a fence or arbor.

This exercise will quickly reveal the form of your overall composition and how well it visually complements the house.

You will also see the relative impact or ‘visual punch’ of each element. This is often called the visual mass of each object. A dense, dark colored yew, Taxus cuspidata, that is ‘pruned to be 6’ tall and wide, will have as much visual mass as the light airy serviceberry, Amelanchier canadensis, which is small tree with a mature size of 8’ to 12’ high and almost as wide.

Typically you want to strive for a pleasing balance between the visual mass of the house and that of its surrounding trees and shrubs. This tells you that you do not want to overwhelm the house with a nearby full sized evergreen tree, like hemlock, which grows to 60’ high, or a deciduous tree such as sugar maple, which grows even larger. Better to choose one or two small to medium sized trees like crab apples or serviceberries. These can be placed so as to visually tie the building with the surrounding landscape. They will also remain in scale over the years.

And as you plan individual planting beds, again consider the visual mass of the major elements involved, especially small trees and shrubs. Look at the overall composition, such as a small tree to one side offset by a group of shrubs on the other side.

Selecting trees and shrubs
Consider your trees and major shrubs as part of the permanent landscape, and choose carefully! There are three attributes to consider:

• What are the growing conditions
• When fully grown will they nicely fill the space allocated them on the plan
• Do they match your aesthetic needs.

Consider this example. Suppose, for your Zone 4 garden, you want to find a small tree for an area near the house which is approximately 12’ in diameter and in partial shade.

Start by going to the UVM publication ‘Landscape Plants for Vermont’, which is conveniently organized by size, and find the section on ‘Large Deciduous Shrubs and Small Trees’. Five candidates for your space emerge, all small trees hardy in your zone that can take some shade: Acer spicatum, Acer pensylvanicum, Acer triflorum, Amelanchier canadensis and Cornus alternifolia. After further reading you decide to eliminate both Acer spicatum and Acer pensylvanicum from the list, as these two trees seem more appropriate for a naturalized woodland space, rather than the more formal space near the house. This leaves you to choose between Acer triflorum, Amelanchier canadensis and Cornus alternifolia.

At this point you might also review your plan to see whether by allocating a bit more space you can also consider another attractive small tree, Carpinus caroliniana.

Now think about other attributes that are important to you, such as winter interest, fall color and spring flowers. Also go to the Internet to look at pictures of each species and cultivar, which may also help, you narrow down your decision.

And lastly, look back at your base plan to check that, as your tress grow to full size, they will not interfere with either the overhead utilities or you underground pipes.

Now (and only now), having done your homework, go to the local nurseries to look for strong specimens of any and all varieties that made it to your final list.

Chapter 3
COLOR AND TEXTURE WITH PLANTS

Imagine you are creating a picture and the plants are your palette. Shrubs and small trees provide the structure, texture and winter presence in your painting. The annuals and perennials create summer colors and textures, and complement the woody plants. Choose plants that will thrive… not merely survive… in their allotted spot. Right plant -- right place.

It always helps to develop your ideas with a planting plan, which is often drawn at a larger scale than the landscape plan discussed above. I typically only draw a detailed planting plan for the projects to be implemented in the coming growing season. For a project that just includes trees and shrubs I will use 1/8” = 1 foot. However where there are a lot of perennials involved I like to use 1/4” = 1 foot.

There are many factors to be considered in plant selection, including

Growing preferences of each plant, especially sun or shade

Height now and at maturity

Interesting color and texture combinations

Seasonal succession to achieve color all through the season

The winter garden

How the planting will look this year and in the years to come

Start by choosing the woody plants. Look for plants with multi-season interest such as spring flowers and winter fruit. Check the chart in Landscape Plants for Vermont for ideas. Include some small or intermediate evergreens for texture and winter interest.

Here is a suggested approach to create a plan for a ‘mixed planting’ bed

Create a focal point by placing a small tree a little off-center

Add shrubs to emphasize the bed shape

Choose taller shrubs for the back of the bed (or for the center in the case of an island bed that is viewed from all sides), and shorter shrubs near the front.

For a large bed, plant groups of three or five shrubs of one kind. Use a zigzag planting pattern, rather than a straight line.

For each shrub, draw two concentric circles to show its size after three years and at maturity. Space shrubs within the group, so that, at maturity, they will overlap by a small amount.

Finally, to create color and seasonal change, add the perennials to your plan. Start at the back of the bed, and add perennials in layers until you reach the front of the bed. For deep beds you may have three or even four layers.

Look for perennials with interesting shapes that also contrast well together, and place these on the plan as a group. Perennials groups should have compatible heights, flower at the same time and provide interesting color and texture pairings. The attached chart shows a few perennials and their flowering times in my garden to help you think about perennial groupings. Making similar charts for your own garden is an excellent way of record keeping which, in later years, will become an invaluable planning device.

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