DESIGN BASICS

As we start on the journey to our own special garden there are two things that seem to come up every time that we will have to consider.

Creativity

Most of us, by ourselves or with the help of a designer, friends, or fellow gardeners, can work through a variety of things to accomplish what we would like in this area. We will need to ask ourselves a lot of questions about what our needs, likes, and requirements are for the area. Look at other gardens we like that have caught our attention and add our own experience or that of fellow gardeners. We may need to take pictures, notes, and save articles and photos from magazines. A lot of people have more specific ideas for their garden than they think. They just lack the ability to pull it all together. There are others that have a real problem visualizing past the existing conditions of the area (computer imaging is a great service for concepts). Our hope is that using some of the following information you will be able to answer some of your questions or use a step by step process to gather together your thoughts and wishes.

Budget

There are very few people that will be able to tackle their project without some sort of budget. There are many things to consider here. Not just how deep our pockets are or over how many years can we stage the project. We should consider the return on our investments, our neighborhood, sentimental reasons, or just plain old enjoyment. There have been many published reports that remind us that our gardens are a good place to invest as we could realize with proper planning and maintenance a 100-200% return. Each area of the country that we are from, along with different interpretations from various people (appraisers, builders, real estate agents, architects, landscapers, etc.) will have different ideas on how much to spend on our gardens. It is very common to spend 5-10% or more of the house value on the landscape area.

Although most of us gardeners don't mind changes and have trouble resisting new varieties of plant material we should always consider the overall plan. We should plan for permanent hardscape areas such as patios, walks, pathways, retaining walls, structures, fences, waterfeatures, etc. in advance. Adding hardscapes in an existing garden space will usually increase our time, effort, and dollars we spend. This is almost always worth it if we add something of interest or it helps to bring unity to our garden. We should also include plenty of attention to the site analysis list. Some of the plant material can be viewed like furniture in a room once the walls are up. We can always move it, trade it, sell it or recycle it. A good plan can make the difference between achieving your dream or wasting time, money, and resources.