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The depths of winter are a good time to think
about the height of summer. It gives us a lift when the skies
are gray, temperatures freezing, earth mantled in snow, winds
biting and streets filled with slush.
For gardeners the dead season also serves
a very practical purpose, that of planning for the upcoming growing
season in the garden. And just in time, with the year end holidays
now past, the new year's seed catalogs start to arrive in the
mail.
At this point, the turning of the year, New
Year's Eve, the garden's been put to bed since Halloween and
in fact hasn't even been visited since Thanksgiving. Which is
unusual, but this winter has brought other demands on our time
and attention - plus it's just too damned cold. This trial separation
has given us time to forget the dog's work, devotion and worry
that are the inseparable lot of the farmer and somewhat restore
a romantic view of the dirty discipline of agriculture.
I usually start with a sketch. Maybe you don't
need to, but in my business, as a designer, everything starts
with a sketch, whether on a cocktail napkin or computer screen.
It helps to visualize the garden space, order one's thoughts
and figure things out. In this article, we're going to consider
planning for planting, and perhaps somewhat improving, an existing
garden. If you're starting a garden from scratch you have a different
set of challenges which we'll cover at some other time.
Pencil, paper and a long tape measure are
the first gardening tools. First, make a rough sketch with a
birds-eye (or plan) view of all the elements in the garden: the
planting beds, paths, fences, gates, patios, structures and trees.
The placement and proportions only need to be approximate.
Next, measure the dimensions, width and length,
of each the elements and note them on the sketch. Label the elements:
planting bed, compost pile, shed, patio, etc.
Sketch in hand, you're ready to draw.You can
use a computer drawing application such as EazyDraw
(for the Mac), graph paper or simply wing it with a ruler and
perhaps a drafting square. The drawing below was done with EazyDraw,
an inexpensive, fun and fairly easy program with a myriad other
uses.
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A view over the fence into Roofscape's demonstration
garden in Boston.
