MissStress

Hey folks..
Just wondering how many of you planned the layout of your gardens before planting and how many decided to 'grow with the flow'?
I have been playing with Landscape Architect and I think it's really beneficial for me to lay it all out, plan what goes where and what grows when.. balance colours, textures without it ending up looking like a formal garden..
Side note - April 18th and snowing! Can't wait to move!!

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Zone 7b (Canada) or 8a (US)

Kostas

I did planned and i am still planning my Pyrgos garden as the time comes to plant more and add more variety but its all on a plan in my head and plan on the spot. I did tried to plan everything on paper first but it turned out impossible due to the sheer number of plant species i use and the close proximity to one another. Its just not practical at all for me! But planning did and does take place before a planting as i take into account final size,growth rates,site preferences of the plant,etc while trying to make the outcome as natural and jungle like as possible!

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''To try,is to risk failure......To not try,is to guarantee it''

pitangadiego

Stress, you are very funny.

When I "layed out" my orchard 25 years ago, I had no inkling that I would be growing the things that I am now growing, or as many things as I now have. Any planning would have gone down the drain a long time ago. So, now, if there is a thin spot in the jungle, plant something there. If there are no thin spots, take out something that is not performing. If something doesn't get along with everything else, too bad.

You might want to layout some general circulation routes (paths) and put in water lines for irrigation (underground) but gardening is always a work in progress.

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We Be Bananas
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MissStress

I don't doubt that a lot of it is designing on the fly. That is how I have done it until now with mixed success.. but this time for me starting out with a basic concept is good. Where are the beds/pond/big plants going to go then 'fiddle' with the smaller plants and flowers.

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Zone 7b (Canada) or 8a (US)

eric27

Usually it was always desinging on the fly, or just putting things where I had room. But lately I have been doing more formal designs-flowing beds etc. These seems to go very well with tropical plants, big leaves and so forth. I have a new bed I made late summer last year and will start finishing this spring if it ever stops snowing! That one I am looking forward to as it flows with some of my newer ones I made early last year. Some of my older areas that were more "dumping grounds" are slowly being designed. It is just a lot of work and time as I do it all myself. But I do enjoy it.

MissStress

You're still getting the white stuff too? :| I am not amused. Good side is that it's 'warm', sunny and already melting.
I sure enjoy it too.. good for the soul!

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Zone 7b (Canada) or 8a (US)

eric27

Yeah you too? It's horrible. We only had less than an inch last night. But maybe more tomorrow night into Wed, with upwards of 6 inches just to the north of me. Way to close! However next week looks way better. Yeah I think it is gone now here too. Snow is not good for the soul-plants yes!

MissStress

lol.. yes that is what I meant.. gardens and dirt good.. white stuff very bad!

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Zone 7b (Canada) or 8a (US)

Darkman

For me I think I agree with everybody!

I don't think you can conform to one ideology with garden planning. I tend to be a planner sometimes in my head and sometimes with paper and scale rulers. Many times I may be sitting observing my property and suddenly a picture comes to mind and a new garden feature is "designed". Some of my detailed plans have never come to fruition after the death of one of the key landscape plants occurred.

Kostas,

Look for a CAD program. Most all I have seen allow you to continually zoom in for small details. This allows you to have a single piece of paper that shows your entire property or you could zoom in and show only one square foot with notes on the plant.

Pitangadiego,

I hope I'm here twenty five years from now to laugh at the folly of my plans. You just can't sit down with a plant a tell it to straighten up or ship out. If you are lucky you can move the misbehaving plant. One note on irrigation. Run larger lies than you think you'll need and bury them DEEP and you won't have to remember where they are when you dig.

Eric27

"Dumping grounds" I love it although I call mine holding beds. I throw them in to see how they are going to do before I can install them where they will hopefully happily ever after live. I am still mainly in the bare bones planting stages in many areas. Unfortunately a few of my larger bones, Palms, have decided they don't like my climate and have died. It is always a major pain to have to replace a large palm. Sometimes costly and damaging to the surrounding plants. I recently lost a shade garden when the shade providing palm died.

Some of my best garden ideas come at night while trying to go to sleep. Having trouble sleeping can be a blessing if I can work out some design elements.

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Darkman in Pensacola

AS ALWAYS IMHO AND YOUR MILEAGE MAY DIFFER!!!!!!!!

Life - Some assembly required, As is no warranty, Batteries not included, Instructions shipped separately and are frequently wrong!

Kentucky Bourbon - It may not solve the problem but it helps to make it tolerable!

Statistics - Data that analyst twist to support the insane opinions of those that pay them.

MissStress

This is what I have been using.. Argh matey!
Landscape Design Software - Realtime Landscaping Architect

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Zone 7b (Canada) or 8a (US)

palmtree

I always make plans during the winter, but they almost never work out like that in the spring. Some plants die over the winter, then I end up getting different plants, and in the end most things are switched around. With all the rain and clouds here in NYC, I havent gotten too much in the ground yet, but so far, only the ginger have been planted in the planned spot (my ice cream banana, philodendron, schefflera, and ensete are all in different places than planned).

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Location: New York City, zone 7b

saltydad

The only time I really planned a garden section was when I had the pond installed. This is not something you can do on the fly. I handed the landscape designer my sketches, and he took off from there. It's almost as I envisioned in my head beforehand, but definitely better.

For the rest, I tend to plan by walking around with the plant pot in my hand until the right location inspires me, then I dig!

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"Gardening is the purest of human pleasures." - Francis Bacon





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MissStress

You captured my gardening style perfectly with that statement

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Zone 7b (Canada) or 8a (US)

eric27

Darkman I do that too! I lay in bed at night thinking about what I am going to do. Then I can't sleep and I'm too tired the next day to do anything. Either that or my grand plan that I had just was too big or doesn't work out.

As for our holding area/dumping ground- what happens when we never move those plants? Then what is that area called??? That happens to me a lot.

Planter56

Hmmm well after 30 some odd years of gardening, and even learning ornemental horticulture, floriculture production and landscape design. You still, walk around with a plant in one hand and a shovel in the other, looking for that perfect spot. I have planted, dug up, moved, replanted, remade, unmade and tired this and that. In the end, I still look at my garden beds and go, where on earth did that come from. Right now I have a small yard, and, lord willing if I still have it, I am going to dig a new bed down the center of the lawn and put in my bananas and some flowers and some veggies.

Think, do, redo, make a plan and then throw it out and start again. You'd be supprised how many of the huge estates out there have been changed over and over again with new owners. The best idea out there is, GIVE IT A TRY, you can rearrange later