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PREVAILING WINDS

A chill wind can prevent us from enjoying the garden, and for much of the year this will come from a particular ‘prevailing‘ direction. If wind is a problem, check the prevailing direction and mark it on your survey so that you can provide an effective windbreak.

GOOD OR BAD VIEWS

We are so often preoccupied with what goes on within our plot that we tend to forget that there is a world outside. Good views are a bonus and should be left open or even emphasized. Bad views — an overlooking upstairs window or the back of a neighbour’s garage — should be screened, either with a solid structure of some kind or by planting.

SOIL

The type of soil in your garden will largely determine what you can grow. Acid soil is at one end of the spectrum and alkaline at the other; plants happy in one type may be quite the opposite in the other. A soil mid-way between the two is neutral and will allow you to grow a wide range of species. Buy a simple soil-testing kit from any garden centre and take samples from various parts of the plot. Most kits provide lists of plants that will thrive in any given soil type.

ASPECT

I have left the most important piece of survey information to last. This involves checking the way the garden faces in relation to the passage of the sun. Checking this is where that compass comes in handy, so you can easily verify the position of north and south. Remember that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and that in winter it will be a good deal lower and cast longer shadows than in the summer

THE DESIGN

Now that the survey is complete you can start to think about the actual design and just what you want to see in the finished garden. This really is a family job: after all, the finished composition is going to have to cater for everyone and everything. Start to make a list, jotting down every requirement you and other members of your family can think of. In a typical garden this might include a patio for sitting and dining, a barbecue, raised beds, a pool, a lawn and a play area, as well as a shed, a greenhouse, somewhere to put the bikes and an arbour or area of built-in seating. Remember, too, that a garden has to contain the ugly as well as the practical, so the dustbins, washing line, compost heap and incinerator will have to fit somewhere!

If the list seems endless, don’t worry — you can always thin it down later. It is more important that you leave nothing out, as it’s much more difficult to incorporate a major feature once the design of the garden is complete.

PREPARING A DRAWING

Making a scaled drawing from your survey is straightforward. You will need to use a sheet of graph paper, selecting one or a number of squares to represent a metre or foot on the ground. Starting with the house, transfer all your measurements on to the graph paper, including the position of doors and windows, drains, slopes and everything else you noted down. Mark in the direction of the prevailing wind if there was one, any good or bad views, the length of the shadows and so on. Pretty soon you will have a surveydrawing, which will provide the basis for the finished design. Take several photocopies and file the original drawing for safe-keeping.

To prepare the final design drawing, stick a copy of the survey on to a clean surface and fix a sheet of tracing paper over it. At first, just rough in the broad position of features. The area allocated for a patio might logically be at the rear of the house if it is in full sun, but if shade is a problem it may be some distance away, served by a sensible path. A barbecue would ideally be close to the kitchen, a pond in full view of the main windows of the house, while the shed,greenhouse and utility areas should be grouped together, and screened in some way. If your plans include an arbour, this could be sited in a quiet corner. Work in pencil and have an eraser handy to rub out any mistakes. You can also sketch in alternatives before making a final choice: there are bound to be plenty of changes initially!

At this stage, just allocate space so that the garden starts to work in overall terms. You needn’t worry about exact dimensions of a feature or the pattern and material for the paving until slightly later on

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