Course handoutGarden planning
Visualising a garden
Imagining and designing a garden with sketches, maps and planning software.
Theory and discussion only · Community education, not accredited training
Key takeaways
- 01Memories, words and pictures are a good starting point for any garden idea.
- 02A scale plan with sun and shade marked shows what will really fit.
- 03Paper and digital tools both work; many people use a mix of the two.
In this course
01Imagining a garden: memory, words and pictures
- Recall gardens from your past
- Describe colours, scents and sounds
- Collect pictures that capture a feeling
- Note what you don’t want, too
02Sketching a plan to scale
- Choose a scale, such as one square for half a metre
- Draw boundaries and fixed features first
- Mark which way is north
- Add a key for your symbols
03Mapping sun and shade through the day
- Morning, midday and afternoon views
- One colour for each time of day
- Look again in another season if you can
04Digital garden-planning tools: an overview
- Drawing layouts to scale
- Viewing a design in 3D
- Keeping planting records
- Sharing plans with others
05Presenting and discussing a design
- Explain what the garden is for
- Point out how it uses sun and shade
- Invite questions and suggestions
- Respect different tastes and traditions
Talk it over
- What garden or outdoor place from your past would you like to recreate?
- What are the strengths of drawing by hand compared with using a screen?
- How can we give feedback on someone’s design in a kind and useful way?
- How might a garden design reflect the cultures of the people who use it?
Reflect
Describe, in a few sentences, a garden you would love to create.
What have you noticed about sun and shade in a space you know well?