What can I do with the shape of it?
Using an OS map to understand the shape of my new garden is an interesting exercise. My plot and the others in my road represent a logical carving up of land developed on a hillside in the 1960s. The result is that each garden has its own unique and mostly irregular shape with a downwards slope towards the North East. The current state of my garden illustrates how all of this can present a challenge when it comes to creating a successful layout design. How to improve things is less obvious and will take some puzzling out.
There are a few features that I’ll preserve either because it seems a shame not to or because they are simply too hard to move. One is a very large gritstone boulder possibly outdating the 1960’s development by thousands of years and a few small but mature trees planted by previous owners. Beyond that everything else is either moveable or recyclable – 2 flimsy sheds, a lot of large paving slabs and a decent collection of suitable and unsuitable perennial plants.
I’m not planning a dramatic garden rescue like you see on the tele – the best re-designs don’t happen overnight. Taking time to work things out, step by step, will be both a pleasure and a necessity if I’m to create a design that meets my needs and works for the situation I have. Over the coming weeks I’ll start by getting outside – pruning, clearing and generally familiarising myself with this new outdoor space.
Alongside that (and especially when the weather is less inviting) I’ll be thinking as abstractly as possible about the shape of the garden and the geometric shapes and patterns that could be arranged within it. I’ll do this on paper, starting with my OS outline and without the distraction of the garden’s current features and layout. I won’t move on to the next design steps until I’m confident that I have a strong foundation on which to lay other features for a garden I will be sure to enjoy.
