how to make a garden (part 1)

when you're making a garden the first thing you need to do is to set aside a little time to dream. you need to imagine those long lovely days of summer: sharing your early morning tranquility with the birds, finding a precious piece of midday shade to dine in, sipping drinks at sunset with your friends.... whatever it is you want from your garden it's best you've spent a long time dreaming about it because despite what you might see on the telly, good gardens don't arrive over night. a good garden will continue to evolve over a series of years- centuries even; but a good garden's bones will have been planned before even the first spade cut the soil.

ideally, you need to pass a full set of the seasons in your garden so you can feel exactly how it is, and how it will be, once you create your dream garden. the sun's hasty winter journey across your yard will cast long shadows, and areas that are in full sun in the summer may not see the sun at all for 2 months in the depths of winter.

however, some of us don't have the luxury of a spare year of contemplation.

but before you jump in, boots and all, you need to know a few things about your land- be it a pocket handkerchief or a good kiwi quarter acre.
ask you garden a few questions: what's your soil like? you can make an easy assessment of this by looking at the species of plants that make up your lawn. in our case, i spotted some docks and buttercups growing that told me that that patch would be very wet in the winter. the fact that our grass remained green all summer long despite no watering told me without digging that the water table was very high. (in our neck of the woods, this is a blessing)
soil assessed, you need to see what's growing in your neighbours' gardens. this will let you know what your climate is like. there is no point planting all sorts of tropical whatsitsnames if you're constantly battling thick white frosts every winter morning.
what direction does your garden face? lots of sun? prevailing winds?
these last 3 questions are in fact much more important than the first one of soil type as your soil type can be ammended to suit the things you want to grow.
you can't change the aspect of your garden.

in our case, our garden soil is quite rich, more acidic than alkiline, free-draining, north facing but sheltered from the prevailing easterly wind. it's longer than it is wide. and mostly, it was a blank canvas.

so while i spent a lot of last summer moving that purpular carpet from one patch to the other, i observed how we used the garden. how far did the shade go from the pine tree? was it unbearably hot at midday? (would we need more shade?) where did the sun set? which line did we take while walking from the house to the garage? believe it or not, this is important too, because while you might be prepared to take an extra moment and regard it as recreational, most other people will take that short-cut through your garden, unless you create a firm barrier.

we'd not managed a full set of seasons before we leapt into our garden filled with enthusiasm. from years of gardening i knew how dangerous it was to take this shortcut, but my experience as a designer allowed me to take the plunge anyway. so far, i have no regrets!

in part 2 of how to make a garden i'll share with you how we came up with the plan and our work programme.

xx
gardener b