Once you’ve decided where you want your shade garden and you have a general idea of its purpose, you’re ready to design its look.
A garden looks its best when plantings vary in height, leaf style, texture and color. Despite a natural appearance, there always is an underlying organization behind every successful shade garden.
Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/Yvonne Williams
Roughly sketch your garden site on paper, using circles (or “bubbles”) to allocate space for groups of plantings. Try a number of versions until the bed looks the way you’ve envisioned. Colored pencils help visualize the foliage and flowers in the bed.
Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Measure your planting site and carefully note its dimensions on your plan. Using graph paper, transfer the site to paper and scale all of the elements in each bubble.
Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Successful gardens are seldom random. The interplay of elements all must be calculated carefully, regardless of how “wild” or natural-looking the intended result. Generally, a garden looks best with variations of height, leaf styles, textures and colors. When professional designers look at a landscape, they think about focal points – where the eye should be drawn first – then which plants are striking or unusual. Once the focal points are determined, the challenge is to complement and enhance the chosen plants with secondary plantings that also complement each other.
One of the best ways to factor these concerns into your design is to create a simple “bubble” diagram – taking a piece of paper and literally drawing bubbles (or circles) to broadly indicate where plants should be situated in the bed or border. First, “bubble in” all existing plants and structures already in your garden, then take your plan out to your planting area and start figuring in your desired plants, allowing proper space on the diagram for mature plant sizes and spreads. With the completed bubble plan in hand, you can visualize how your intended groupings will look, as well as get a good sense of how many plants you’ll need to buy.
Computer programs dedicated to landscape or garden design are also helpful tools. While more expensive than the simple draw-on-paper method, it’s still less expensive than hiring a professional to come up with a plan for you. Design software allows you to roughly sketch your site, place all sorts of structures on it, design fencing and other hardscaping features, as well as provide a virtual view of the overall layout and look of your future shade garden.
Whether you decide to use a computer or tried-and-true manual methods, mapping out your landscape plan is the best way to ensure you’ll have a beautiful, well-designed shade garden that you’ll enjoy.
