Planting Plans are an essential part of the design process for any garden. Time spent planning and visualising the scheme on paper will save you time and money as it will allow you to take advantage of bulk discounts when buying your plants in quantity and will cut out obvious errors.
Detailed planting plans are usually created at a scale of 1:50 and will illustrate the scale and position of plants at their mature size through a series of circles and symbols.
A detailed plant list is usually the first stage in creating a planting plan. The best designs use clear repetition and bold drifts of planting so at this intial stage the number of plants is often ruthlessly halved.
When designing a successful planting scheme, the key plants that will make up the structural backbone of the garden will be placed first. These will include any trees, shrubs and hedges. Next, the skeleton planting of evergreens, sub-shrubs and climbers will be added along with architectural features such as pots and sculptures - before the perennials and finally the filler plants are added.
Once the plan has been completed, it will be inked up and printed. Colours and symbols are used to make the plan easy to read – even by a novice and a detailed plant list is also drawn up which quantifies the plants and varieties required.
Garden Designer Alice Bowe produces planting design plans for country estates or courtyard gardens in Notts, Leics, Northants, Oxford & Warwickshire and across the UK
