Valloire Abbey

To design your own garden, you have to define your needs and wants: a garden can be a place of relaxation, a play area for children, a vegetable garden or a place in which to express your artistic spirit...  

It may also be all of these at once: up to you to decide, depending on your wishes and lifestyle...

Then, look for the components that are missing in your garden, either the plants (orchard, kitchen garden, rockery, greenhouse) and the constructions (toolshed, patios, swimming-pool, ornamental pond...), do not forget some essential equipments (barbecue, clothes line, compost bin...). Take into account your budget, the time spent on the project and the upkeep. 

For a more successful project, observe and analyse the elements already existing: space, buildings, climate, soil, plants. It is important to consider them when designing your garden. 

There are different ways to draw a plan: you can use special softwares developed for this use or draw the plan of your own, begin by a rough copy of it and then use graduated or squared paper. 

- At first, draw the site's outline to make a ground plane. Place the immovable elements (buildings, terraces, pathways, paving) and represent the places where people are coming and going. This information will be very relevant later.

- Locate the aspects (north, south...), sunny or shady areas, and then mark with arrows the wind directions. With these elements you will identify the climatic zones, it will guide you to choose the design of your garden and the plants. For example, windy zones will be protected by hedges or shrubs.

- Represent the relief: write down the level in meters from a point of the house to view the perspectives.

- Mark the positions of the house windows and doors to get the viewpoints from your home. Then, select those to hide or to clear. Landmarks should be kept, such as: a bell tower or an old cedar tree... In this way you will avoid creating a too confined area and give to your garden a real volume.

- Put existing plants on your plan, with their rough size. You can number them and note the keys on another page

You have now enough information and experience to put your ideas into practice. Use the previous plan to examine the different possibilities of design. You could use tracing paper to boost your imagination. Some softwares of garden creation exist, they may be very useful to visualise your ideas and view the finished garden. 

A space for everything

Your garden will include different areas of life to be properly demarcated and located. Draw the pathways between the different garden components to test their relevancy. Place them with care, according to the windows' and doors' locations. Mix the utilitarian and the pleasureable (set one along the vegetable garden or aromatics nearby the kitchen...).

Choose your style   

According to the garden size, you can potentially design one or more different environments that will have their own theme. 

Valloire Abbey

There is a wide range of styles, from japanese gardens to topiaries, through landscape gardens... However, be careful to maintain a kind of unity in your garden.

For example, it can be very architectural, and bald, or it may be natural and wild.

Another possibility is to design a structured area surrounding the house and let the plants grow more naturally further away.

Select the good plants

It is time to choose your plants! Selection will depend on the site. You have to take into account some main criteria, such as the garden general theme and the climatic conditions. A large range of plants is at your disposal to answer to the aesthetic criteria. Don't forget: one plant exists for each of your garden wishes. So good luck, in your quest for the Garden of Eden! >> Use the multicriterion research to find the right plant

- Use of the plant (hedge, clump of trees, rockery)

- Pedological and climatic conditions: hours of sunshine, soil, pluviometry... To learn about the soils characteristics (acid/alkaline, light/heavy, moist/dry...), observe which plants grow easily in the area and ask your neighbours advice. Do a soil analysis to measure the active soil acidity or alkalinity and detect the potential deficiencies in organic or mineral matters; in this way, you will know what you will need to add.

- Maximal height and growth rate

Erica
x darleyensis 'KRAMER'S ROT'

It is difficult to imagine the adult size of a young plant and the maintenance it will need. Notice that a fast-growing plant is efficient to hide quickly an eyesore view, but will need a regular pruning to stay usefull. Slow and average-growing plants, as well as compact plants suit small or medium size gardens and need little maintenance.

- Your garden style

- Ecological and landscape environment: choose varieties that will well become integrated in your surroundings, for example prefer natural-shaped plants if you live in the countryside or ornamental ones in urban areas.

- A few notions about Colors

 

Yellow, Orange, Red, and light Green to be placed in the foreground.
Place crimson in the background behind the shades Orange, Rose, Grey, Purple, Green, Bluish, and dark Green.
Blue and Purple highlight Red and Gold.
Blue softens the shades.
Grey softens the shades and gives depth to the garden.
Grey, Black and White set off all the other colors and stress the garden elements by contrast.

- Trigger your emotions!

Perfume your garden with rose bushes and honeysuckles, near the terrace, they will relaxe your summer evenings; by the pathways, whenever you will leave or enter your home, their fragrance will delight your senses, even in the middle of winter (ex. lonicera purpusii and chimonanthus praecox) ! 


- In rhythm !

A garden is a sequence of scenes whose goal is to attract the eye and provoke your guests curiosity, so that they will be incited to follow the visit. Play with perspectives and punctuate your garden with distinctive elements: the sound of a waterfall, a winding path vanishing through vegetation, or a statue in a corner, it will give character to your garden.

Grasses

Some plants make a great impression when they are isolated and also give life to shrubberies or flower beds: grasses, architectural-shaped trees (cedar trees, sequoias...), plants with decorative bark can be put in a prominent position

Don't forget to space out the colors over the year: flowers, foliage, fruits and bark are many assets offered by plants to liven up your garden. If some plants are less interesting in the winter, interest can be maintained by the shapes of evergreens and conifers. The golden rule is to keep a proportion of 2/3 deciduous for 1/3 evergreen and vice versa.

Some books will be very useful to help you in your research, especially those in which plants are classified according to the use of the plant (for example the Guide MINIER).


Bonne quête à la recherche du paradis perdu !