Plan a garden from scratch



How to Set Out a Garden from Scratch To set out a garden from scratch may seem daunting, but this Greenfingers workshop will simplify it and help you to avoid expensive mistakes. Whether you are revamping an old garden or making a new one, you'll need to make lists of the features you want to include, plants and items to be kept, eyesores to screen and good views to borrow from outside. Most gardeners find it difficult to imagine how their plans will look. Setting things out on the ground will help you put everything in the right place and allow enough space for relatively expensive features and plants. You may need to draw up the garden either completely or as individual features, depending on whether you are going to do the building work yourself, or get contractors to do some or all of it.

Sand, line and pegs, paint to mark out; your list of requirements and sketches of where things should go; 2 long fabric tapes - can be hired; canes; pegs; length of hosepipe for marking curves.

Lawns - a minimum of 2 m radius for a useful lawn. Patios - 3.5 m x 3.5 m for 4 people to eat around a table. Paths - main paths where you plan to use wheelbarrows and mowers: 1 m minimum width; other paths: 60 cm width, but this will not be enough space for two to walk side by side - you'll need to double the width for this. Steps: mark space for all risers to be the same height; avoid steps of less than 15 cm, as they will tend to trip users. This height also makes climbing easy. Treads: make these 30 cm minimum, 45 cm is better still. Pergolas, arches and arbours should all leave enough headroom to walk underneath.

Start at the back of your house and work away from it. Mark the shape of the patio on the ground. It is best to make running measurements from the same base point. Leave a tape on the ground, secured by a metal peg.

If you are having a lawn establish its shape and size. Measure and mark this out. You will have decided whether you want to include a shed, greenhouse, pond, where bins and compost heaps are to go, kitchen and 'secret' gardens. Plot these roughly into position. If your plans include hedges, walls, trellis or fencing to divide up the garden into compartments, plot these on the ground. To make these the right thickness use two rows of canes. Tie tape or string onto canes to simulate hedges, walls and fences.

Next, decide where your paths are to go to get you to various points. Mark them out and make yourself use them to see if they are really in the right place! It’s easy to make adjustments before things are literally set into stone. At the same time plan whether your lawn, paths and flowerbeds or borders are going to meet with right-angle corners, have curving edges, or perhaps make a circular pattern. Mark out significant corners (with two string lines), circles (with a peg hammered in the ground and a string line attached that you can circulate and mark a line), curved edges (with a hosepipe).

Decide which features you want to include such as arches, pergolas, arbours, permanent seating or other paved areas and make temporary structures using canes roughly to the height of features. Also don't forget plants! Put canes in where you plan to plant trees and large shrubs. Make these roughly the right height after at least five years of growth. Use bubble wrap, stuffed bin liners, and other material to give you an impression of plant bulk and growth.

You may have puzzled your neighbours by now! But you can try out your garden and make sure it really works - check views from the house, and upstairs - before you start on the hard work of turning it into reality. Notice how shade is cast and how your planned garden will affect this, check privacy, views and shelter. Make adjustments as necessary and take pictures.

Think carefully about what you want

Mark out different areas: eg lawn, plants and patio

A filled up bin liner on a cane gives a good impression of a small tree

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