Garden Planning Flashcards
Hazard –
Risk –
Hazard – The object with potential to cause harm
Risk – Likelihood of an accident x Severity
Overhead / Underground
Hazards: Electricity
Hazard = Live cables
How to identify this as a hazard - Looking, Asking, Sockets,
Examples of risks associated with this.
Death, Electric shock,
Appliances, Pylons, Plans, Fire, Blackout.
Warning tape. (Costs, Inconvenience, Damage to soil.)
Restrictions limiting work
Financial constraints = Cash flow, Price rises, Unexpected costs, Unavailable material
leading to higher costs.
Access for plant, equipment and materials. Legal access, No direct entry to rear garden, Narrow entry, Road (width) for deliveries. Roadworks. Need for larger equipment.
Topography / degree and extent of slope. Use of machinery, Availability of PPE, Mobility around site.
Boundary constraints. Ownership, Small space, Disputes, Physical restrictions: wall etc.
Time restrictions Seasons, Weather, Daylength, Deliveries, Clients’ schedules.
Others Preservation orders
Basic Surveying I
The first measuring to carry out is the baseline.
Other existing features that require surveying objects / irregular areas / long structures or borders are all best surveyed by measuring a series of evenly spaced lines, perpendicular to the baseline.
Plot single points or distant objects use triangulation, measurements are taken from either end of the baseline.
Overhead / Underground
Hazards: Water
Hazard Sewage, Wells, Leaks, Stored water, Guttering, Mains, Drainage pipes.
How to identify Visible, Asking, Inspection covers, Plans.
Examples of risks Death, Flooding, Infection, Contamination. (Costs, Inconvenience, Damage to soil.)
Site Appraisal
Assessing and recording what is there – what is the garden capable of – qualitative
There are a number features of a garden that must be considered before the planning process continues – the site must be appraised. The following, evaluations, considerations, assessments, estimates and analysis, have to be made to get a full picture of the site.
Soil type, micro-climate, contour, exposure, aspect, drainage, external features, trees and plants.
Site Appraisal - Soil
Texture (texturing test), fertility (chemical test, existing plants), pH (chemical test, existing plants), structure (observe surface for standing water etc., dig a hole), depth of topsoil (dig holes), rubble etc. (observation, dig holes), contaminants (history of site, observation, existing plants).
Site Appraisal - Micro-climate
Comparative temperatures, wind etc. between different areas of the garden, frost pocket (location within landscape, hedges and fences along contours), rain shadows (next to walls, overhang of buildings), wind funnels (gaps between buildings or dense plantings), suntraps (sheltered, south-facing areas), heavy shade.
Site Appraisal - Contour
Partly topography, slopes should be measured. Note ridges, undulation, terraces. Assess levels within a garden using boundary walls / fences. Large scale maps can be used.
Site Appraisal - Exposure
Measure or assess prevailing wind direction, wind speed, wind breaks. Consider the effect of solid barriers.
Location within the landscape: elevation – hillside, valley. Altitude can be found on maps.
Site Appraisal - Aspect
N / S / E / W – use a compass, prevailing wind, shading cast by buildings / walls / plants, time of year – very important since the amount of sun in a garden will vary enormously depending on its angle, view or vista. Moss on tree trunks can indicate aspect (it grows on the N side).
Site Appraisal - Drainage
Standing water, streams / springs, existing plants, ask client, dig holes and pour in water at different levels of profile, assess slopes, soil texture and structure.
Site Appraisal - External features
Visual assessment of particular views from / within a garden including fine views and eyesores. The style / state of the house should also be considered.
Site Appraisal - Trees and other vegetation
Particular species should be noted and their effect on the rest of the garden (e.g. shade, roots).
Characteristics of Garden Styles - Symmetry
Central axis with a mirror image on either side. Variously described as beautiful (as a result of harmony / balance) and lacking interest (passive, not dynamic). Commonly found in formal Knot gardens and Parterres.
Characteristics of Garden Styles - Asymmetry
Balance is still important here but there isn’t an exact match either side of any dividing line. Generally used to instil a dynamic feel.
Features of Formal Designs
Usually based on mathematically arranged geometric shapes forming the horizontal elements.
Flat areas show these best
Vertical elements typically include Cones, Pyramids
Demands a tidy, well-manicured look
Often uses straight lines
Often uses strong focal points
Classical sculpture, ornaments, furniture and fixtures
Can include fountains and knot gardens
Features of Informal Designs
An absence of obviously man-made structures and materials.
Natural materials are used, like wood and stone.
Used where plots are irregular in shape and slope.
Asymmetry is common
More suited to low maintenance gardening.
Often uses relaxed curves and grouped, mixed plantings
Can include wildlife ponds and wildflower meadows
Knot Gardens
Tudor gardens were considered to be the first to incorporate knot gardens.
They consisted of an area divided up into formal flower beds. They are usually symmetrical and the size often related to the house. They were edged with clipped dwarf shrubs like box, lavender or rosemary and in the gaps in between there was coloured gravel, flowering plants or herbs. The hedging was planted in intricate patterns, often best viewed from above ground level. They developed into the much larger scale parterres of French style renaissance gardens
Landscape Gardens
Developed in the 18th century as a reaction against formality. It was sympathetic to the natural environment and has similarities with today’s organic, wildlife-friendly, simple, non-invasive husbandry including forest gardens and permaculture. Another point of view is that the English landscape Garden was an idealised interpretation of nature and involved huge amounts of disruption of the land, diverting or expanding natural watercourses and moving tons of earth.
Particular features include swathes of grass, small groups of trees (copses) or specimen trees, blending in and on a scale with the surrounding landscape and a lack of symmetry. Selected architecture was used as focal points and was the main visual attraction along with naturalistic ponds / lakes, often stretched along a valley (serpentine lakes). Such architecture included temples, follies, grottos, hermitages, Palladian bridges, Chinese bridges and pagodas.
Lancelot Brown designed Landscape Gardens that stretched right up to the house keeping a separation with ha-has.
Later Humphrey Repton introduced the terrace between the house and the garden.
Cottage Garden
Traditional style originating in peasant gardens, surviving with little change or influence from garden ‘movements’. Nevertheless, the emphasis in medieval times was food production whereas designers such as William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll in the Victorian era concentrated on flowers.
They tend to be small gardens with a focus on plants: a mixture of sizes and lifecycles, though annuals and familiar / easy perennials are common. Flowers, vegetables and fruit in abundance – no gaps are left. Natural materials are used wood, brick, local stone products, for example gravel paths with brick edging, herringbone brick paths, wood / woven panels, picket fences.
Relaxed, asymmetric, informal, hard edges rare.
Effect of Size and Shape on Style of Design Chosen
How you can change the appearance of an existing size or shape?
Uses of colour
- Changing the size of repeated elements, front to back e.g. a short garden is lengthened by repeating circles which are smaller the further away they are. Also different sized trees etc.
- Having non-uniform boundaries e.g. tapering fences.
- Sideways shapes like ellipses or rectangles can disappear or look ineffective viewed from ground level. A circle will appear as an ellipse when viewed from standing.
- Dividing up long, narrow gardens: garden rooms.
- Disguising end walls by planting, borrowed landscape, mirrors.
- Angled / curved lines to detract from the end-to-end lines of a narrow garden.
Rock Garden
An arrangement of plants around carefully-positioned rocks, usually on a slope.
Sandstone is the most ‘suitable’ rock. Unless the site is very free-draining, on a light soil and / or on a slope, rubble blinded by gravel and upturned turves is put in at a depth before being topped by gritty topsoil (3 parts loam, 2 parts coarse fibre peat-substitute and 2 parts grit or coarse sand) and rocks.
Scree Beds - similar arrangement to the rock garden but the surface, with or without the large rocks, is covered by stone chippings, grit or gravel.
Walls - dry stone walls with an infill of gritty soil or as a retaining wall, providing they aren’t north-facing, make excellent homes for alpines. The stones should slope backwards for stability and so that rainwater is carried to the root-run.
Containers - troughs, sinks and other containers large enough to house 10-15 true alpines.
Water Features
Materials
Natural - Puddled clay, wooden barrels, drilled stone with bubbling fountain.
Artificial - Butyl / polyethylene liner, fibreglass rigid liner, concrete.
Sun with p.shade. Can be wildlife friendly or stocked with fish.
Formal or informal, creating additional planting opportunities.
Can add sound and movement to mask other noise.
Use of Hard and Soft Landscaping Materials
Paving
Pre-prepared units are cut or made off-site and laid on sand (allowing water percolation) or on a sand-cement mix / concrete blobs. Variety of prices and a wide range of styles and materials to allow cohesion. Planting pockets can be left and patterns can be made. The biggest issues are of cracking and uneven pavers making trip hazards. Weeds can grow between and they can sometimes be slippery.
Shaped pavers, Stone setts / block pavers – including granite setts and cobbles, Bricks, Concrete pavers, Stone flags.
Use of Hard and Soft Landscaping Materials
Solid Impermeable Surfaces
Concrete – Gives a level surface. Cheap and can be mixed on-site. Different colours and textures can be used, including pressed patterns and games areas. Environmentally unfriendly and is impermeable to water. Often ugly in appearance and subject to cracking.
Concrete pavers – composed of varying quantities of sand, cement and aggregate, these can provide a huge range of colours, sizes, shapes and textures. They can be very regular or used to imitate stone pavers by giving riven surfaces and slightly uneven edges.
Use of Hard and Soft Landscaping Materials
Loose Surfacing’s
Usually loose materials are laid thickly, are put on top of a consolidated aggregate base, are embedded in another material or have a landscaping membrane put down first on top of the earth to reduce weeds growing through.
Organic materials – wood or bark chippings are relatively cheap, give an organic feel to the whole garden.
Gravel – Very cheap and easy to install. Can act as a security measure. It can be decorative and blend well with other materials. Sensory. Drainage and planting pockets are easy and difficult shapes can be dealt with.
Use of Hard and Soft Landscaping Materials
Wood
Includes sleepers, log sections and decking materials. Possibly sustainable and re-cyclable.
Warm and attractive in most gardens: natural appearance. Versatile structures – easily bespoke. Relatively quick to install, especially sleepers and log sections. Can be slippy and give splinters. Prone to rots and woodworm etc. Chemical treatments may have been used. Rats can make homes under decking – eek.
Sleepers are used to make stepping ‘stones’, benches and earth-retaining structures. Log sections are mainly for edging and stepping stones and, to a small degree, retaining.
The vertical element
Walls - Natural – Rock e.g. limestone, sandstone, flint. Man-made - Brick, concrete blocks.
Fences (rigid panels) Natural – Timber, hazel hurdles. Man-made – Plastic.
Screens (Less rigid, requiring support). Natural – Bamboo, reeds, willow. Man-made – Plastic
Pergolas (structures spanning a sitting or walking area, often supporting climbers). Natural – Timber. Man-made – Brick, concrete, metal
Furniture - Natural – Timber, marble. Man-made – Concrete, metal, plastic
Statuary - Natural – Rock, marble, slate, timber, wicker. Man-made – many including concrete, plastic, glass fibre and metal
Planning and design – integrating sustainable maintenance practices
Harvest rainwater.
Capture and treat grey water.
Composting to recycle material.
Drought-tolerant plants to cope with dry micro-climate conditions and minimise watering.
Low lawn space and wildflower meadows to avoid extensive grass maintenance.
Mulching to improve soil conditions: water retention, plant health, reduced weeding.
Bio-diverse plantings to enhance natural pest and disease control and encourage wildlife.
Ponds, insect hotels and wildlife habitats – ditto.
Name FOUR plant species suitable for a living windbreak.
- Fagus sylvatica*
- Carpinus betulus*
- Pinus nigra x Cuprocyparis*
- Leylandii Crataegus monogyna*
