To follow is the first in a series of a discussion of how I design. Maybe it will help you; maybe it will inspire your own process.
If you are like me, you have a mortgage. With that, came a mortgage survey; you need to fish that thing out. This document shows how your house, and driveway, and walks sit on the land you own. Mortgage surveys are usually on a single piece of paper-the actual dimensions of your house and land have been scaled to fit that piece of paper. That scale is on your survey. Should you read 1″=20′-0″, it means just that. A line on that survey which is 2 inches long, means the space is actually 40 feet long. Who could draw a landscape bed which is actually 40 feet long in a space that is 2 inches long? Not me. So I will take this survey and blow it up times 2-so I have a plan that every inch represents 10 feet. A survey scaled at 1″=30′, I blow up X 3. Don’t black out-this is basic math. Take some time to think about it. Should you not have this time, ask your 8th grader, or your girlfriend who is an engineer to help you. She will no doubt tell you that you need an engineer’s scale. Enough for today, yes?
The numbers of articles addressing the need for, and the satisfaction of structure in a landscape must number in the thousands. My take is that the number one function of evergreens in Michigan landscapes is to bridge, and celebrate the seasons.
Only a gardener, obsessed for the first sign of spring, would in their next breath complain about inordinately warm temperatures! 71 degrees in Michigan, March 17, is too very warm. Daffodils and crocus shoot up as though shocked by a bolt of electricity. An unknown dwarf magnolia in my yard has every fuzzy hair on every bud, standing at attention. This makes me cringe-I am well aware that Michigan has snow and very cold temperatures well into April. Devastating-the sight of frost-browned spring flowers.
March, and into April, is the worst part of our gardening year. Meaning, this time of year features the best of the worst that can be. You can spend a weekend raking, and in four days there is no trace you were ever there. Brown is still the dominant feature. Unless you have designed your landscape to bridge the seasons, all that brown can beat you down.
Nothing in a northern landscape wants to come out of hibernation, and find itself face to face with a gardener, mucking about. Tromping on saturated soil drives the air out of it, and makes for footprint- shaped slabs difficult to break up later. Plant roots need air, and drainage, among other things-so keep off. Likewise, keep your fingers off, and your pruners and rake in the shed. Better yet, build a shed for your rake-it will keep you busy long enough for a proper day for gardening to finally arrive. Should someone else maintain your property for you, be sure they don’t come too early. Nothing looks more forlorn than a garden bereft of all its natural winter coverage in an April snowstorm, windstorm, ice storm, or any of a thousand other kinds of storms common to transitional weather. Wait; you will know when the light turns green.