Читать книгу Landscaping For Dummies - Lance Walheim - Страница 57

Time to get out the tracing paper. Lay it over the graph-paper base map. Sharpen your pencil, stock up on erasers. If you want to start over, change your mind, rethink something, or make a neater drawing, just erase or get another sheet of tracing paper. Yes, there are other, more high-tech ways to accomplish this part of the process, but honestly, this method is easy and it works quite well.

No Leonardo da Vinci drawing skills needed here — just make circular or oval balloons or goose eggs and label the circles (“shed,” “play area,” “vegetable garden” — you get the idea). Include everything, whether things already exist and you want to keep them, or you want them to exist before you’re done. If you’ve made a rough assessment sketch (see Chapter 1), refer to it again to make sure you don’t forget anything.

Figure 3-2 shows an example of what your drawing will look like when you’re finished.

(c) John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 3-2: Using tracing paper over your base plan, draw shapes to identify what you have and what you want.

Include the following in your sketch:

 Plan activities. Add balloons for all the special activities that you eventually want to enjoy in your yard — if you ever get this blasted plan finished.

 Add hardscape. Sketch in fences, a spa, a patio, a deck, front porch improvements, and any other hardscape elements you’ve chosen.

 Draw plants. Add balloons for flowerbeds, shrubs, vines, new trees, a vegetable garden or herb garden, and so on.

 Sketch paths. Draw any paths that you want to add, adding lines to indicate their shapes and widths. Note: Paths tend to change as you define use areas.

Make the balloons about the same proportional size that they are in real life. Create a big balloon for a dining or grilling area, say, versus a small balloon for the herb garden — or vice-versa depending on your priorities.

It’s okay or even unavoidable for these balloons to occasionally overlap, Venn-diagram style. Just try to imagine the sizes as accurately as possible.