Yes, it's pretty much like that. I should say that it's largely an attempt to map what's already there, rather than things I have put in. But I have planted a lot of perennials this year that I need to remember and put I've put in a lot of bulbs. I have two three new beds, so thought it was a good time to keep track of what's where, and particularly which varieties are planted. This helps so much with planning pruning and succession planting. They are both small gardens.
I have spreadsheets for my veg beds. I started them because when I moved here growing veg was a new venture and I had no idea what to do when or how to get my head round rotation so I planned it all out. Now it's basically a record of varieties I'm growing with notes on what worked and what didn't, and I also make a note when I finish a seed packet so I remember to order more in the winter when I do my plan for next year. I do use it to remind me what I've not done yet so things change colour when they are sown in pots and then planted out.
Everything else is just a big muddle and I regularly find myself saying to a new shoot in the flower border 'oh hello. Who are you? Did I plant you?' I do have a box of labels somewhere........
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
From this year I have been keeping a full plant list, organised by bed. I also have been doing mapping to help me plan and keep track. The plant advent calender!
Impressive indeed! What software are you using to do your drawing?
I just take lots & lots of photos so I can see what is where and what is next to it and if they look good together. I'm pretty good at remembering names, though not always variety, and plotting my plot is hopeless as the only bit with straight lines is the terrace, everything else is organic or dynamic or something - just odd curvy shapes!
It's Gardena, not the most user friendly, but fun and pretty quick. You have to save and access your plans on the website, so I took screen shots of the plans as well. I used Pixlr ( a glorious website) to make amendments.
I tried Sketch Up (below) but found it harder to use without reading the instructions. It's mostly designed for 3D designs. Gardena was more fun.
I was inspired by designs like this below. I still haven't encountered an easy way of doing it with tech. I like a hand drawn feel. It seems like a huge tech/app gap in the market.
The hand drawn style really suits gardens. I've tried to draw mine up on CAD but it's too rigid to be of much use. Kind of like your sketchup plan, it lacks the soul of the hand drawn style and gives a false impression of how things actually look. The app idea is great though. Get on it. I'd like a way to tag marks on the plan to my gallery of ID pics and care guides please
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I think someone will have to come up with an app in the next few years. It doesn't seem that difficult an idea and doesn't have to be that complicated, though perhaps more hard to make it pay. I might try it but have big vision problems, so coding has to be v limited. There was a gap of many years before music file sharing apps came along that were easy and legal. Now there are hundreds. I imagine the same will happen with garden design, or other types of easy design tools.
I just keep and excel list of all the plants i have. I was adding approx location in the garden but then stopped doing this after moving many plants. I prefer element of surprise when they pop up after forgetting about them
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Everything else is just a big muddle and I regularly find myself saying to a new shoot in the flower border 'oh hello. Who are you? Did I plant you?' I do have a box of labels somewhere........
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I usually sketch out my veg garden plan every year, always takes several attempts until I have everything fitting and spaced appropriately.
I haven't felt the need to be any more organized than that. It is a brilliant idea WE, thanks for sharing.