Be water-wise and still have a beautiful garden.

Prior proper planning…

One of the words I seem to hear a lot these days is meta, defined as “something that refers to itself especially in a self parodying manner” For example, “I’m a landscape designer writing about designing my own garden… so meta” intoned with a smirk and an ironic tilt of the head.

I caught myself one evening pacing with a shovel muttering to myself words I’ve often delivered to clients… “Before you can build anything, you’ve got to know what you’re doing, what you hope to achieve, and how much can you afford to spend to make it happpen.” So now I’m getting my priorities straight. I want to spend my limited time and energy in a concerted fashion toward a landscape vision I’m excited about. I can’t simply shotgun an entire garden. I’m just getting started on the design. I did some sketching one evening as much for the exercise as anything, which was helpful for initial brainstorming, and in many ways fun. In order to get down to details however, I need a scaled base plan, measured and prepared on the computer for flexibility and reproducibility.

I did some planting immediately after we moved in order to establish some screening and to cover up an unattractive but useful chain link fence.  The planting of course will require revamping the irrigation system that provided uneven and inadequate coverage for the lawn, to an efficient and effective system to serve the new plantings. And of course there are the weeds; carpets of them springing forth with the recent abundant and nourishing rainfall..and the removal hundreds of square feet of soulless and reflective concrete and a vegetable garden, and a path system, and some garden lighting etc… but we have a somewhat restricted  budget. I want it all, but we’ll have to make some compromises.

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