How to make a simple scale drawing of your garden
What you need to make a scale drawing is a measuring tape, a ruler and some paper. (Graph paper is not necessary unless it fits the scale you’ve chosen. You’ll see what I mean by that if you read on)
Essentially a scale drawing means that every foot of garden bed (or path or building or whatever) will be represented on paper by a fraction of an inch. For example if your scale is 1/2’"= 1' then every foot in your garden will be represented by 1/2 inch on paper, i.e. if a garden bed is 8 ft long, that length will be represented by 4" on your paper (8 divided by 2). If you’re working in metric, the same applies, for example 10cm on paper =1 M in real life. It’s that easy.
So go out and make a rough drawing of your garden spaces then measure them. As best you can. If you have some circular beds, measure the diameter (across the centre) not the circumference (around the outside). Put those measurements on that drawing. For a circular bed on your scale drawing, draw that diameter line and make circle around it with a compass or a jelly jar
Depending on the size of your garden and the size of the paper you have, you can make the decision on what scale you want to use. The larger the scale the more room you have to make notes on your drawing so you may want to use a smaller scale for your overall garden (1/8” or 1/4” =1ft) and then do individual beds on a larger scale i.e. 1/2" or 1"=1 ft .(I think graph paper is 1/4" squares so that could be very handy if that scale suits your needs.)
If you have a really large garden and large beds, once you know this process, you can choose to do just one or two beds per page to have larger spaces to work on if you want and have room to make notes.
One last thing - On your page be sure to note what scale it is and it’s also good to note which way is north, with a simple arrow and an upper case N. That way you always know how you’re looking at the drawing and it will also help when planning what to plant where so taller things don’t shade shorter things. Unless of course you want them to
I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions feel free to call or email me - 250-538-8798 m@mariannegrittani.com
Making a scale drawing
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