on design process and the importance of hand drawing in planting and garden design
My planting designs for gardens often start with a very simple drawing, a line or a few coloured dots.
The line often helps to determine the structure for the planting, the outlines of evergreen elements, creating the skeleton, the bones of a garden.
Hand drawing is the main medium I use in my planting design process. It allows me for deeper connection and understanding of the garden design project I am working on.
I love looking at all the little notes, scribbles and patches of colour, which fill the pages of my sketchbook. I also see the ghosts of my erased notes and initial layouts of plants – discarded ideas. Hand drawing teaches me not to rush, be patient and allow for the ideas and thoughts to gently unfold.
In my sketchbook, at the side of my drawings, I write many little notes, these are often list of plants I think would be suitable for the garden I am working on and they are often dream plant lists. The notes also convey a very general ideas for the garden and planting design.
From my very loose notes and scribbles, I create lists of plants I am thinking of using in a garden I am working on.
For me the biggest task in the planting design process is to decide, which plants I am going to keep.
The final planting design is a result of many hours spent creating hand-drawn sketches of layouts, individual plants and plant combinations, capturing seasonality and change of time, but also working through the process of elimination, and deciding, which plants I am going to use and which should be removed from my final plant list.
It is not always easy to make the final decision about the plants, especially if there are so many beautiful perennials, shrubs and trees I could work with to create my naturalistic garden designs.
I think I would like to reflect more on the process of elimination in planting design; how it is not always easy to make the final choice, and how I make my choices, what in my opinion is important during this process and where I often look for guidance.
