Designing and Planning a Garden

Xeric principles as a whole emphasize water conservation through creative landscape design. It’s essential that a design be thoroughly planned in advance, whether starting from scratch or renovating an existing landscape.

  • Topic: Garden Design
  • Author: By Mary Ann Walz
  • Keywords: Garden design, xeric pricipals, e zine, gardening help, Garden Design Tip #1 -- Designing and Planning a Garden, Garden Design Tip #1 -- Designing and Planning a Garden, Annuals, gardens, xeriscape, xeriscaping, xeriscapes
  • Date: January 2005

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For the next eight issues, we’ll discuss the xeriscape—or waterwise—principles. Xeriscape originates from the Greek word “xeri” meaning dry or needing little water. The principles as a whole emphasize water conservation through creative landscape design. To do this, it’s essential that a design be thoroughly planned in advance, whether starting from scratch or renovating an existing landscape.

Steps to a Good Design

1. First do a scale drawing of the area to be landscaped. Note existing conditions such as slopes and wind tunnels, existing structures, and major plants that will be retained. (See Starting from Scratch—Site Analysis, November 2003).

2. Next determine how your landscape will be used. For example, do you need a children’s play area, space for a dog, or an area for quiet reflection? (See Starting from Scratch—Preliminary Design, December 2003). Following this, make a list of the types of plantings you want such as a perennial border, lawn area, fruit and vegetable garden, cutting garden, etc.

3. On another piece of paper, start sketching areas where you’ll include the types of plantings. Don’t be too precise at this point, but do keep areas that require frequent maintenance and more water closer to the house. Keep sketching until you come up with a plan that incorporates all family activities and desired types of plantings.

4. Once you’ve sketched a pleasing design, draw it to scale and begin planning the planting areas. Group plants together that have similar cultural requirements, such as watering and fertilizing needs or sun and shade. You might make colored circles scaled to the mature plant size and move them around until satisfied. Look at our plant combinations in past issues or consider our pre-planned gardens for ideas on grouping plants with varied size and color.

It sounds complicated, but once you start it’s not that hard. Even if you hire a professional landscaper, this is a good preliminary exercise.