Sketch Your Own Garden Design Using Photos

Right now, you can combine some imagination and a digital camera to create your own garden plan. Yes. You really can!

Every beautiful garden begins with great ideas. And what better way to capture those ideas than a digital camera? Let me introduce you to this fun and easy method.

STEP ONE: If you love it..take a picture. I carry my digital camera with me everywhere. Then, if I see something lovely and wonderful in someones garden or at the nursery; I capture it on (I was going to say "film", lol.) my digital camera. It only takes a minute to record the great garden ideas that are all around you each day.

Whether you are walking , jogging or bicycling..remember to bring your camera!

Think about that garden space you want to spruce up. Is it shady or sunny? Look for similar locations at the neighbor's house. See what solutions they've used. Combine ideas or subtract the plants you don't like. But RECORD it.

Then file it. That's right. Create a garden file on your computer with lots of photos. And don't forget to WRITE some notes and put those in the file too. AS your garden file grows, so will your excitement until finally...you're ready for the next simple step.

Ready? Set? GO!

Now get out there and photograph the garden space you want to transform. Try to capture ALL the space in one shot. Head on shots are OK. But an angled shot from the side will be more dramatic (especially important when you need to impress an un-motivated partner to part with the cash for new plants!).

To the right, you can see the picture of my future garden space. BRAVO! I got the whole area into one picture. (Sorry. I'm easily amused.)

THEN..I printed the photo at home, using my printer/copier/scanner. WHAT!?! You don't have your own printer/copier/scanner? No problem. Take it to the local drugstore chain store or big box retailer; they'll have a place to develop your garden shot in an instant. Make two copies.

NEXT...Attach one copy to a clipboard and take it to the future garden space. We'll need a few measurements, some handy reminders of how large or small the space really is. We not only need the length and width of the garden...but how about the height up from the ground to the windows? That's right. We don't want to block the view by planting too tall. Hey! Our photo is pretty handy..we can write the measurements right on it! Now THAT'S easy!

Everyone is different, but let me offer some suggested design tools for our project.

GRAPH PAPER. I love to use graph paper. It keeps my lines straight and helps me stay oriented to the horizon line. Nobody likes a tilted photo or a garden plan that's cock-eyed. Tape it down to a flat surface. I used the kitchen table.

TAPE. Omg. Masking tape works fine, adheres well but THEN it does not want to get off the table or the drawing when I'm done with it. So? Consider using a "drafting" tape. It's less sticky and there's no mess when you're done.

TRACING PAPER. Whether you choose onion skin or vellum..if you can see thru it..it's gonna work for you. Your final is going to be a copy anyway, right? I like 8 and a half by eleven inch paper. Just buy what's handy and inexpensive. Later, when you're producing Mona Lisa's daily..then you should worry about paper. (Where did my Jewish voice come from?)

PENCIL and ERASER. Sharpen your own #2 pencil or try an automatic. Just click and the pencil is ready. I do the whole thing lightly with a #2 that's a .05 mm size. Then maybe I'll go back and make some of the lines darker (and thicker) with a wider pencil lead, the 0.7 mm. Erasers come in lots of choices. Gum erasers work best. They don't leave any evidence, lol.

A SPECIAL RULER. What? More stuff? Trust me on this, you'll thank me later. Designers use these great rulers everyday. They're triangular shaped on the ends and you can roll them to a variety of sides. Why? Because the SCALE of the drawing matters.

These special rulers are SCALES. They convert inches into feet. If my garden is twenty-five feet long and my paper is eleven inches long..how can I draw it to scale? Or know about how big things are? You got it. The scale is what does it for you.

Let's go back to that garden file you created on your computer. You've been thinking about which plants and what colors and how tall until it's coming out of your ears, lol. Now all you need are some pics to remind you of what your plant choices look like. You'll want to keep them handy as you work.

No. We don't have to draw every leaf. We're looking for the overall SHAPE of the plant first. Then we'll notice how the leaves grow in a pattern. Then we'll imitate it in a kind of simple shorthand.

Perfectionists are never happy. Remember that... as you sketch. We're just using the photo as a guide to create a simple, general impression. We're going to wriggle and squiggle. And maybe smudge and fudge, lol.

OK. We've taped our garden photo to the kitchen table. Now overlay a piece of tracing paper over it. Using the ruler, trace the building and the patio and the windows, etc.

When complete, your drawing will look something like the photo at the right.

I've chosen seven different plants for this garden. The plants will overlap. So I started with the plants nearest me in the drawing to begin my sketch. The ones behind will follow.

I have my photo with the dimensions on it nearby to help me now. My first plants are some lilies. They grow to about two feet tall when mature. They kind of spray outward from the center. And their tips are sharp and narrow. That's all I use to guide me. Direction of growth. The leaf width and how the ends look. I keep it simple. You can too.

The annuals are short and bushy shapes. No need for detail. Just squiggle in a shape. Keep it short. I'm thinking about six inches tall. And let the shapes spill out onto the patio for a more natural effect. All the way down the length of the garden. There.

Behind the lilies are the taller iris with their interesting flowers. The shapes are very similar aren't they? Yup. It's on purpose. I'll add in the big flowers with a darker, wider pencil later.

Then the next plant and the next and so on. I work lightly, erase gently, think sketchy. It's all fun and easy when you let it flow. Try it for yourself. You'll love designing your own garden, using your own photo. Thanks for visiting today. And don't miss out on my other garden hubs. Enjoy!

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