Most of the regulars to the forum know that my career has not been in landscape design, nor do I aspire to that end. But my life has been filled with design duties out of necessity; mechanical apparatus, building additions, civil projects, computer software applications, and complex digital electronic devices, for a few. There are similarities to the design process for all of these, especially at the start. The design process for all things generally begins with three things .... 1. An assessment of the current situation. 2. A defining of what would be a successful conclusion. 3. An assessment of the resources available Though the design process may not always involve a graphic, the majority do. Consider the schematics of electronic design or the flow charts of software design. In landscape design, the traditional graphic is a scaled plan view drawing, for good reason. Landscape design is all about the utilization of space. A photo does not define space, but a plan does. A scaled base map carries one through the assessment of the current situation. Those who skip this step short change themselves in the design process. The next error that many amateurs make is that of focusing on a perceived solution to a problem rather than the broader study of what would be a successful conclusion.. An example of this is one seeking to keep mulch on a slope when the rain is continuing to wash it away. This is a wrong statement of the problem. The problem is that the landscape is unstable and requires constant maintenance. The successful conclusion is a landscape that is stable, however that might be accomplished. For landscape design, an assessment of the resources available cannot be completed without quantifying the the available space. And there is no better tool for this than the scaled plan drawing. So why don't more people do scaled drawings. Perhaps it's like the person who doesn't dance that looks to those on the dance floor and says "I could never do that. And if I tried, I'd look clumsy and foolish." The hardest part of learning to dance are those first steps. The hardest part of drafting is drawing the first lines. Let me say that I am not a fan of mspaint. Out of all the paint, drawing, and photo editing software, it would be hard to find an application that would not be a better tool than mspaint. The only good thing about it is that it's already on many computers and it can do the job. It can draw lines and add text to any jpeg graphic. You don't need to go to the store for paper and pens, or download software. You can draw those first lines now. Of course if you already have graph paper or a better software, then use that. There are some advantages to doing the drawing on the computer. You can backup from mistakes. Even mspaint allows you to hold the control key down, press the 'Z' key and undo the last three operations. And it's easy to save copies of the drawing at many stages as you go along. It's in a file form that can be shown here for help and suggestions. Let's look at the first lines. Note that a grid is a pattern of perpendicular lines. In order to relate what is in the real garden to what is on the plan one needs to identify an element common to both. Since the grid is made up of perpendicular lines, one should choose two perpendicular lines that occur on the ground. The most common available element of this nature is a building corner. Where no building is near the project, another straight line element can be used, such as a fence, walk, or property line. A perpendicular line must then be manufactured to the straight line object to mimic the grid of the drawing. Here's a real example. Note that the project area is a part of the backyard. I select the upper back house corner with its well defined perpendicular lines as the primary reference point for both the real and the plan. From this corner I measure the distance along the back of the house to be 33 ft to a jog corner. Starting mspaint, I then open the blank grid graphic. Considering the area for the project I want to locate the primary reference point(house corner) in the lower right of the grid. Note that the grid has a heavier line every fifth square. This helps one to count the distance across the grid by jumping in unit multiples of 5. Since the project will span around 50ft in width, I will think of each square as 2 ft, making the distance between bold grid lines of 10ft. The principle point is placed on an intersection of bold lines to take advantage of this feature. Selecting the straight line tool of mspaint I click the house corner point at a suitable point on the plan. Holding the mouse button down, I shift left counting the distance measured of the house to the correct point on the grid and release. Repeating the process from that point I draw the 2ft jog in the house and repeat again to continue 17ft to the far house corner. The first lines are drawn, the house is on the plan. Scaled drawings are not rocket science.

not a designer, just an owner who has folowed this forum for several years trying to figure out 'how to deal with what's dealt' (that 800 lb Gorilla). I'm afraid that is same the mentality I get from a lot of the posts by other owners on this forum. We desire a nice landscape, but didn't find that house outright when buying and faced with other concessions in priorities. How did we get here? Our priorities (within our price range #1 tie Schools & House size (in-laws with us). #3 tie proximity to shopping/commute #5 lot size (> 0.2 acres seems small, but large in the MD/DC metro area) #6 water access #1, price, & #6 drew us to Anne Arundel and Calvert Counties, MD. Houses we could afford and that were larger than what we had removed about 90-95%) We physically looked at ~40 after screening the MRIS listing daily for months. Only 2 houses really made the final cut. Both were atleast 4 bed/2 bath, >0.25 acres, had good schools, water access, and roughly the same commute (20 miles to metro). One house was a 4 bed/2 bath Cape Cod with bonus room and a back deck and front porch with a large ~0.4 acre lot with several mature trees, but trashed jethro style. No landscape faults other than it needed to be cleaned (great potential). The house was walking distance to the elementry school and fronted open space (now hotly being contested for development of 30 'executive' homes). I was a little concerned with tidal flooding (from this open space/wetlands). This community was removed from shopping, etc. Water access was bulkhead frontage on the Chesapeake Bay and a pier. House #2, we had looked at twice, but the "curb appeal" wasn't there for us (I posted a thread here). House #2 had very good schools and was a bit larger 5 bedrooms/3 bathrooms. 2 beds and 1 bath were downstairs. That downstairs was a walkout basement slightly distracted us, but having the in-laws bedrooms/bath (divorced and with college age son) downstairs from us and our 2 children (5 &3) was very desireable. This house was 2 miles from a lot of shopping, 4 to the mall and downtown Annapolis. Water access was a fabulous beach with swimming area (1 mile upstream from the Bay), club house, boat ramp, pier, and waterfront playground. we didn't know about the beach/park at first and looked at #2 more seriously after the price dropped $20k, not withstanding we were not "attracted" to it from the outside appearance. Ilike this one from the proximity to things for the wife/kids and her decision was made when we saw the community park/beach (we didn't see the beach the first showing-what a dumb realtor!). now to the questions- 1. In checking a house, what would be clear turn offs in terms of landscape issues? insufficient lot size (our min was 0.2 acres)/lack of privacy 2. What would score as a positive or at least show potential? 4/2 house with lot size greater than 0.2 acres in a good school district within 30 mins of metro was our limit 3. What is one of the things about your own house and its landscape that you love hate? We love the deck that spans the rear of the house (has 3 slider leading out) and the traffic pattern/outdoor access (6 exterior doors). We like the patio below, but don't like the remaining slope or area under the rear deck or that the garage faces to the side and the driveway shoots staight out & near the property line making a sharp L turn to enter the garage. 4. What weird idiosyncratic feature of your home led to a unique, creative landscape solution? Posted on here for that. We have a few ideas, but nothing implemented. We probably will attempt to add a pergola to the front entrance where some commented on the roof stopping short. I am doing a 9' tall informal apple espalier on one property line and am slowly and selectively pruning the mature trees to let in a little more light. The walk-out basement slope is the most vexing due to budget constraints while in-laws with us. We would like to do some terracing. ...The schools, the beach, the bedroom arrangement and having 3 baths after living with the inlaws in a 4/1 won out over everything that we were not attracted to about the 800 lb Gorilla in our yard, lol.

Here are some paths and designs that I like... obviously very large gardens, but I think you can take these ideas and place them in a smaller garden... ..in this photo the shingled path is straight but softened with edging plants, and the path is tapered towards to end, which draws the visitor to it, I think... ..the same view 10 days later..... I like the way the blue Geraniums have now been replaced by the pink ones... but the yellows still draw me to the end of the path... ..another garden, another example of how I like to be drawn forward.... the very straight path narrowing in the distance to what appears to be a pair of dark green pillars.. ..but it is in fact a Hop covered archway, the path softened and the gazebo enticing the visitor forward... I like this one very much... and I think could be replicated in a small garden... ..with a grass path, I like to see curves with plantings that hide the view ahead... and absolutely no spillage onto the paths... I don't like to see that with grass... preferring a nice clean sharp edge.. ..with high straight walls, I think it's important to bring the borders outwards towards the centre... but I don't like these island beds here... although they serve a purpose in this particular garden... ..finally, I rather like the way the hedges here have been shaped to invite the visitor to take a turn right or left... it flows and I find it relaxing... and I wouldn't like it if it was sharp... ...hope you found something of interest in those...

It's the same in fine art too. I have no problem working from photos and have no problem when others work from photos too. Photographs are a tool like CAD. However, how many times have you seen drawings or paintings where there are poles coming out of a person's head? That is because the "artist" drew exactly what was in the photo, and didn't edit the photograph before starting to paint or draw. Or someone does a drawing or painting of buildings, and the buildings are leaning to one side or another, looking as if they're about to fall over. Again it's a perspective issue in that the camera distorts perspective and the "artist" doesn't have the knowledge or skill to correct the photo before drawing. Or my favorite. If you put your hand up to your face with your palm at the bottom of your chin, your longest finger will be just above your eyebrows. I can't tell you how many times I see "artists" draw a person where the hand in the drawing/painting is 2-3x as long as the person's head. Why is this? Because again, photos distort perspective and the "artist" doesn't have the knowledge or skill to correct it in their drawing. CAD, like photographs are only tools. With art, if the artist doesn't have the skills to observe and translate from life, they won't be able to correct distortions in photographs. They also won't have the ability to know what to leave in and leave out with regard to good design/ composition. It's no different with a "designer" using a CAD program to create a building.