Landscape your yard in six easy steps

Give your yard a facelift this spring

By Lorraine Flanigan

It’s after 10 p.m. and the house is quiet. That’s when Janet Ballantyne searches the Internet for plant ideas for her shady Toronto garden.

“I live in a forest,” laughs Ballantyne. “So I try to figure out which plants will grow without much sun — I only get two to three hours a day.” Sunlight is just one of the many challenges facing anyone wanting to create a beautiful landscape.

Selecting the right plants is an important step in designing a yard, but lots of planning is required, too. Given our busy lifestyles, technology — including the Internet, spreadsheets, landscape design software, plant selection databases and digital photography — can be a time-saving and helpful tool.

Step 1: Envision your garden

Determine how you want to use the space. Do you need areas for play, outdoor dining or a vegetable garden?

Make a wish list and place each item in an Excel spreadsheet. For inspiration, collect photos of your “dream landscape” by using the image search functions at Bing.

To organize your photos, download Microsoft Word templates from Office Online. These will help you easily create scrapbook pages that you can refer to as you work through each step of the design process.

Step 2: Take stock

Take stock of existing features, such as mature trees, garden sheds and fences. A digital camera will come in handy for taking photos of all areas of the yard, including neighbouring eyesores or pleasing views you want to enhance.

For a visual record, add these photos to your scrapbook. Then, make an inventory listing each feature — trees, neighbour’s garage, view of church spire — in your spreadsheet, below your wish list items.

Step 3: Rate your needs

Now for the tough decisions. For every item on your list, rate its importance on a scale of one to three. Place the rating in the column next to your wish list and inventory items; then sort the spreadsheet according to the rating to determine which ones will become essential elements in your design.

Step 4: Make a rough plan

Next, develop a rough layout of your new garden, including pathways, entrance points, decks, borders, beds, pools and hedges.

Landscape design programs, such as 3D Garden Composer, can help you experiment and visualize your design as you try different pathway materials, flowerbed shapes and sizes, or fencing styles. But programs such as this one take time to learn and can be frustrating to use, so pencil, paper and tracing paper may be just as effective.

Whichever method you choose, taking accurate measurements and finding practical solutions to design problems is what will make your plan functional, not to mention attractive.

Step 5: Select your plants

Complete the layout by choosing plants appropriate for your garden. Make the task easy by using powerful plant selector tools, such as the ones found at the Heritage Perennials and the University of Connecticut’s Plant Database of Trees, Shrubs and Vines. By selecting the characteristics that best match the growing conditions in your yard, such as sun, hardiness zone and soil type, you can quickly develop a list of suitable plants.

Step 6: Keep a diary

Once your garden is planted, keep a diary of how well the plants perform, schedule maintenance reminders and take photos of how your garden grows season by season. The Garden Management System software can help you maintain your journal — and you can update your records and print reports during the quiet times of your busy day.