Most who know me, even just a little, are surprised to learn that I insist on having a drawn plan for my chaotic garden. And I have a few reasons for it...
- I'm a big direct sower, because I'm cheap like that. I just toss seeds into the yard. I'll just end up weeding them out unwittingly if I don't keep some sort of record. Because I am a turbo-weeder.
- I'm a know-it-all and I hate labeling plants. Having the plan is the blueprint to knowitallness. Can I get that trademarked?
- I'm a big believer in intentional chaos. It's just plain chaos if you do it without a plan. If you do have one and someone comes over and is all, "What's this mess?" You can point to the plan and say, "I know you are, but what am I?"
- If you have a drawing, you can make several clean copies to play Fashion Plates with your garden. It's nice to try on new looks, no?
Now, having a plan is all fine and good if it's easy to do. There's no point to making life harder for yourself than it already is, so here's what I suggest:
Google your address. Hit the "satellite" button in the top right corner. Zoom in your house as tight as you can. Either save the image, print the screen or use a little piece of masking tape to hold some tracing paper on your monitor and trace it right off the screen. If you print it, depending on how small it is- you can just trace it on tracing paper and use it, or blow it up a little on a copier and use it. Make sure to make a few extra copies.
Now, there are bound to be a few trees in the way, you know your own space well enough to negotiate around that. And heck, it's not like this plan has to be PERFECT. It's just a little something to help you- it really helps me. I think having a plan helps me to save a ton of money. I'm not turbo-weeding out seedlings, buying things to replace things that just come up late that I've forgotten about AND I get to bring my plan to garden centers when I go. I look pretentious carrying it around (score!) and I am only buying what I need according to the plan.
What do you think about this malarkey? You can tell me in La Forum.
