Westside Reader March 2016

March 2016 THE Reader • 33
g a r D e n g at e S
Design: the most
important landscape tool
by Jane Gates
Staff Writer
Since it looks like the grand
promise of El Niño rain
seems to be offering an
ever-shorter season of hope in
our part of California, our
reservoirs, water table, gardens
and open lands are still not getting
the water they need. Without
a long winter season of
precipitation to reverse the impact
of years of drought, reducing
water usage will be more
important than ever in the
coming dry season. (If we do
have a lot of rain in the two remaining
winter months, much
is likely to wash off without the
time to sink deeply into the
ground.) So let’s be prepared
for anything and look at how to
design our gardens to look
beautiful and function better
than ever — regardless of what
happens with rainfall.
The best tool you have to
create a successful water-wise
garden is a design. Seriously. It
may seem like an unnecessary
waste of time or money, but,
the more effort expended on
planning and preparation, the
better final product you will get
— financially, practically and
aesthetically. Whether you
sketch it out on a napkin, have a full architectural
scale plan done or draw it out in some
fashion in-between, a plan will help you control
the whole process.
Winter months are the perfect time to put
together all the aspects of the water-wise
garden into a plan. Once you have considered
what elements, materials, special features
and some of your must-have plants, you can
start designing. You will want to design with
your individual tastes and lifestyle in mind as
well as respecting your budget and the style
and functionality of your house and lot.
The idea is to get the biggest bang for your
buck and the highest efficiency from your
outdoor property. This means thinking of
your garden with the same mind-set as you
do when renovating the interior of your
house. Place things where they function well
and look great. It isn’t really a hard thing to
do; look at your whole garden as a single entity
— the big picture.
Put yourself in control of your landscape
design. Make sure you have all the measurements
for where your house sits in the lot
and any permanent structures or trees you
intend to keep. You can sketch it out on grid
paper or use a simple landscape software. If
you need things simplified, it is better to do a
rough, not-to-scale drawing on a piece of
paper or on your computer than to do nothing
at all. You can also hire a professional to
help you or to provide anything from a hand
sketch to a detailed architectural plan. The direction
you take will depend on how you
want handle the creation of your landscape.
(How much control do you want over the finished
product? Do you plan to stay in your
house for a long period of time? How much
time do you want to invest? Do you want to
install it yourself? Do you want to put the design
out for bids? What kind of budget do you
realistically have to spend for both the design
and the finished landscape?)
A good design will offer easy access to all
parts of the garden for maintenance, careful
positioning of useful permanent structures
(hardscape), good drainage, efficient irrigation,
appropriate plant choices, a smooth visual
flow and a major focal point for a
primary point of interest.
1. Start with a layout of the basics of your
property including property lines and all permanent
features from house to trees to cement
and anything else that you will be
working around.
2. Add essential areas like patios, walkways,
garden beds, fencing, trees, orchards or
vegetable areas, swimming pools, outdoor
rooms/bars/kitchens, sports/play/child/pet
areas, etc.
3. Lay out utility lines, drainage and irrigation
— make sure you are thorough since
adding these subterranean lines after the
landscape is installed will be intrusive and
expensive.
See Garden Gates, page 34