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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Introduction to Garden Design Over


Well the class was only 4 weeks and wow did that go quick. So our week 3 and 4 assignments actually were working on a yard he gave us not out own.


I used POWERPOINT to add shapes and patterns to the picture but week 3 I must admit I wasn't getting it. Plus he really wanted them redone with pencil and tracing paper. So I read, re-read, and read again his explanation of what he wanted and hopefully got a lot closer.

This is actually the re-do I did beginning of fourth week.I missed the part about the shapes needing to overlap especially at the house.  I also didn't get that the shapes represented hardscaping and/or lawn til second try. Ooops. 
So clearly these sucked since they didn't overlap.

Actually later I found a design of his that I thought this looked a lot alike .But again I didn't overlap enough.


 I made this using floorplanner.com screenshot images put into a collage of sorts.
OK this is what he wanted. If at first you don't succeed try, try, try again.





Thursday, February 14, 2013

Survey of Site Assignment

So using triangulation, yes not strangulation,  to figure out where everything exactly is was fun. I sketched in the grade lines as well but they were not obtained in the accurate fashion recommended due to sogginess. Everywhere I walk in the back yard mud pit I became more and more encased in mud so I had to abandon it before getting that done. But the teacher, or tutor as called in UK, said to not sweat the details at this stage if something was very difficult to do or as in this case would put lots of mud in house and ruts in yard.
 

Sunday, February 10, 2013

So how much of the yard is shade vs. sun?

So in designing your yard you have to know which plants for full sun- part sun/part shade- full shade. BUT that's different depending on the time of the year right? And then when trees fill in the shade changes from when you planted in spring until mid-summer. So I thought maybe I could calculate the sun path and know for sure what is in shade when. Might be easier to just photograph this year but here goes nothing.

Peoria is at 40.6936° N, 89.5889° W. Basically I'm going with 40° N then. Especially since I found this great diagram for 40° N.


OK then looking at the front of our house we're then looking West. Sun then travels up over parent's house and our front yard is pretty much full sun and then over house and sets on back yard side. Vegetable garden is on South side which would be all full sun if it were not for neighbor's backyard tree that is getting bigger.  Backyard has no trees in our yard (we have absolutely no trees, just planted a couple ornamental ones but pretty much no shade from our side) but neighbor to the West has 2 very, very tall trees that have a fairly small canopy considering there size.  But they do cast some long shadows over backyard.

So this isn't even correct as far as angle because it's 2D. I will probably need to make a little model to look at the effect of the sun on veg. garden and backyard pool to really now.
But hey something to think about.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Time for New Header

I was thinking about making a new header and forgot I already made a bunch so I could change it up more frequently. Isn't that artichoke beautiful!!!!

So I don't think I've put up a possible design from floorplanner.com in awhile either.

Turns out the class I'm taking is pretty basic. If I want I can take a more advanced version and get the input of John Brookes (MBE), well known landscape designer, author of 24 books and designing for over 50 years. Check out the artichokes in this picture! http://www.johnbrookes.com/portfolio-details.asp?p=4

So I had to submit a picture with text describing my yard.


I thought a change in background would be nice as well.


John Brookes An Introduction to Landscape Design

First week of being an online student at www.my-garden-school.com and just turned in my homework. No one else appears to have turned theirs in yet. I hope I did it right. I submitted the current site info for my yard and a mood board for  the feel I am hoping to achieve.

The site information was specified as photo(s) and written description covering where it is, what kind of house, soil, etc. What you want to do with it...
I won't bore you with the written part but here is the mood boards which to me are like more orderly collages.


Sunday, February 3, 2013

Great Quote from Jan Johnson's Blog


Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art."
 
- Frank Lloyd Wright