How to make your own garden landscape design plans by Patricia Loofbourrow Edible-Landscape-Design.com

Copyright 2012 All rights reserved You may make a personal copy for your own use. http://www.edible-landscape-design.com

Dearest reader: This isn't like most ordinary books. This is more like a coloring book for grownups -- it's intended for you to print out, put into a binder, write on, color on, make notes in, glue photos in, and generally get messy. Why? Because you're bringing life into the world -- new plants, new experiences, and a new sense of beauty all your own -- and as every parent knows, bringing new life into the world is (if anything) messy! But eventually wonderful. This is a collection of a bit of information, a whole lot of questions, and a few projects, designed to get you thinking about what you have to work with, what you and your family want to create in your yard, and how best to do that for YOU ... ... because there is no "right" way to garden, only the way that works for your unique set of soil, plants and climate that is at your house and nowhere else on earth. And while landscaping has its own set of guidelines, there is not a "right" way to make a home landscape either (assuming you can get to the door and haven't created a hazard!) And at the end of this you should be well on your way to having an edible garden landscape design plan of your very own. Hint: If you need extra sheets of paper, insert blank pages in between the printed ones! No sense fluffing up the page count with extra blank pages when you have perfectly good ones at home. Ready? Let's get started!

Part 1: What do you have now? If you're planning to go somewhere, it's best to make sure you know where you're starting from. This section has questions and projects to assess what you have to work with. Your results from this section will be used later, so don't skip anything you don't have to.

You: Who lives at your home? What are their ages?

What is your family's heritage? Are there elements from that heritage which you'd like to put into your yard?

Think about: special foods, religious herbs, decorations, and so on. What plants (fruit, nuts, vegetables) does your family like to eat right now? Take some time, think about it, and ask them. List these below:

What herbs do you use for cooking?

What does your family not like to eat?

Importance: don't grow this, no matter how pretty it is, unless you have a place to send your harvest. How much experience do you have with gardening? Importance: if you don't have much experience in growing plants of any kind, start small until you have a few seasons' experience. Are you currently growing any food? What are you growing and where are you growing it?

Your home: What kind of home do you have (split-level, colonial, ranch, etc)? When was it built? Is there a history to this home that you'd like to preserve, or do you want to update your home's look to be more modern, or both?

Importance: finding out about your home's style and history may give you design ideas. Are you the original owner? If not, has anything been added to the home that you want to change or remove to make it yours?

Do you have a theme for your home interior? What is it? How about your home exterior? Are they the same? If not, how are they different?

Importance: extremely different exterior and interior themes can be jarring when going from one to the other. If you love both, pick one for your home and yard, and save the other for your bedroom or other special room that you only use.

Project: What colors are in your home exterior? Need -• Paper and pencil or pen • Camera, crayons, colored pencils, or markers Assignment -Go outside your home and see how many different colors you can find on your home's exterior. Write down the color and either record it with your camera or draw the color below with crayons or markers. Try to get as close to the actual color as you can. Record your findings here:

Hint: don't forget brick, stone, and concrete -- these have colors which are easy to overlook. Brick and stone in particular can have many different colors in their patterns that you might want to bring out into the rest of your garden. Which colors on the outside of your home do you like and which do you dislike?

Can you change any of the ones you dislike? Some options are repainting, changing moldings, replacing brick or stone facings, redoing the siding, and so on. List some ideas here:

Want to read more? Go to http://www.edible-landscape-design.com/garden-landscapedesign-plans.html to purchase the rest of the workbook and get started on your design! Thanks for reading!