Remember that, on Page 3 I had you make copies of the scale diagram? That’s because we’ll be tinkering with it now, to produce the finalized version of the home landscape plan. And if you mess something up on it, you don’t want to start all over again, do you?
How to Draw Home Landscape Plans, Phase 3: The Final Home Landscape Plan
On one of your copies of the scale diagram, transpose the final measurements you arrived at for your “bubble” areas in Phase 2. Now it’s time for fitting plants into your scale diagram. You don’t have to name each type of tree, each type of flower, etc. Much more important is a continued adherence to scale, so that, for instance, the shape you draw to indicate a large tree will obviously be bigger than that for a small shrub. Indicate the size that a plant will reach at maturity, not its baby size. This will allow for adequate plant spacing.
Landscape designers find it handy to designate the elements of a home landscape plan with letters and/or symbols, to save on space. Thus a pool can be designated with a “P,” a tree with a large, round shape, and so forth. On the side of your scale diagram, include a legend that translates these shortcuts, in case you forget what they stand for.
You should also keep a separate notebook to jot down notes specifically having to do with your planting plan. Take note of shady areas, dry areas, wet areas, soil types, etc. All of these factors will be given precedence over merely aesthetic factors when it comes time to go out and buy the plants themselves. You’ll be fitting the plants to the plan, not the other way around.
Once you’ve got everything right, take a blank sheet of paper, place carbon paper over it, and place the updated scale diagram on top of that. Now trace over everything on the updated scale diagram, allowing the carbon paper to transfer your sketch onto the once blank sheet of paper – which is now being transformed into your final home landscape plan. In creating your final plan in this manner, you’ve simply rid yourself of the grid lines of the graph paper. This will allow your final home landscape plan to look prettier, as you can now begin to use your colored pencils. Hey, have a little fun: you’ve worked hard to get to this point, so you deserve it!
With your colored pencils, you can now fill in your spaces with the appropriate colors. For instance, grass can be a light green, trees and shrubs a dark green, water blue, etc. The application of color to the final home landscape plan will render it much easier on the eyes. But don’t toss the updated scale diagram into the rubbish! You’ll still want to consult it for precise measurements. Those grid lines may be ugly, but they’re the only thing standing between you and utter chaos!
This link takes you to an example showing what finalized home landscape plans look like.
Does drawing a home landscape plan by hand not seem like your cup of tea? Then consider letting a computer program do it for you. For more information on landscaping software, please read my review of Realtime Landscaping Pro Landscape Design Software.
