Stage 2 Surveying your garden
To design your garden you first need to measure it.
Start at a fixed point, ideally your house. Measure the boundaries first then work in, pinpointing any features and permanent fixtures such as paths, ponds, sheds drainage inspection covers, etc.
Remember safety is paramount so make sure you have the right clothing and equipment - if your garden is overgrown you should wear some safety boots and perhaps safety glasses to prevent thorns getting in your eyes. And sturdy gloves too!
If you need some tools such as tape measures etc then check out the following companies:
Use running measurements rather than a series of separate measurements. For example, say you want to measure along you house wall from where it joins a fence to mark the location of patio doors and the far corner of your house. Instead of measuring say 1m from the fence to the first edge of the door, then the width of doors as 1.5m then another 2m from the second edge of the doors to the corner of the house it is much better to start from just one fixed point (by the fence say) then measure out the 1m from that point to the first edge of the door, then a total fo 2.5m from the start point to the furthest edge of the doors, then a total of 4.5m from the starting point to the corner of the house. This minimises any "running" errors that can multiply by adding lots of separate smaller measurements together.
Although your garden may appear to be square or rectangular, they are rarely a perfect shape. It is important to be accurate when doing your survey, so use three measurements when pinpointing features, fixtures and boundary points. This is called triangulation (see diagram below). Pick two points which you know accurately (eg the two ends of a house wall) and measure the distance to the object you are locating from each of these two points. When you plot these distances to scale on a piece of paper, where the two lines meet is the exact location of your object!
Once you have all the measurements take note of any slopes and level changes so you have an idea of where steps or retaining walls may be necessary.
You are now ready to start your design.
Forward to Stage 3 Designing your garden
Back to Stage 1 First things first
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