Free garden design material...

[wulf]

As I was pondering the retreat of the snow this morning, it struck me that it has potential to be a very useful material for prototyping the new bed layout I want to implement over the next couple of months. Now I'm hoping enough remains on Saturday for me to scoop and shovel out the rough design - a perfect opportunity to see what it might look like and walk round the design before getting to the harder work of shifting earth and turf.

Has anyone else used snow as a design prototyping material? Any tips or warnings?

Wulf

[crowsashes]

i was hoping to get out and plan my raised beds today ( no snow here ) so im stuck with string and stakes, only need to work out where they need to go and how far apart to put them, but the ground is sodden and the clouds continue to throw there watery wrath at me so its put off again hopefully till saturday.
then i can go about tidying up the garden a bit and try and get a garden incinerator too. going to give my little box hedge a trim, early i know but it is taking over way to much, its over a foot wide and im tempted to take it out completely if im honest as the only thing it does is give the darn cats somewhere to bloody hide! then theres the job of knocking up a compost heap.

have fun though with your snow garden design! sounds practical for now but what happens when the snow melts?

[wulf]

The snow melting is all part of the plan - I want to use it to try out ideas. I can then put down some markers to show the pattern I eventually decide on (I'm thinking of long and thin beds, orientated and sloped to make good use of the sun rather than the wide, flat, rectangular ones we have at the moment).

Wulf

[crowsashes]

lol i think i was have a random moment of stupidity sounds like a plan!

[wulf]

Here is a picture of what I came up with, along with some old bottles to act as marker when the snow all melts. My idea is long beds, narrow enough to easily reach over and angled to get more benefit from the sun (so each one will be higher at the back than the front from that angle). The larger space towards the left of the picture will be a working area and also have a few fruit bushes:



There are a couple more on my Flickr account.

Wulf