A survey of the site to take accurate measurements is an essential part of the design process.
Please follow the steps below and If you have any queries at all please drop me an email.
What you will need
A copy of the OS site plan for your garden which I will provide at either a scale of 1:100 for large gardens or 1:50 for small to medium gardens. I will purchase these for you and then scale it up on my printer and send you a couple of copies.
A flat surface, such as a picnic table, to put the paper on whilst you work.
A scale ruler which I will supply which has both a scale of 1:100 and 1:50 on.
Measuring tapes – ideally a 30m length tape and also a 6m retractable tape. The latter is most useful for measuring windows and doors.
Tent pegs are quite useful for keeping the long tape measure in place. Alternatively you can use pots, bricks or anything that is heavy (or a partner!).
Phone – to take photos or videos of the garden.
What does it mean to work to scale
Its impossible to draw up the size of even the smallest garden at full size but we still need to have an accurate measure so that we know how big the garden is, how wide and long the borders are etc
Working to scale allows us to accurately draw up a site plan at a smaller size than the original.
A scale ruler makes it very easy. The easiest scale to understand is 1:100. This means that when you measure a window and it is 1m wide you will draw it as 1cm on the plan.
The scale ruler has a 1:100 scale and all you do is find the 1m mark. When you use a 1:50 scale then the 1m wide window will be drawn as 2cm. Again the scale ruler will have a 1:50 scale so all you do when you draw the window using the 1:50 scale is find the 1m mark on the 1:50 section of the ruler.
The ruler will also have 1:500 and 1:200 but you can ignore these scales as they are for very big gardens.
Measuring the Site
It’s important to remember I only need to know about things that are staying. If you plan to completely rip out and start afresh with your garden then the only things I need to know about are the footprint of the house and where the gates are and what type of boundary you have.
Remember as well we are not building a house and although we want to be as accurate as possible it is not life or death if the measurements are not exact. Plants will do their own thing. In the printing there is some degree of shrinkage so plans will never be 100% accurate.
It can feel quite daunting at first to measure up a garden but just treat each section on its own and always start with the house as this is the easiest thing to measure and it gets you used to using the scale rule.
If your garden is very big or complicated with lots of level changes you can get a topographical survey from a land surveyor. These vary from region to region and between different practices but you would typically pay £650. If you plan to have a topographical survey done then I will provide you with an electronic copy of the OS plan as they will use this to give you a quote.
When you have the topographical survey you can email it to me. However, the survey will say where the borders are and trees but not identify any shrubs or name the tree varieties. If you are planning on keeping the shrubs then I need to know where they are on the plan. I can print the survey for you and return it for you to annotate.
However, most gardens are relatively simple to measure.
Always start with measuring the house.
On the OS plan mark out where the downstairs windows and doors are. If we are doing a front garden, then do the front door and windows. For a back garden do the windows and any back doors, including bifold and French doors.
If you have architectural plans for any recent building works, then you can send these to me and save yourself the time of measuring the footprint of the house.
When you have all the doors / windows marked out on the plan then you can decide if you need to mark on the patio. If you are planning to completely change the patio and its shape then do not worry about marking it out, because I only need to see what is staying.
If you are keeping the patio then simply measure it, how big it is, the shape and where it is from the house. I usually put my tape measure up to the house and take the measurements from there.
Then you need to mark on any sheds, greenhouses, water features , raised beds or any structure that is staying in the garden in the new design.
The best way to do this is to run the long tape measure from the house to the end of the garden and then take off set measurements for where the features are that you need to mark up on the site plan using the smaller retractable tape measure. I would normally choose a fixed point such as the end of the house, or the centre of a window or double door and mark on the site plan where you took the measurement from.
Borders and plants – I need to know where any large shrubs and trees are that are staying in the garden. Plants such as perennials can be moved so only need to be plotted if you want to keep them where they are.
Changes of Level
Most gardens are not flat. If the level changes are small then your garden will just gently slope – if it is more severe you will have steps.
The best way to measure a level change is to look at the bricks of your house/ garage. If there is no slope then the number of bricks up from the ground will not change. If there is a bit of a slope you will have more visible bricks at one end than the other and you just need to count them and let me know.
You can do the same thing looking at how the fence slopes down the garden. Often you can work out the level change by measuring the drop on the fence post to the fence. I then mark these on the plan so I can see where the garden is falling or going up. Sometimes a fence top will be level because the slope has been managed with a gravel board at the bottom. You then treat the gravel board like a brick and measure the difference the top of the gravel board is from the ground at one end of the fence and the same at the bottom, and write on the plan the difference.
If you have any steps I need to know where they are and how many you have and how steep each step is. I can then see the height difference from the top step to the bottom step.
If you have retaining walls then I need to know where they are and the difference in height from the top of the wall to the bottom.
Then annotate the plan with anything you think I might need to know – eg is one of the boundaries a wall or fence. Does the wall belong to you, is it your garage or your neighbours. Then list all the perennials you want to keep but which can be moved in the winter. I will include them in the plant schedule.
Site Analysis
I need you to annotate on the plan anything I should know about the site. For example do you have an area of very dry ground caused by a tree or very boggy caused by shade. Is there a wind tunnel or an area where you are overlooked.
Orientation
I will know from the OS site plan which way your garden faces so you do not need to worry but it is useful to know where you get the sun at different times of the day. This is particularly important if we are going to put in a new patio. Understanding when you will be at home to use the patio is key to making sure we get it in the right place.
Aspect
What the OS site plan cannot tell me is how windy or wet your garden is. If you are next to fields, then your garden will be more exposed, and I need to know this for both the design and the choice of plants. The same applies to very boggy gardens because some plants will not survive in these conditions so if you have an area that does not drain well please annotate it on the plan or let me know through an email or on the design questionnaire.
Soil conditions
This is probably the most complicated part of the site analysis. Its relatively easy to determine if you have clay soil or sand. Clay will bake in the summer whereas sand will be like dust. In winter clay will be very heavy and sticky, whereas sand will be easier to dig over. However, working out whether you have a good loam, chalk or peat or are acidic or alkaline is harder to do.
My recommendation is to just decide if you have clay or light soil because these are the two extremes. I would always recommend adding soil improver at the time of planting to improve the soil structure. You can purchase from the garden centre little test kits to test your soil ph (acid or alkaline) but I tend to avoid choosing plants that are at the extreme end of the scales, unless we can add ericaceous compost at planting.
