“I really want to do something with ‘that’ area of the yard”
DIY Amateur Process
When using ideas incorrectly, many people follow the same process.
It begins when you decide to improve an area in your garden. You’re sick of looking at that spot (or many spots) and want to do something about it.
Having decided to work on it, you need to get ideas (to use incorrectly…). So onto the internet you go. There you find more than you can look at. So you choose one and are ready to go.
You’ve got the idea – it’s in the image – so you need to figure out how it works. You need to deconstruct it. It takes some time, but you figure out the different materials you need. And if you can’t copy it exactly, you can get pretty close using other things that are available.
Next you pick up the materials from your local hardware store. Lucky for you it’s a long weekend! You’ve got more time to put your project together!
Back home, you have your materials and where you want to build. Now you get to work. If you’re lucky, it will be an easy job. And you will have no interruptions from real life. If you do have to stop, you can return to it over a few days. Or weeks. Maybe months?
The Problem
This whole process has been a lot of pain for little gain. You’ve been using ideas incorrectly the whole time. You have to repeat this again and again to the rest of your garden. And you have less money, patience, time and persistence than before.
The big problem is you didn’t have a plan. You had an idea (which you copied) but no plan it fitted into. A plan ensures every space in the garden works together. It allows you to build over time, one space at a time, and be confident it will work.
You should always be collecting ideas. But instead of copying them into random spots, you should work to get a plan in place. Use the design to test ideas and concepts. Take a trial and error approach. This makes it more rigorous and well tested.
A plan gives you confidence in more than what you are building. You are more confident in the materials (and quantities) you are using. You can better allocate your time and money. And you can adapt better to changes. In design, funds, time or your needs and wants.
Yup. This is our twenty year history with our garden. And now it’s barren.
I love the guide and am poring thru it to build a design process. The one thing that intrigued me from the guide that I don’t fully understand is how to make a scaled model of the site and design. Do you have a vid to illustrate? I’m not very creative, I’m ashamed to admit, and seeing for me is understanding.
Hi Lily,
Love the idea. I’ll see what I can put together over the next few weeks just to give you a visual example.
May not be a video but perhaps am article to show you how messy it can be and why it can be helpful.
Matt