!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally mapped out my whole garden - more revealing than I expected

Finally sat down and mapped out my whole garden properly. Been growing fruit trees and perennials for a few years but never had a clear picture of how it all fits together until I drew it out.



All my vegetables are crammed into the top left corner next to the greenhouse. The rest is fruit trees and perennials, partly because they've been the most productive part of the garden by far, and partly because it's the back garden and my partner likes it to look nice. Hoping to claw back some more veg space in the next few years.

You can browse my garden in full resolution here: https://app.leaftide.com/g/joao/

I built Leaftide for this (biased, I know), but honestly just doing the exercise of mapping it all showed me things I'd missed for years. Stuff competing for space that I hadn't noticed, obvious gaps.

Does having a visual map actually change how you plan, or is it overthinking it?

I tend to map before rather than after, although my planning is rather loose, with cross sections and rough schematics done from memory rather than measured. I often find though that when I actually do measure I have to change my ideas a bit. For example in my new 'zone one' kitchen garden my plans evolved....

This was my first design:

with keyholes along a central path...

When I actually measured it, I found the area was much more square than I thought, so I came up with this design...

with perennials on one side and a semicircular annual garden on the other.

When I came to make the beds I felt that six beds would end up rather small, so I made four:


I'm thinking now I may make a roundish bed in the centre to avoid the sharp corners...still evolving!

I think doing a plan of my whole area would be too much work now - I did have an overall scheme before I started, and again this evolved once I started digging....