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Artistic Permaculture Garden Design

 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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Hi. I am following an online Permaculture Design Course. To get my Certificate I need to make a garden design. I found someone who likes having a new design for her garden. She's one of my artist friends.
So: I am an artist, she is an artist ... of course this must become an artistic garden design. And because it's the end project of the course, as much permaculture principles as possible must be applied in the design. She wants to grow more edibles in her garden (both annual and perennial).
It's a small suburban garden, enclosed at all sides (you can enter from the house, or from a narrow path alongside the garage). There are already some fruit trees and berry bushes and there's a gravel circle in the middle (from former owners, for a parasol or a laundry-drying thing), which I want to be part of my new design.
There's no real design now. She did put plants here and there, and paths came where she often walked in the same direction.
Of course my new design must be a real design. I think of changing the middle circle to a herb spiral (the gravel can stay underground) and making paths like sun rays from there in eight or ten directions. Each bed (the parts inbetween the paths) will have a tree or bush in it and the rest is for the annual vegetables.

I'll show a map of the garden (as it's now) in my next post.
Feel free to comment or pose questions  

p.s. she does NOT want art objects in the garden!

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
Bryant RedHawk
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Awesome opportunity to incorporate what is already in place to create a picture.

I love to design garden spaces so there are areas that can be looked at with sitting areas to relax and take in the aromas and have quiet contemplation/ meditation.
I used to do these with flowers, shrubs as little focal points that drew the eye through one space to the next.

Can't wait to see what you come up with in collaboration with the client.

Redhawk

List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.

 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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Here's the promised drawing, the situation of the garden as it is now (sorry, text in Dutch language)
permaculture small garden design for an artist

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
Bryant RedHawk
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hau Inge, What a wonderful design, I like the layout very much.

My wife is Blackfoot/ Dutch so I am learning the language as I have time.

I am Nakota/ Irish/ German

Redhawk

List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.

 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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Next week the garden owner and I will meet again. I cut some different size circles from colored magazine photos (most greenish colours, plants a.a.) we can put on the map to represent trees, shrubs and groups of perennial plants. I hope this will help imagine the new garden lay-out.

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
Bryant RedHawk
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One of these freeware programs might be useful to you.

C-Net freeware downloads

free garden design

free garden design 10 programs


Redhawk

List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.

 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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Thank you, but I like drawing by hand (with pencils, pen, brush and watercolours on paper)

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
Bryant RedHawk
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Awesome. We are alike that way then.  

Redhawk

List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.

 
Nicole Alderman
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Bryant RedHawk wrote:Awesome opportunity to incorporate what is already in place to create a picture.

I love to design garden spaces so there are areas that can be looked at with sitting areas to relax and take in the aromas and have quiet contemplation/ meditation.
I used to do these with flowers, shrubs as little focal points that drew the eye through one space to the next.

Can't wait to see what you come up with in collaboration with the client.

Redhawk



Another option would be to incorporate the sitting areas into raised beds. If you make the raised beds edged by cement blocks or wood rounds, or even maybe cob (I don't know much about cob) sculpted to be more ergonomic. The wide edging on the raised bed will allow her to sit to garden, as well as to sit to think and enjoy the garden. A lot of my garden beds are edged with wood rounds, and I really like that aspect. I am frequently found just sitting there, relaxing, pulling weeds as I relax, or just enjoying the view, or sitting and talking with my son sitting beside me, or sitting and munching on the food in said garden bed. And, if the garden beds are close enough to each other (perhaps on either sides of some of the paths or where the paths intersect), she could sit and chat with guests right there at her garden beds!

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Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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Nicole Alderman wrote:... Another option would be to incorporate the sitting areas into raised beds.... The wide edging on the raised bed will allow her to sit to garden...

Nicole, it's a good idea. I will keep it in mind. But in this case it isn't necessary. She has a nice sitting area (it's somewhat like a porch). The garden itself does not need any more sitting area(s). The most important (in her case) is: more edible plants in the garden.

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
Thyri Gullinvargr
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I'm new to permaculture so take this with whatever grains of salt you want to. I remember several years ago reading about a University that put down grass and no sidewalks. They waited for some period of time until paths naturally developed in the grass then they put the sidewalks in those places. This meant the sidewalks were in the places that people naturally walked which kept people from wearing down the grass.

The reason I mention this is because since you have existing paths from where your friend walks, it seems to me that good design would incorporate these existing paths because these are the ways your friend naturally moves. Another thought is that the places where the walking paths are now are where the soil is probably most compacted. That can be changed of course but it might be another reason for working with her natural patterns.

Actually if I'm reading your drawing correctly, the existing paths seem to suggest the trunk and branches of a tree to me. In Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway he talks about about using natural patterns for path patterns. One of those was, not a tree pattern, but a leaf pattern with the paths being like the veins of the leaf. This had a large main path with smaller and smaller paths going off of it. The large main path was big enough for taking something like a wheel barrel down and paths got smaller for areas that needed less access or access less often.

"Your thoughts are seeds, and the harvest you reap will depend on the seeds you plant." - Rhonda Byrne

 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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Thank you Thyri. I like your idea very much. You're right: paths forming from walking are the right paths.
The paths that are here now, are right for the current situation. But she wants the situation to change. The new situation must have more, more accessible, beds with edible plants.
The idea I have in mind now is like the 'veins' or 'branches' you mentioned, but fanning out from the middle circle.

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
Bryant RedHawk
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Inge,  What you describe is what my people would refer to as a medicine wheel design.  SWEET!

List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.

 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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First I made a new design plan on transparent paper. Then we sat at the table together (the garden owner and me) and played a little with the circles cut from photo. Her idea was to make a 'gate' with climbers (like kiwi, blackberry, a.a.). She cut the shape roughly from a piece of paper. It doesn't show well in the design plan, but I think it will look very nice in the real garden!




"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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and she wants to have a little pond in the garden (with rainwater harvesting). We do not yet know where ... that's the next thing to figure out ...

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
Liz Hoxie
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What about in the middle of the "medicine wheel"? After all, water is the "hub" of Life!

Liz

 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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Liz Hoxie wrote:What about in the middle of the "medicine wheel"? After all, water is the "hub" of Life!


Liz, I think of a little bowl of water (a 'bird bath') in the middle of the herb circle. But somewhere else there has to be a 'frog pond', maybe even a 'fish pond'.

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
Bryant RedHawk
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Rain water harvesting is best done by gathering from a roof area (lots more water can be gathered than just falling from the sky into a tank or pond) by re routing down spouts from the gutters.
I notice a dashed line area marked water, that could be extended along the border for a nice fish/ frog pond perhaps.
In the center you could maybe do a two or three tier bird bath which would allow more rain water to be gathered for the watering of the herb circle.

The design is looking good.

Redhawk

List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.

 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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Bryant RedHawk wrote:Rain water harvesting is best done by gathering from a roof area (lots more water can be gathered than just falling from the sky into a tank or pond) by re routing down spouts from the gutters.
I notice a dashed line area marked water, that could be extended along the border for a nice fish/ frog pond perhaps.
In the center you could maybe do a two or three tier bird bath which would allow more rain water to be gathered for the watering of the herb circle.
The design is looking good.
Redhawk


Yes, the dashed line indicates one of the possibilities for a pond. At that side it could get the rainwater from the roof of the house. The other idea is to have it near the shed, with the rainwater from the shed's roof.

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
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I am seriously curious, Inge: Did this ever get built? Did it evolve during the process? Is it totally beautiful and awesome?  Or did it end up being a paper experiment that taught you lots?

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Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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Jay Angler wrote:I am seriously curious, Inge: Did this ever get built? Did it evolve during the process? Is it totally beautiful and awesome?  Or did it end up being a paper experiment that taught you lots?


Hi Jay. I had to look back in this thread to know what it was about. Now I know it's about rainwater from my roof and a (small) pond.

And yes, this idea evolved. It took shape, then changed shape, and then again. At the moment I am fairly happy with how it is now. But maybe it will need more change(s) in the future.
The rainwater from the gutter at the roof of the apartment building (I live in a ground-floor apartment) comes in my garden anyway. The pipe already leaked when we came to live here about 20 years ago. First the leaking water only drenched the soil next to the house.

In 2015 I cut off the under part of it and put a rain barrel there to catch the water. Probably, because of what I wrote here, it was 7 years ago I started with more plans to use the rain water.
I'll put some photos here.

BTW the most difficult of all was replacing the rhubarb plant with its gigantic roots. But it worked out well.


In 2016 this was how the first plan started to take shape ...


it looked like this after a few months ...


and like this in 2019 ...


different direction, start of the change ...


in 2024 the rain barrel is replaced by a 'rain garden' ...


this is how it looks now.

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
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That "rain garden" is gorgeous! There are places for barrels, but they're not nearly as pretty as what you have now!

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Thank you for sharing.  It's great to see how planning becomes reality and evolves with use and time.  

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Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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Jay Angler wrote:I am seriously curious, Inge: Did this ever get built? Did it evolve during the process? Is it totally beautiful and awesome?  Or did it end up being a paper experiment that taught you lots?


Maybe you wanted to know (too) about the garden I designed for my PDC? I made a design on paper. My friend did apply some details of my design. She did not change the whole garden.
But because of our conversations about permaculture she got more interested in it. She is now an active volunteer too in the group Permacultuur Meppel, with the educative parmaculture garden in the park.

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
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