![\"Himalayan](\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8161\/7189523594_441deb07a4.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nLocation Location<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Understand the region and area where the garden is located and think about what it may mean. An East coast Scottish location will be colder than Essex but a West coast location may benefit from the warmer gulf stream. Seaside may be windier than a riverside spot.<\/li>\n
- What are the surrounding environmental features such as mountains that could influence rainfall<\/li>\n
- What is the underlying rock structure, limestone or chalk will not favour acid loving plants<\/li>\n
- What is the aspect of the garden or which direction is the sun<\/li>\n
- Where is the prevailing wind – in the UK this is most often from the west<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
Existing Features<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- What buildings exist and do they provide shade, shelter from wind or a rain shadow (area that gets little or nor rain due to the building)<\/li>\n
- Are there streams, trees, hedges, walls or other permanent features.<\/li>\n
- Hedges can be good wind breaks but the soil will probably be poor and dry underneath<\/li>\n
- Walls may be dry depending on aspect but can support climbers and reflect suns warmth<\/li>\n
- Streams may be developed into natural gardens or become water features<\/li>\n
- Deciduous trees appear distinctly different at different times of the year so check what sort of tree and what its ultimate size and habit may be.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Soil Condition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Take samples of soil and test them. Is it sandy, clay or loam soil ( a quick test is to roll a lump of damp soil in your hand sandy soil will appear gritty and wont ball, clay will appear smooth and form a solid ball and loam will ball but then crumble).<\/li>\n
- Is the soil acid alkaline or neutral – test kits are available but check next door gardens if they have Heathers, Rhododendrons and Camelias then it may be an acid soil area.<\/li>\n
- Is the soil deep and full of organic matter ( or like most peoples is need of TLC)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When looking at a garden or potential garden for the first time there are some basics to consider. I recommend you spend sometime thinking about these issues and build the consequences into your plans. Brains baffles brawn in a new garden – well begun is half done. Location Location Understand the region and area where the garden is located and think about what it may mean. An East coast Scottish location will be colder than Essex but a West coast…<\/p>\n
Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}