Plants are the cheap part

I still love that I get to draw for part of my job. Having grown up with the notion that drawing was fairly useless and not a viable career, I of course steered myself in other directions and did not strenuously pursue drawing seriously. I regret that! I mean.. look around, how is it possible to think that drawing is not a thing of value? Everything you look at was most likely drawn by someone at some point in its development. aaaannnnywhooooo… I’m not bitter or anything.

Image of my messy and colorful desk covers in books about plants, drawings, and markers. there is also a tiny cat paw in the upper left.

Plants are almost the last thing to go in and everyone has sticker shock at that point. “Can we reduce the number of plants”? Yea, I guess you could. But why? You will just be disappointed with how sparse your landscape looks!

Here is what your hellstrip will look like with jut the ground covers.

Here is what it will look like with some flowering yet easy care shrubs and some boulders and cobbles. Do it!

Quick Sketches

Sometimes you need to just do a quick sketch and send it off to the client or a contractor. In this case the client has a bunch of metal bookcases from her now closed retail store. we are the king up ideas to use up some of this metal that is currently cluttering her garage! What to do?!

scribbled sketch of an idea for a metal sculpture in the landscape

This piece would be serving several purposes. It will help block the view from the next door neighbors upper window while the trees and shrubs grow in, it will use up some of that extra metal in an interesting way, and if we powder coat it to match the fountain color it will serve as another bright focal point in the garden.

This is not a careful sketch, obviously, but it gets the point across in an expressive and informative way.

Landscape Sketchbook - Vignettes

I like to do little landscape vignettes. Not a whole landscape design but just a bed or a small area. It’s fun to use these informal, made-up sketches to explore color and texture and layering of plants.

Here is one with lots of maroon, red, orange, and yellow plants.

Another one with some red and adding in some boulders and gravel, IDK, I find drawing these fun and soothing!

Quick and easy visualization

Sometimes I just take a Google Street View screenshot and scribble on it when I am thinking about plants or layouts. Very handy for front gardens! This is not a thing I would use to show a client, though.

Sometimes fast and easy is the way to go!

Landscape Sketchbook - Blobs of Color

I was just playing around with color in this sketch. I really love seeing a landscape where there is super bright color introduced. So far I have not really had a chance to get a client to do this. I have certainly suggested it and tried! I really have! I just love a bright contrast and pop of color!

Landscape Sketchbook - Plan View

I came to landscape design through drafting and design, not through plants or gardening. When I first started landscape design classes I seriously did not know a single plant. LOL. One of the first classes I took was planting design for some reason. It was kinda hard since I knew absolutely zero about plants. :D

But I looooved hand drafting so much. It’s one of those activities where I can really get into a flow state. I like CAD drafting as well but it is not nearly as soothing.

I like to doodle these plan view symbols. Would it be weird to get some of these tattooed on myself?! No, no it would not be weird.

colorful plan view plant symbols

colorful plan view plant symbols

Bird Sketchbook

I don’t usually have specific sketchbooks for septic things but maybe I should do that more often! I I started this with one sketch of a bird many years ago and I picked it up again recently and managed to finish the project!

some of the sketches are bad and some are great, as is usual in a sketchbook. Maybe I will make some stickers from the cutest ones.

flip through of a sketchbooks of cute small birds. ink and watercolor.