Garden Design Tips 3 - Triangulation

Before you can start designing a garden you’ll need to know its exact size and shape. You cannot create a plan of the new garden until you have an accurate plan of the existing garden. If you have a small garden to design it is especially important that your measurements are extremely accurate.

One of the problems you’ll find when measuring your garden is it almost certainly not a perfect square or rectangle. One of the simplest techniques for measuring a plot that is full of odd shapes and angles is triangulation. Here’s how to do it.

Use the house as a fixed point from which to take measurements. Choose two points that are not too close together, for example, the two end corners. Take a measurement from each of the two fixed points to the point you are trying to plot.

In order to plot the measurements onto paper you’ll need a pair of compasses. On a scale ruler select the the same one as you used to draw in the house and open the compasses to the length of the distance from the first point. Put the point of the pair of compasses on the first point of the house and draw an arc. Repeat the previous step for the distance from the second point. Where the two arcs cross is the position of whatever you are trying to measure, in the case of the example below it is the position of the two corners of the rear garden.



You can use this technique to find the position of anything in the garden. In order to measure accurately use the same two fixed points for each measurement.



If you need help designing your garden please feel free to email me linsey@linseysgardens.com. You can visit my Web site and see some of my completed projects and get a bit more information.