What Is the Meaning of a Plant Layout?

Plan your layout before you plant to ensure plenty of room and sunlight for healthy plants.

Landscape designers use the term "plant layout" as an informal reference to three different phases of design. It's easy to infer that they're talking about where plants will go, but there are other elements of plant layout. The designer must consider color, balance, texture, microclimate conditions and other factors when determining plant placement.

Landscape Design

Generally speaking, a landscape design includes much more than plants. Drainage, patios, walkways, pergolas, water features and even fire pits are part of the plan. But if you're talking only about the plants and their placement, you can refer to this as the plant layout. Likewise, if the design includes only plant variety and placement, then the design can be referred to informally as a plant layout.

Before Planting

A landscape installation company rarely plants one plant at a time. Instead, a work crew led by a designer brings all or most plantings to the site, then sets the plants--which are usually in containers and fairly easy to move around--where they intend to plant them. Then the designer looks over the area again to make sure the spacing is appropriate. This is called laying out the plants, or the plant layout. After the designer or his assistant is satisfied, the crew does the actual planting.

Existing Landscape

Sometimes the client requires only moderate changes in plantings. So the existing plant layout, or the current arrangement of plants already in the ground, is sketched out. Then modifications can be made to the plant layout as necessary. Again, this sketch of the plant layout is specific, and often includes only brief references to existing or planned features such as walkways or buildings.

Considerations

Many changes in a design are likely after it is presented to a client. Plants won't be available at that time of year, underground obstructions alter plantings or the area of planned hard surfaces. This is why laying out the plants is critical. Often small changes were overlooked, and some plants have no space or must be rearranged. Or there will be a space in the design that needs more plantings. Large-scale landscape designs are more likely to change than small ones, and last-minute alterations should be expected.

Expert Insight

If you're planning your own landscape installation without the help of a professional, take a tip from their methods. No matter how firm your planting ideas, sketch out your property to scale from a bird's eye view. Sketch in your plant layout according to how big the plants will be when mature, not how big they look at the nursery, or in a neighbor's recent installation. The most common mistake is purchasing too many plants and having no place to put them or watching them grow into a tangled mess instead of growing comfortably together.

References

• University of Florida: Basic Principles of Landscape Design