Your Garden Survey Must Include

  •     A boundary outline: Your property line, or the boundary of the area where your intend to work.
  •     The house position on site: This fixes the house in relation to everything else on the site.
  •     The footprint of your house, including the position of doors and windows.
  •     The position of existing features, such as trees, shrubs, utilities
  •     Any slopes or level changes including driveways and other entrances
  •     Services such as electricity, water and communications lines.

 

Garden Design – Basic Survey Equipment

clipboard 150h opt measuringtape 150h opt tentpeg 150h opt balloftwine 250h opt

 

A black and white drawing of a level used in a garden survey



 

A simple line drawing drawing of a ruler.

  • A clipboard: This allow you to control you paper while outdoors.
  • Two 30 meter plastic tape Measures: These are the tools you will use most often for taking linear measurements and for taking offsets during your garden survey. 
  • Brightly coloured ground pegs: You will use these to hold the tape and to mark out various things that you will want to see while you are doing your survey.
  • Spirit level:  This is a very useful tool to help you take basic levels.  Get the longest one you that you can find.
  • A ball of twine: You will use this in conjunction with your other tools to, among other things, take levels, set out lines and to take offsets.
  • An ordinary ruler: You can use the ruler to help you to make a tidy survey sketch & to take short measurements on the ground.
  • Soil test kit:  A basic soil test kit will indicate the levels of alkalinity or acidity in your soil and a slightly better one will help you measure nutrient levels.
  • Compass:  This will help you to find the north-point and will help you assess your solar access and prevailing winds.