Need to bring to lab:

graph paper

tracing paper

pencil, eraser

ruler

annual plant descriptions from class net site (or TM catalog or both)

you may also find class lecture notes on design helpful

What we'll do:

You'll plan a bed of annuals of your choice, given some site requirements and limitations. The purposes of this activity are to give you some hands-on design experience prior to your more complex perennial plan (and more points), and to increase your familiarity with annual cultivars and the design principles.

Site requirements, limitations:

These are the "givens"-- things you can't change physically and desired by the client (me). You are to design a bed for annuals about 400 square feet. This is to be a border, along a chain link fence line, dimensions of your choice such as 10 ft wide and 40 feet long, or 5 feet wide and 80 feet long (about one of the sides of the perennial beds at the Hort Farm). Straight edges may be easiest to draw (as at Hort Farm beds), but a gently curved edge could be used as well (think of the long border at Basin Harbor). The site can be shaded, which you can work with, or tell me to skip the tree planting and you can design for full sun. You are to use and designate cultivars of annuals-- merely saying marigold or coleus is not enough. Use proper spacing indicating how many plants are required.

How to do it:

Place your tracing paper, where you'll do all your design, over your graph paper. Use the squares on the graph paper as a guide for distances and spacing. For instance if there are 5 squares for each inch, you might give your scale as 1"=5' meaning each square represents a foot in the actual landscape.

Draw your bed outline. Indicate North with an arrow (plans are oriented so North points upwards toward the top of the paper). Indicate the scale. Indicate if sun or shade. Add your name and date.

Next decide where you might have taller and shorter annuals. You might also think if there are certain colors you like or want to include, and where these might go. Then pick the annuals to fit these desires. You might use only one genus, such as impatiens in the shade, just using different colors and flower types. You might use only a few annuals such as three, and repeat them in regular or irregular/informal patterns. Or you might use several different genera of annuals.

Remember to use design principles: color schemes-- are you using similar or contrasting colors next to each other, do you have repetition in the border either from the same plant or same color of different plants or other, do you have some variety in heights and textures and other plant features, are the plants in scale to the border and in proportion to each other.

Once you choose your annuals, indicate the groups you plant them in with an outline for each, and dot for each plant. Remember to not plant singly unless a very large or specimen plant. Otherwise groups of even numbers are usually used for formal designs (4,6,8 etc) and odd numbers of plants (3,5,7, etc) for informal designs.

Often the dots in each grouping of same plant are connected. If space you can put the name of the plant in the grouping, or more often only a number or letters (such as PPS for Petunia Polo Salmon) are used. These then refer to a list or key on a separate page where each number or abbreviation is listed, along with cultivar refered to. (If you were doing this professionally or with more time, you might then choose to color in each grouping the actual color of flower used.)

Grading Checklist:

Grading (100 points maximum) will be done roughly equally on neatness and including required items (such as North, scale etc), appropriate groupings considering design principles (repetition, scale, etc), appropriate choice of cultivars (correct heights for bed location, etc), clear designation of where what plants go (numbering and key or other) and proper spacing, proper spelling of plant names. I'll be roaming in lab and available for questions and to further help clarify.