The Immersive Garden Framework

THE CANVAS

With a border garden, the physical architecture defines where the garden goes: the house, the fence line.

Immersive gardens don't come with those guardrails. You have to decide what the space is for before you start filling it. That's what I call the canvas.

What should feel open? What should feel enclosed? Where does the light come from in the morning, in the evening, and where is the blasting sun? My larger canvases were initially designed as contiguous spaces, but once I deconstructed them, each became nine or ten Blocks.

Our farm came with hundreds of old cedar fence logs that I dragged around to mock up the space and think about how I'd move through it. You can use cardboard, tarps or anything easily moveable.

Over time, I've learned to spend more time thinking through the canvas. First I imagine how I'd experience the garden. Then I narrow my plant list.

Canvas planning diagram mapping the house, property line, sun path and mature tree before deciding where planting, open space and enclosure should go.

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