Topic: A great way to plan the layout of your plot

[nilly71]

I only got my plot about a month ago and still clearing it. I have started building raised beds to the right of the plot and could not decide how i wanted it.

I used this free program when planing my small back garden and thought i would see what it was like for the allotment.

I drew it on paper first to plan, 1cm = 1m, Plot size 14.5m x 10m, then simply drew it on  Sketchup(free and run by google) http://www.google.com/sketchup/index.html it took about an hour because i forgot how to use it.
You can shade, add texture and loads of other stuff.

This is my first attempt without adding and texture.

top left is the compost area and top right is the shed(only allowed 6x4) and patio. The two triangles are going to be for my boys(11 & 8yrs) to grow and have competitions against each other. The front and sides will have wire strung across for fruit trees/bushes and the back will have a small fence to stop people cutting accross to get to the sloe/ blackberry bushes.

I am going to try a few different layouts to see what i prefer, then print out 3 lots and write on it what veg i'm going to have for crop rotation.

Neil

[sawfish]

Thats brilliant Nilly, I'll give it a go

[nilly71]

With a bit of texture.


Sawfish
It's a great thing to play with and very easy (once you get used to it :D).

Neil

[kt.]

Seems quite good.  I sketched mine out on Paintshop Pro.  Took absoloutley ages.

[nilly71]

Seems quite good.  I sketched mine out on Paintshop Pro.  Took absoloutley ages.

I bet it did using that.

To do something like a raised bed, all you have to do is click on rectangle and draw the size you need, then click on offset and i typed 5cm (this gave the thickness of the wood, then i clicked on push/pull and selected the outside of the rectangle and typed 15cm(this raises the outside of the bed to 15cm) takes about 1-2 minutes to draw a bed) a bit quicker than paintshop and you can zoom in and out and rotate.

All i have to do now is get rid of all the weeds and rubbish, so that i can begin :o

Neil

[thifasmom]

this looks like fun i will check it out :D

[staris]

just the sort of thing i've been looking for  ;D

[asbean]

I did mine in Word - just made text boxes roughly the shapes of the beds, it's not 3D or anything sophisticated like that, but I print off a copy each year so we can write on it what we're planting, thereby having some sort of a rotation plan.

[thifasmom]

I did mine in Word - just made text boxes roughly the shapes of the beds, it's not 3D or anything sophisticated like that, but I print off a copy each year so we can write on it what we're planting, thereby having some sort of a rotation plan.

i do the same thing but my plan was drawn up using Microsoft Publisher.

[nilly71]

I mainly wanted it to plan out the plot to scale, so that i could see how it all worked together.
I might move the compost bins to the top middle.

Anyone have any comments on the layout, like improvements or ideas?

Neil