This is part 2 of The Garden Guide — the studio's field manual for building a native garden from bare ground in Canberra and the Southern Tablelands. Start at the overview if you've just arrived.
Before you change anything, watch it. Light and moisture decide what will live where, and no amount of design overrides them.
Light
Spend time in the garden and notice where the light falls, when, and for how long. Morning sun and afternoon sun are not the same thing — afternoon sun in summer is fierce, and it will burn and desiccate things that would be perfectly happy in the morning.
One garden can hold four light classes at once: deep shade under the canopy, part shade at its edge, part sun where the light breaks through, full sun on the open ground. Notice which plants have put themselves where — silver foliage standing in the brightest ground, dark greens massed in the shade. That is not decoration, it is the plants telling you what the light is doing.
| Class | Direct sun per day |
|---|---|
| Full sun | More than 6 hours |
| Part sun | 4–6 hours |
| Part shade | 4–6 hours, mostly before midday |
| Full shade | Less than 4 hours |
Moisture
Get in the habit of walking the garden and digging in different spots — not just scratching the surface, but down a hand's depth and then deeper. Do it directly after rain, a week after, two weeks after. Where does water sit? Where has it already gone?
Knowing the moisture in your garden will make you a better gardener than any amount of reading.
This isn't only technical. Noticing what's there is what lets you notice when it changes, and noticing change is what makes you ask why — which is how you come to understand the system you're working inside. It's good for the garden. It's also good for you.
This series comes from the Garden Guide I give my design clients. I write one letter a week on spatial design, craft and technology — and subscribers read the full guides first.
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