This is an old planting plan that has inspired me to start collecting something – planting plan art. I am as drawn to this as I am drawn to Edna Walling’s watercolors and Piet Oudolf’s sheets of colorful shapes and symbols rendered in marker.
Through all my writing adventures, I have stumbled across so many interesting things while researching and writing my books, blogs, and magazines. My biggest fear is that I will never remember them all — in fact, I have already forgotten so many (it is why I have stayed blogging for so long). This is one I really don’t want to forget.
Over the years, I have found so many talented designers, artists, and gardeners who have created sketches and drawings to help them work out their garden visions.
What do you think this might be a picture of? It is part of the botany collection at the University of Amsterdam. It is titled ‘Schemavoorbepalingbedekkingsgraad,’ which translates to ‘Schedule for Determining Coverage’. I deduce it to be a planting plan.
I adore this kind of thing. I want to print it out and hang it on my wall. I think it is charming and interesting as a work of art, but knowing that it is also a planting plan really makes me smile. I wonder what plants this represents. Are the choices in color and symbol shape related to the plants or completely abstract? I think the questions make it even more interesting.
I used to take great pride in my planting plans (I haven’t done one in a while). They were full-color affairs with beautiful photographic images representing all the chosen plants so that the clients could get a great sense of what they were getting. The printing costs were ridiculous. These days, I think I would want to make something more like this. Sure, it’s not as descriptive, but I find it much more satisfying, so maybe not for clients, but just for me.
image from the botany collection at the University of Amsterdam.
You can download a copy for yourself at the The memory of the Netherlands
Love it! I have several planting plans on the boards this winter and this would be fun. You could do something like this with the Paper app for iPad while on the go.
Looks like a great wall quilt idea. I love it tpo