Makeover Step 7 – Mark Your Site

You’ve come a long way to get to this point.  You’ve got all of your features included in a final layout.  You’ve also checked your designs against your budget and adjusted them (sigh…) if necessary.

Now it’s time to get outside and start to implement your design.  So, put on some work clothes and meet us out in the yard!

Get equipped

For this step of the process, you’ll need a few tools.  If you haven’t got one already, you should have a 100 ft. measuring tape.  You can get them at any home improvement store or even on Amazon.com for between $10 and $20.  These are great for measuring out your design. You should also have some garden stakes and string to stake out your hardscapes.  For marking your planting beds and other features, you will use “marking paint”.  This is spray paint that is meant to be used for marking fields.  It’s easily available at hardware stores and home improvement stores.

Checklist:

  • 100 ft tape measure
  • Stakes
  • String
  • Marking paint

Mark out your design

With your new tools in hand, take your design drawing and head out onto the project site.  You’re going to use your tools to mark out the design onto your site.  Using your tape measure, locate and stake major point of the design.  Then you can use your marking paint to draw your design onto the ground.  Don’t worry, marking paint will eventually get cut off lawns or be worn off the ground.  But, don’t mark onto existing walkways or other hardscapes if you don’t want to damage them.

You can use stakes and string to mark any features that have height to them such as stone walls or fences.

I find this to be one of the most fun parts of the process.  You can really see your design coming together.

Do a sanity check

Once your design is drawn onto your site, it’s time to check it out.  Walk around in your design.  How does it feel?  If you have a dining area, put a table and chairs onto your marked design.  How does it fit?  Walk on the proposed walkways.  This is the time to make changes to your design if things don’t feel right.  Don’t worry.  It’s perfectly natural to make changes at this point.

Once you’ve marked the site and made the necessary changes, it’s time to install the first features of your design.

Next:  Install Hardscapes