Last week, we covered Step One of developing a new landscape: coming up with a plan. (For those of you who missed it, here's a recap: gather ideas from family members, jot down your likes and dislikes, consider hardscapes and aesthetic issues, and search out inspiration from magazines as well as other people's yards and gardens. (For the entire column from last week, go to www.newsobserver.com/bangs. ) This week, we tackle Step Two: Turning the plan into a design.

Consider maintenance. To get started, you will need the information and ideas collected in Step One. Before drawing up a thing, consider the maintenance requirements of your planting ideas -- the equivalent of the small print in a contract. Building in low-maintenance ideas now will make the result easier to maintain later.

Putting it all on paper. A sketch of your plan will serve as the road map to your design. Some landscape designers use property surveys when they are coming up with a design. (They increase the plan in scale to 1 inch equals 10 feet as the base plan. For a half-acre lot, the 10-scale plan will fit on a 2-foot-square sheet of paper.) Property lines and all landscape elements and features that might influence the design should be included. Also, make sure to note locations of underground utilities, drainage ways, trees and shrubs, easements, driveway and sidewalk, sun patterns, septic field, sights, sounds, soils and anything that will influence the design.

Think rooms. Create your outdoor spaces to work as garden "rooms," composed of floors, walls and ceilings. Plants, fences, brick walls, tree branches, lawns, decks, patios, arbors, stone paths and trellises are all outdoor room components. Combine plants and hardscape to form and accentuate each space.

Think function. A space is most comfortable when it has a relationship to the human form. Define the spaces or outdoor rooms that the family desires. Create your design with function in mind by associating activities for adjacent rooms. A "vegetable garden room" should be next to the "compost bin room", and the "tool storage room." A child's play area should be visually accessible from within the home; a soft floor of mulch or sand and a cooling tree canopy are great additions for the play area. Garbage cans should be out of sight and downwind, yet convenient to the kitchen door. Get it?

Take different approaches. It is OK to devote most of your time and dollars to the design and installation of one garden room -- just make sure it fits the overall fabric of the landscape. We typically think of the front yard as public space and the back yard as private. Yet, with no firm rules in landscape arrangement, don't be afraid to look at your garden design in a unique way.

Plants with multiple purposes. In addition to providing "beauty," plants can meet any one of a number of requirements. Privacy, energy conservation, and a source of food -- for human or animal consumption -- represent only a few of the reasons to use a great diversity of plants in landscapes.

Have fun with your design ideas. Want a Japanese strolling garden? Or maybe an English "cottage style" garden better suits the size of your property and architecture of your home. What about a new age Victory Garden, where the landscape incorporates permaculture and sustainable agriculture? Take off your blinders. Dream a little.

Next step -- installation.

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.