Base Mapping Assignment, 5/29/15

1. Base Mapping
Adventures in Measuring Things

2. I’ll admit that, because my space is so small, I felt a little bit like I was cheating. It took me about
half an hour and a tape measure to map the whole area!
I learned a few things:
-I had forgotten that my gutter/drainpipe actually runs straight down into the ground and drains at
the very end of my yard, in the much-loathed giant gravel bit by the back fence. Still, as it’s a rental,
I can’t exactly start attaching rain barrels to it anyway, so I suppose it’s a moot point.
-I have an incredibly poor innate sense of distance.
-Spaces look much larger when you map them!
-I’m starting to have the very real concern that what I’ve already done with my yard is, more or less,
everything I can do with my yard.

3. I’m pretty much dealing
with a giant, 30’ x 60’
rectangle, when you
subtract my house (which I
did, because I don’t have
a front porch or anything.)
I didn’t mark the garden on
this base map because I
can, technically, move it if
I’d like. Most problematic
is the sun; between the
house, the tree, and the
privacy fence, only one
side of my yard gets
decent light.
I also just realized that I
didn’t mark the compass
points, but since I marked
where the sun rises and
sets, you can tell that the
map is currently oriented
with North at the top.

4. Since the house itself is
effectively useless (except,
you know, for that eating and
sleeping thing we do now
and again), I decided to do a
larger-scale and more
detailed map of the yard as it
is currently.
This made me realize that
the only section of the yard
I’m not really using (although
it’s full of stuff, like my
mower, what have you) is
the crushed gravel area.
Unfortunately, despite
probably being too shady to
garden, the north end of the
yard (where the ducks are)
is still subject to punishingly
direct sunlight from about
5PM to sunset--which is why
I’m still trying to figure out
how to give the ducks extra
shade.

5. Sectors
Because I’m so urban, I don’t have much in the way of natural “sectors.” I don’t have natural
water features, and we’re protected enough by the neighborhood that I don’t worry much about
(and certainly couldn’t harness) the wind, or anything like that.
The biggest divisions in my yard have to do with sunlight and man-made impediments; the
gravel, the fences, the trees. Looking back at my map, I would say the south side of my yard (as
bisected by the pea gravel path) is the “growing” area, which gets the most sun and is protected
by the fence during summer thunderstorms, when the winds get high.
The north side of my yard is the “people and pets” area, with the grill, the duck house, etc. I’m
relatively certain it’s too shady to garden.
The gravel area at the end is sort of a dead zone. Yes, I’ve put fruit trees in containers back
there, but I don’t really know what else I can do with it.
I’d like to give the ducks more of an established pond; something big enough to have plants and
possibly minnows in. I’m concerned that I’m running out of space!