Planning before planting

[Art]

It seems like an obvious thing to do, plan your plant layout before you start planting. However, I'm always surprised at how few people actually take the time to plan their planting. I think hardscape gets a much more important role with people but plants, not as much.

Amano is the first person that I heard of that uses sticks to mark out the plan that he developed on paper. This is a picture from Joseph Rodriguez that, to me, exactly captures the benefit of using this technique.



As you can see above, the sticks outline planting areas. I know my friend Jurijs, a professional aquascaper from Germany, learned this technique from Amano when he was helping mount the Florestas Submersas exhibit. Can you see how this could be useful, especially for Dutch, Dutch-inspired or Garden-style? Or, as my friend @GreggZ would say, a freshwater reef.

You can see how it looks from the front in Joseph's image below. Man! What a clean cabinet!

What technique do you use when planting or re-planting your tank? I use the sticks along with drawing the rule of thirds onto the front pane with removable marker.

 

[Pepere]

I planned my first layout. And planted to plan,, and have been continually swapping things around changing out plants etc…

Probably a much more useful tool once you get experience and knowledge under your belt…

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

@Pepere Was gonna say this myself. This comes with more experience when you learn what plants work in what sections of the scape, growing habits, light tolerances etc. Any “plan” I’ve ever had was changed up for one of the above reasons, trial and error. It’s even more difficult when you incorporate hardscape and take into account viewing angles and flow patterns. So many factors come into play to make a scape work

 

[Count Krunk]

My only plan is fore mid back hardscape growers as i do not know nearly enough about individual plants lol.

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

I usually just attach blue painter's tape to the hardscape. anything going in the soil i just tab chopsticks, popsicle sticks, w/e i can find laying around LOL

 

[GreggZ]

I planned my first layout. And planted to plan,, and have been continually swapping things around changing out plants etc…

Any “plan” I’ve ever had was changed up for one of the above reasons, trial and error. It’s even more difficult when you incorporate hardscape and take into account viewing angles and flow patterns. So many factors come into play to make a scape work

While I see the planning technique above as a useful tool, like the quotes above I find that a tank changes and takes on a life of it's own over time. I actually get a kick out of it when new people show detailed drawings of their planned layout. Very rarely does it end up that way.

I know in my tank I am constantly moving things around and adding/substracting plants. I often sit in front of the tank and stare at it for awhile, or look at past and present pictures to see what I like and don't like. It's a process that's hard to describe. I try to see in my mind what I want it to be and then try to execute that vision, but even then things don't always work out when you actually see it in person.

So for me it's been many, many years of trial and error. Sometimes I feel I am getting it more right, but there are always flaws and something to improve upon. I guess that is what makes the hobby great. You don't ever really spike the ball it's a constant evolving process.

You know you got it bad when you pull a section you just planted to move it all over 1"........and then move it back again when you see that were wrong! Come to think of it maybe being half nuts is a good qualification for a planted tank. Because if you aren't half nuts already then trying to achieve your vision can take you there!!