How do you evaluate the performance and impact of your planting design over time?

1 Goals and objectives

Before you can evaluate your planting design, you need to define your goals and objectives for the project. What are the desired outcomes and benefits of your planting design, and how do they align with the client's needs, the site's context, and the project's vision? Your goals and objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART), and they should guide your selection of plants, layout, maintenance, and monitoring. For example, your goals and objectives could be to enhance biodiversity, reduce stormwater runoff, create seasonal interest, or provide shade and comfort.

2 Performance indicators

Once you have your goals and objectives, you need to identify the performance indicators that will help you measure and evaluate your planting design. Performance indicators are measurable variables that reflect the extent to which your planting design is achieving its goals and objectives. They can be qualitative or quantitative, and they can be related to different aspects of your planting design, such as environmental, social, economic, or aesthetic. For example, some common performance indicators for planting design are plant survival and health, soil quality, wildlife diversity and abundance, water use and infiltration, carbon sequestration, user satisfaction and behavior, maintenance costs, and visual appeal.

3 Data collection

To measure your performance indicators, you need to collect data on your planting design over time. The type and scale of your planting design, the resources and budget available, and the accuracy and reliability required will determine the methods used for data collection. Observation is one option, which can involve recording physical and biological characteristics such as plant growth, flowering, diseases, pests, weeds, soil moisture, erosion, litter, wildlife activity, and user interaction. Sampling and analyzing the soil, water, or plant tissue of your planting design can assess the chemical and biological properties and processes that affect it. Additionally, surveys and interviews with users, stakeholders or experts can gather opinions, preferences, perceptions, experiences or feedback on your planting design. Tools such as checklists, maps, photos, videos or apps can be used for observation; soil probes, water meters or test kits for sampling; and questionnaires, interviews or focus groups for surveys.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?