Planning The Garden...

Press, Volume C, Issue 29511, 12 May 1961, Page 8

Planning The Garden...

[No. 1 of • Sorias]

There is one further point to discuss before we get down to the actual layout of a garden. and that is what is called, for the want of a better term, the “principle* of design." These principles are the same as those which govern any art —and after all, garden planning is an art, too, just as much as drawing or painting, or the design of Sood pottery. An appreciaon of these principles is necessary to produce any object wnich gives others pleasure. SiripHelty is a primary quality. Simplicity both of design, and of the plants we use in a garden. There seems to be a common feeling that the more complex a garden, then the more interesting it is. Hie most satisfying gardens, however, are those in which the general layout is not cluttered up with a host of unrelated features. How often do we see a spacious lawn entirely lose its effect

because it is cluttered with small beds, each containing one shrub? One feature must be dominant. Often it is the la- n, which the owner has wisely allowed large enough to act as the co-ordinating feature. Sometimes it may be a mature tree which is on your section when you purchase it. Whatever the dominant feature may be, you should not allow it to lose its emphasis to other competing parts of the design. In just the same way you should not have too many colours in a bedding scheme all jostling With each other for your attention, or too many contrasting shapes and- sizes of plants. It simply leads to

confusion on the part of the observer. Any woman who takes an interest in her appearance knows not to wear an ensemble with too many items fighting for interest; instead, the costume would be the dominant feature, with all the other Accessories to w tch. Scale of the design refers to the proportions of one part to another. There must be a relationship between the various parts. This is generally realised unconsciously, but we do occasionally see a house in which the flower beds are too narrow for the size of the lawn, or a tree too big for either the section or the house on it. When thinking about plants to go on our section, too, we must remember this, for it is ultimate size which we should visualise when considering the layout. What is in scale now could be grossly out of scale in ten years’ time—and, vice-versa —what looks under-planted now could be just right at maturity. There is another point-space in the garden filled with nothing is often as important as space filled with tall shrub*. It is very easy to overfill a garden with feature. And the empty space, since it is part of the design, must also scale with the rest. Balance is important too. Without balance in a design the picture w’hich has been created has no stability. A garden with a large tree on one side of the section and a central pathway is very

lopsided, because there is nothing on the other side of the pathway to balance the tree. But if th® pathway is brought nearer to the tree the lopsidedness is reduced. It is just the same as two children sitting on a see-saw Two of equal weight balance perfectly, but a heavy one and a light one can only balance if the heavy child is nearer to the balance point In the example I gave the pathway was acting as the balance point The width of beds on either side of a drive way, or the planting across the front of a house should both be considered from the point of view of balance. Unity in a garden is necessary to make sure that the various parts of the garden form a unified whole, and don’t remain as divorced segments with little relationship to each other. The rose garden, the herbaceous border, the shrub plantings should all be capable of standing on

their own aa separate features. but the design of the garden must link them together into a unified whole. One of the best ways of unifying a garden 1* by the use of focal points. A focal point may be any garden feature which can attract interest—a good garden plant, a garden seat, steps, an ornament, or what you will. The eye travel* to the focal point along the vista between the observer and the focal point. In doing >o it passes swiftly over the features alongside the vista, and these features are linked by being subservient to the vista. The vista is usually given dominance by giving it increased

width so that it becomes a natural linking pathway, if the garden Is skilfully planned one single item can act as the focal point for several vistas. These four points underlie any good garden design. A knowledge of them does not tell you how to plan a garden —far from it—but a knowledge of them will show you why your garden is not as satisfying as it could be, and perhaps enable you to modify your plans to make your design more pleasing.