The principles of design that I find helpful...

The following is a repost from June 2010. I actually spent about four hours creating a post on 'what the garden has taught me' (gardening lessons learned from gardening) which Blogger managed to eat and destroy this evening and I don't have the will to start over I'm afraid. At any rate, what follows is still pertinent to the way I garden... take care, Larry

From June 2010:
We are on a short hiatus from heavy bloom just now... a natural progression that normally happens around the beginning of June. It's an opportunity to look past all those blossoms and see if the garden design is really working without the distraction of bloom. I took a garden tour last evening with this very thing in mind and camera in hand... 

I'm certain that all garden designers have their design principles well in hand as they approach any new space. I believe it is P. Allan Smith who so frequently refers to his twelve principles of design. I've watched the television shows and read the book, but to be honest, I couldn't tell you what those principles are if asked.... what works for me is what I've discovered through my years of experience. Perhaps my own design principles are the same as those of others, but I assure you that this is not imitation... rather it's the sense that builds within the old gardener's soul after years of experimenting and settling on what feels right.

Here are basic tenets that I try to apply to my gardens.

1. Use of contrasting textures

2. Use of color (note that I'm not referring to the passing color of blossoms... they are simply icing on the cake to my way of thinking)

3. Layering and creating structure

4. Focal points...  I suspect this concept is basic to any true gardeners thinking and focal points don't necessarily need to be an object... in fact many gardeners have way too many objects in their landscapes which can be very distracting.

Allow me to share a few photos from yesterday and this foggy morning to demonstrate how I use my gardening concepts. In this photo you can observe a large variety of textures... three different conifers versus large leafed hostas, and narrow leafed vertical siberian iris foliage... the spiral shape of the lily foliage and the texture of the exposed trunks of the trees. The conifers are green and two shades of blue, while the focal point becomes the yellow montana aureomarginata and further color contrast is provided by the tricolor european beech. Eventually there will be a bloom period for the sibs and the lilies, as well as the verticality of digitalis (just installed here) to the left in the photo, but that color will be relatively short lived and the composition needs to work based on pre and post bloom. A sense of looking through a tunnel is crated by the use of layering.

This photo was taken in the fog at about 6:00 a.m. this morning in the area I call the birch walk. I installed four clumps of whitespire birch in a gentle curve. The path purposely narrows in the distance to create an illusion of even greater distance... the use of yellow leafed hostas such as Liberty work to draw the viewers eye into the distance and give a sense of wondering where the path may lead. The most important texture here is the bark of the white birch which contrasts nicely with blue conifers on either side of the path. Another major textural element is the fernleaf european beech's lancianated foliage on the right side of the path. The green grass lays the canvas for all of these aspects to work together. I use lawn areas extensively in my gardens and appreciate how they set off the landscaping concepts that I try to incorporate. Layering is less obvious in this area of the garden.

The same concept is used for the gazebo path in terms of creating distance and surprise. The addition of rock walls and white pillars reference texture as well as color. The color of the yellow barberry and montgomery spruce will remain consistent throughout the season. The large norway spruces are pruned in such a way as to frame the view and need attention from time to time as they droop and need additional pruning. The color of the rock walls is picked up in the gazebo which is only exposed enough to create a sense of curiosity for the viewer. The dark cedar barked fence in the distance creates a 'black hole' as it were at the end of the tunnel, thereby creating an even greater sense of distance.

Here is another example of using color and layers in the landscape... by now it's fairly obvious that I like the combination of soft yellows and creams with blues. In this example I use the Mildred Seaver hosta to pick up the color in the variegated maple. Additionally I've used a lot of blue hostas such as Halcyon, and Camelot for contrast. I may add some impatiens to this area, but if not, it seems to work fairly well.

In this example, the odd fence serves as the focal point and in season, the hyper tuffa containers that rest on it. The mid level height of all this add to the dimension of layering, and the odd succulents in the containers bring color to the scene. There are a number of textural contrasts, but the most obvious is the hostas and astilbes as they play off the rustic fence and hyper tuffa.

This next scene contains something that is lacking in other areas of my gardens... this is the only place that I have mature trees. These siberian elms were fast growers and are extremely messy, but by exposing so much of their trunks, I was able to create an appearance of age that really allows some pretty significant layering in the design. Fastigiate english oaks provide the second level down, along with a couple of spruce... the third layer is provided by pagoda dogwoods, followed by shrubs such as the azaleas... At the bottom of pyramid are low conifers such as the slow growing bird's nest spruces, thujopsis, and a number of chamaecyparis cultivars. The colors in this area are primarily shades of green with the exception of seasonal bloom.

This area speaks to all of my design principles... There is a lot of texture and color variation between the various conifers... also in relation to the Intersectional hybrid peonies. Layering occurs naturally because of the various levels of dwarfness of the conifers I've chosen. It is obvious that the column is a focal point, but the bench is too much... it simply doesn't work here, being a distraction and will get moved soon.... were it just the bench, it might work better, but in my opinion two focal points are too many here...

The following photo shows more of the colors and textures that work all season in this area, with the exception of the aesculus blooms...

Here is another example, taken in the early morning fog, it emphasizes texture, color, and layering... the pagoda dogwoods tend to be the focal point whether in bloom or not...

With that I'll end my thoughts on the design principles that I like to put to use here at Oak Lawn... Larry

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