Landscape gardening – a true test of creativity
April 24, 2009 by The Gardener
Filed under Landscaping
Landscape gardening can be compared to the fine art of creating a piece of art – bit a drawing or a panting something from the mental imagery of the artist. In school your art teacher could have told you that every artist needs a core theme for his painting which is further adorned by the side elements, which further accentuate this core idea. In landscape gardening also, the creator of the garden must have a clear vision of how he would like his garden to look like, when finished. This article will discuss in detail, some theories behind landscape gardening, where you can put your all your creative skills to use.
Let us look at the concept of a lawn. The more open space there is, the more attractive it looks. Open spaces, located anywhere gives one the feeling of peace and tranquility. Similarly, in a lawn, try and keep as much open space as possible. If you clutter it with trees, bushes, hedges, etc, it will resemble an over-dressed person, where there is no focus or design aesthetics. For instance, a single tree is not a bad idea, but them you have to choose the tree properly. Try not to choose a central, huge and over powering tree that overshadows everything else. Choose a tree that works well as a backdrop. The tree thus chosen must have a good shape and something beautiful about its stem, bark, leaves, flowers or fruits.
For instance, the poplar is a magnificent tree but sheds leaves early which make it look bare and disenchanting most of the time. Before fall, the tree has nearly become old. Yet there are many places where a double row of Lombardy poplar looks wonderful. But I suppose you will agree that a single poplar looks kind of empty and barren. The catalpa tree on the other hand is a lovely tree with broad leaves, attractive flowers and seed pods which cling on to the tree, till winter is over. This adds a lot of picture-like quality to the garden or lawn. The ash tree with its bright berries, the vibrant leaves of the sugar maple, colorful tulip blossoms, and the bark of the legendary white birch tree and the magnificent foliage of the copper beech tree are some of the points to ponder when thinking of creating a garden of your choice.
The venue where you will plant the tree also makes a difference in its appearance. If the place is low and moist, it is good for a willow tree. Try and avoid grouping trees which have different shapes. For instance, the long and tall poplar would look awkward with a short and plum tulip tree beside it. Similarly chestnut, a tree that spreads and is broad would not look nice beside a juniper tree which is smart and trim in shape. Thus the size and proportion of a tree must be kept in mind while planting them in your garden.
According to my opinion, evergreen trees should not be kept close to any house, as these are normally large and the front yard of the house would get completely covered and look gloomy by its presence. These trees normally completely block the house from any sunlight which in turn makes it very unhealthy to love in. sunlight is essential for any house as it keeps illnesses away and makes the environment cheerful.
Like you choose a tree for your garden for the good points about the tree, similarly you must also choose the shrubs because of its many good attributes. The ideal would be a judicious combination of shrubs with varying blooming periods, some for the beauty for their leaves, some for the good looking flowers and fruits, some for the colors of their barks, etc. Take the example of spireas and the forsythia which bloom rather early. The bark of the redwood tree can add some color to your garden in winter. Then there are the red berries of the barberry which look wonderful as they cling on to the shrub throughout winter.
If you are thinking of a fence for the garden, choose a hedge instead of a fence. Some shrubs are excellent for using as a hedge. The Californian privet, Osage orange, Japan barberry, buckthorn, Japan quince, and Van Houtte’s spirea are some shrubs which are very suitable for the purpose of a hedge.
There is one important point to remember when buying trees or shrubs for landscaping your garden. It is better to buy such things from the area where you live in. Foreign and exotic plants look well bit many times can not survive the new soil and environment.
You could take both the formal and informal route while doing landscape gardening. While the formal route would be in straight rows, symmetrical lines, the informal route is just the opposite. There are some points to be cautious about, in both these routes.
The formal look runs the risk of looking very official and stiff; the informal route can make your garden look very clumsy and untidy. For instance, when you design pathways, remember the patch must lead the visitor somewhere; it must give some kind of direction to the walker. While straight and even pathways give the garden a formal and smart look, curved pathways can be very abrupt and steep if you plan it wrongly. Unless you can create a gentle bend to the patch, it is better to stick to straight pathway.
Garden paths should be made of gravel or grass or dirt. Though grass pathways look wonderful, I wonder whether they would look equally beautiful in smaller gardens. Since grass pathways need spading every season, this could be a real bother for a small garden owner. For a gravel patch, follow this process: dig out the pathway two feet deep; fill it six inches with stone or clinker; then put in dirt giving it a round shape at the center of the path. Ensure that there are no dents along the pathway, as then, water may settle in these little spaces. Of course, the under layer of stone provides a natural drainage system.
Many homes need vines and flowers to be tied on the ground. Vines are excellent for this and if you plant perennial vines, it can lend a permanent beauty to the house. The Virginia creeper, wisteria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are the best choices for vines.
If you can visualize a natural-colored house with a purple wisteria – isn’t that appealing? I remember in my childhood home there was a trumpet vine which was limping over a trellis. Though it was an awkward angle, it remained beautiful memory nevertheless.
The morning glory, the moon vine and the wild cucumber are annual vines which are planted to perform a specific function. Most people plant these vines to cover up a ‘dirty’ or ‘unsightly’ part of the house and these vines do a wonderful job out of it.
In case there is an old fence, try a hop vine which looks beautiful. You might have noticed the ampelopsis vine festooning from one rotten tree to another. These ideas can work well for landscape gardening.
Flower beds look wonderful along the side of the house or as a border for the walkway. Of course keep the frontal of the lawn free from flower beds. But imagine a bed of daffodils on the front portion of the house welcoming visitors. Similar beauty is shared by hyacinths and tulips. Snowdrops and crocuses are good choices for the frontal landscape of the lawn. According to bulb experts one should get a lot of bulbs in the fall season and sprinkle the bulbs randomly in the garden. Wherever the bulbs fall, plant them. Plant the bulbs in groups of four to six together. Daffodils are such bulbs which you could plant. Everybody remembers the grape hyacinths in Katherine’s side yard.
The right place for growing a flower garden is along the side or the back of the house. No one wants a beautiful garden in the front only to be shocked at the sight of a dump yard at the back of the house. You have the choice of making the flower garden in small neatly organized clusters or at random arrangements. When the blooms appear together as a large clutter, it looks wonderful.
You must have some basic ideas of color combinations while you are doing landscape gardening. Though colors grow randomly in nature, still it does not lose its magic appeal. This is mainly due to the endless green as the backdrop and the vastness of space – which is a rarity for most of us who are struggling with space. Thus the whole idea is to make the garden look classy and elegant in terms of choice of colors and not jerky, which make people blink in awe. If you want to break the monotony of colors or give a break between two loud colors, you could use masses of white flowers or something like mignonette which gives a soothing green tinge.
Thus in summary, landscape gardening is all about doing up your open lawn space with the choices flower beds and trees and shrubs which are not jarring to the eye; yet brings about a spirit of joy, happiness and peace. While designing pathways, remember to make them lead you somewhere and avoid sharp and jagged curves. You have the liberty of mixing both formal and informal ways of landscaping and if you can make a judicious combination, you can be assured of a brilliant result.
Darren Williger is a tea drinking, guitar playing, meditating, wine making sales maker who writes for MiniGarden.com, RoseMaven.com, and HomemadeWine.com.
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