Lines of Sight--addendum

Framing the view.

If there is some way you can create a frame around your view, try to do so. It adds to the intrique and mystery of the garden. So, to take Anne's maple tree for an example, she would stand (or sit) in the spot where she would see it (or along the axis of the long line of sight if that's what she wants), hold up a mat from a picture frame: everything, if anything, inside the "hole" should be removed and plantings positioned anywhere from where she is positioned to the tree in the area of the mat. Because of perspective, the plants don't actually have to be right bside the tree--and if they were they'd probably be too far away to be effective. Probably.

Vistas Can Be Small

Secondly, you don't need a lot of space to lead the eye. Thinking you do is what comes of reading too many gardening books and looking at 200 year old English Gardens. We've been out walking the neighbourhood in the evenings this week, and I've been taking my camera to get shots of plants and people's front yards. This house is on a corner lot. When one passes it on the side, some slate stone pavers lead away from the front walk to the side: and stop. I'd always thought it weird until I saw the picture.



See? The stones lead the eye right to the grasses. Clever. (And it may even be "framed" in time if that little low growing mounded bush in the foreground grows to an appreciable size.)