Apology: I think I've been confused.

I'm not sure how the minor vertical axes made it into this diagram, but I'm not sure I care.

As I drove to the grocery store (I love driving, I truly think I do my best thinking alone in the (quiet) car) I realised I have two competing ideas floating about in my head--and both have to do with axes, or "line of sight."

I'm not sure how to put this: but one involves creating the line of sight along a path: i.e, where there are no actual plantings except to the sides of the line of sight (to enframe the view and lead one down the path). The focal point is at the end of the path--or as something said in something I read today--the focal point is at the terminal end of the axis.

The other idea is that the line of sight may not be clear of plantings. In fact, the focal point in a planting bed, indeed, would not and could not be. So, the focal point "along the line of sight" would indeed terminate at the axis from the spot where you are looking, but it would be from a static spot (like out the window). These to can be "framed" and backed and so on and so forth.

The difference, obviously, is how you get to it.

So, with that set to percolate in the back of my mind, I'm off to look at more flowering shrubs.

Week 3: GT: Shape

(Square Garden at Waltham Place, Berkshire)

One of the most basic steps after determining what "rooms" your landscape will include (and what their purpose should be) is to decide what shape they ought to take. You can either begin here...or end up here, depending on which way you prefer to work.

Whichever approach you take, you will want to have done a scale drawing of the area you're working with. Here's mine:

(That dot in the lower left corner is the flag pole.)

If you want to end up with your borders, you follow these steps:

1. Find your "main view"
2. Determine your focal point.
3. Frame your focal point.
4. Determine the secondary view.
5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above.
6. Now, arrange the focal points. Imagine each little "nest" of frames and focal points is a piece of furniture and move them around on your scale plan of the area you're working with. Your focal points will lead the eye "around the room" so make sure it doesn't lead it to anything unpleasant (like the telephone pole, or whatever.)
7. Draw a border. You can do this two ways: a) draw a loose shape, equi-distant from each focal point, or b) simply trace the outline of the frames and adjust accordingly.

When I was playing around with this approach and sketches, I came up with this:


It's a nice plan, focusing on the entryway and making the most of that wretched sidewalk. In fact, that my efforts were on the right track was confirmed by a "front entry" planting plan I came across in a book. I re-created it and looked up each plant listed in order to get a feel for the layout. I made my own colour coded sketch.


Isn't it lovely?

(Another way to use the idea of a bouquet: just turn it on its side and find plants to "fill it in." Sort of a gardening 'paint by numbers' approach.)

But note this: once the blooms fade, there is nothing, nothing interesting here at all. Even if I switched out the plantings with conifers, dogwoods and grasses, the dominant perspective changes from looking in from the street to out through the windows, and so the plan (and the approach) does not work for me.

No, because "winter interest" is almost more important in this place where we have more days of winter than any other season*, I have to start with what will be left when summer is over, and that means the framework, the out-line, viz. the shape of the garden.

So, there are triangles, as we've seen, circles, squares, and rectangles, and of course, combinations. The recommendation is to go with the shape which is the "most natural" for the space.

I toyed with circles for a long time. I love the look of a circle within a square, especially.


And then, there's the circle "wheel" which I also love:

(Not one plant is over 8" high in this planting bed.)

But here's how circles/ovals would look in my garden:



Somehow, they're all out of proportion to the space and, unfortunately, don't really "fit."

Then, there are rectangles. I'm currently working on an idea with three long rectangles crossing the house and a center ellipse.


A "transparent" fence on the bottom, (12-13 feet deep) provides a low boundary and winter interest (it's deep enough for conifers to "back" a few dogwoods). The ellipse in the center gives us a limited amount of grass to mow and provides a focal point at each end. (Making the flag pole one of the "frames" for the focal point instead of the focal point itself was last night's inspiration)

The planting bed in the third rectangle, closest to the house, gives me all the "playing" room I want (and maybe more than I want.) The only disadvantage to this extremely linear plan is our wacky, nasty, sidewalk to the house. It was very poorly done and I think we both want to replace it. (Some day.)

So, this is another way to approach designing the landscape. It gives you a few bones on which to scaffold the rest of your plantings and plans.

*according to one source, on average, we have 145 "continuous frost free days" and 225 days "outside the frost free period" i.e., winter.

Oh Dear--

Updated 5:10pm
After reading Zooza's and Anne's comments and feeling encouraged, I called to find out just how big that Thuja was I'd seen in the pot. Turns out it is about a foot and a half, "two feet at most"--and the helpful fellow also told me it grows into an "egg" shape--not a round shape. If I want round, I should be looking at 'Danica' or a 'Hetz Midget'. They turn into round ones. The moral of the story is still the same, though: I will have to "go slow." Small conifers grow slowly--it will take them 10 years to grow to maturity. (We may be able to afford the iron railing by then!)

Window shopping at the Nursery yesterday was an eye-opener. They want $30-50, per plant. The evergreen shrub I'm particularily interested in grows to 5 feet by 5 feet. (Thuja occidentalis, 'Little Giant') I know this isn't quite right: but that's about $10/linear foot.

I just called an architectural salvage place to see if they had any small sections of iron railing fencing. They do. It's $10 a linear foot (but he said I may be able to talk him down to $9).

My front property is 49 feet long across the front (not including the walkway) and 39'9" long to the sides of the house. (There's only two corners, in all that.)

So, my "plan" to do a 'transparent' fence of shrubs interspersed with lengths of iron railing is going to cost over $1,000.00

We can't do that. And I haven't even started on actual "pretty plants" yet. No wonder so many yards are barren wastelands with overgrown conifers.

See? I'm not the only one. Must have been a trend back when these houses were built, we see so many!

Where do I go from here?

I'm also becoming thoroughly discouraged at even being able to find any green "background" evergreen shrubs of a decent size (but less that 6 feet) that will grow in part shade in Zone 3. (Thuja does best in full sun and the shaggy, leggy bush in the front is a larger Thuja.)

Not sure what tack to take now.

GT Week 3. Colour: (Kill me now.)

I apologise for possibly being mistaken for a planted p.r. agent for P. Allen Smith. But after I read his book, "Colors in the Garden" last night, I feel like I can begin to tackle the whole conundrum. I'm going to do my best to encapsulate the advice he gives.

How to pick a colour scheme.

1) Connect the colours from inside your home to the outside.

If you have a peach, green and yellow scheme in the living room, repeat that outside the living room window.

2) Reveal or conceal your home.

Reveal:

figure out the style of house you have, choose colours for your garden which reflect that style. e.g, choose warm Mediterranean colours for an Italianette home.

a note for brick home dwellers: if your home is a red-orange brick, don't pick any plants which may have a blue-red in them. They will clash. And vice versa.

Conceal:

Paint your home cream, tan, grey, or white. Then pick any colour scheme you like.

3) Play off Nature.

Take a walk around a natural area where you live. Take the camera. Take pictures. Notice the colours in the "natural foliage." Use plants with those colours.

4) Feature a Favourite

Pick a plant, any plant you like. Find every colour in it: every shade of green, every shade of whatever.

Pick a colour from a paint chip. Take particular plants you're thinking of using and place them against the painted board. Watch what happens.

5)Embrace New Possibilities.

Buy flower arrangements which appeal to you and then find plants to match it.

Put new plants in pots. Move them about with each other and your other plants until you find a pleasing combination.

In all of this, be sure to contrast the textures of the plant and its foliage.

Designing with Colour.

Establish a backdrop.

make the backdrop uniform so the differences don't compete with the plants. (So, I'm dead on with wanting to paint the fence just a shade or two darker than the house). If two clashing materials must meet, you can place a simple divider in front, such as a green hedge, neutral coloured foliage, an arbor or trellis or other sorts of screens can be used to help "ease the eye" from one to the other.

the backdrop, whether shrubs, a trellis, a wall or a fence will be with you all season long. These define your boundaries.

One colour theme per "room."

1) Monochromatic:

a soothing scheme can be had from a monochromatic scheme: every tint and hue of purple, for example. Sections of one colour can be separated by foliage. (I think he means different sections of the same colour, not different sections of different monochromatic schemes, but it isn't entirely clear.)

you can pick one colour per season within the same room.

Unlike interiors, however, there is no such thing as a purely monochromatic garden. There will be all the different greens of the foliage in there, too.

You can also "shake up" a monochromatic border over time, too, gradually introducing other harmonious hues as you go.

2) Analogous:

He calls this "cousin colours." Bah. Simple: Choose all the colours you want, every tint and shade from within either the "warm" or the "cool" sides of the colour wheel. The plant world colour wheel is a bit different than what I'm used to. Yellow, apricot, orange and red are "warm" while blue, lavender to purple, pink and magenta are considered "cool."

In these schemes the proportions of colours is entirely up to you and whatever you prefer.

3) Mix across the colour wheel.

Here, proportion is important.

1. choose a dominant colour. It will represent about 50% of your plantings.

Make sure it works with all the other things already present, like the house colour, pavement, the fence, deck flooring, etc.

Make sure there are enough plants in that colour which will grow well in the soil and light conditions you have to work with.

2. Select three more colours which will harmonize or contrast with the dominant colour.
Colour #2--about 25% of your plantings
Colour #3--about 15 %
Colour #4--about 10% (sparkle and accent)

"The colours you choose and their ratio to one another is what creates a sense of harmony in the design." p. 60

The percentages are "guidelines" of course.

3. Throw in some pleasing neutrals!* You must! Yes, into each colour scheme. P. Allen Smith insists upon it. Calls them "seasonings" and what-not. (After Maxwell's admonition to create a room with a palette consisting of 80% neutrals, this is NOT hard to swallow.) Neutrals can brighten a scheme, tone it down, or harmonize.

Planting

Plant in large drifts.

Use odd numbers of plants in your groupings.

Establish rhythm with repetition.

divide the length of the bed into five foot intervals and then fill a section of the border with a colour combination of six or so plants assembled in a pleasing arrangement. Before repeating the colour combination again,** create a pause in the border by planting a cluster of transitional plants in a harmonizing color such as gray or green, and then add your next color grouping. Continue this pattern down the length of the bed. In this situation the pauses or breaks between the groupings create enough definition to set up an interesting rhythm of colour. p.72

Use Time.
I barely understand this, but I'm sure I will once I'm more familiar with the behaviour of plants.

As perennials bloom and fade, different ones can take "center stage" gradually altering the colour scheme of a given bed in a given season. The key to making it work, he says, is "to keep a constant colour scheme running through the garden as one colour segues into the next."

There's more, including lists of plants organized by colour. I highly recommend the book if you're interested.

*The range of "neutrals" include: green, chartreuse, glaucos (blue-green), variegated, silver, white, tan to brown, and black.

**Note he said "colour combination" and not "plant combination."