After a few years experience designing gardens, I found that there’s an important learning process behind every successful design. It should come as no surprise that the first learning curve in any garden design involves plants. Take a moment to consider the space you wish to garden. Is it sunny, or shady, or a little bit of both? Is your space wet or dry? Now take this simple checklist to the garden store and begin to open the doors to your imagination. Have your friendly neighborhood garden store clerk show you around to the plants that fit your site. Before buying anything make a checklist of what you find. Start with the plants that catch your eye. Mark their shapes, sizes, textures, bloom times, and leaf and bloom colors. Look for plants that contrast with each other in color and texture. Choose plants in a variety of height ranges. Have a look at trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. The more plants you consider for your landscape, the more informed you can feel about your choices.
Once you’ve made a complete checklist of all the plants that catch your eye, sit with your list for a while in the space to be gardened. Take in everything that surrounds the space. You’re going to want to choose plants that work well with their visual environment so determine what it is that defines the edges of the space. Is it up against a house or fence? You wouldn’t for instance want to place a large shrub in front of a window, as that may block the view, but you may want to use some plants for blocking the sight of utility meters or a compost pile. Consider whether you’ve got a canopy to tie into visually through the use of large shrubs.
Next imagine the plants on your list at their full size and start by placing these imaginary creatures in the new garden. I like to build from the back of a space toward the front starting in back with the tallest plants. At this point it may be helpful to get out some sticks or marking tools to poke into the ground wherever you think the plants could go. Once you have found potential homes for the largest of your selections, begin to place markers for the mid-sized and smaller plants as well. With some smaller plants you may want to plan for groupings to be planted instead of individuals. I love for my gardens to draw my eye up and in, so I like to have very short plants in the front, and create a sort of asymmetrical stair step effect by building upward in height till my eyes find the tallest plants in back. For the health of your gardens it’s important to plan the space so that it’s covered in green. Too often I see gardens that are mostly wood mulch with plants scattered throughout. We don’t want your new garden to end up looking like the gas station or bank up the road, so instead of planning to use mulch, plan for ground covering plants in and around the larger plants. After you’ve found a place for all of your plant selections step back and imagine them all together. While imagining the new garden notice if there are any empty spots. Ask yourself if there is enough variation in height, and texture. Determine whether there is enough collaboration of textures as well, do some of the plants shapes or textures get repeated throughout the garden thus pulling the eye along? Make sure your list will create a garden in bloom from the time the ground thaws in the spring till the hard freezes of fall hit. Consider the winter season. Ornamental grasses can be a beautiful accompaniment for the garden as their slim textures will still be present throughout winters as well. Many plants will act as snow catches through the cold months giving us gardeners a reminder of the glorious growing season past, while providing us hope for the warmth and growth to come.
It is now be time to fill in any weak spots on your plant list and then head back to the garden store to fill up your family truckster with all of your green selections. After you’ve prepared the soil with compost you’re going to be ready to place your plants in their potential homes. Remember the key word here is potential as building any garden is a sculpting process, and your plant placement may need adjusting once you see the plants in the spot that you’d imagined them. Move the plants around until your satisfied with their placement and…. You’re ready to plant!
If you thought that up until now you’ve been very patient with this process, you may be surprised at how much more patience is required to enjoy watching your garden fill in and become itself. Just like with our children, we may have hopes and desires for what they will become, we may even spend our lives guiding them along, but ultimately our children and our gardens are a reflection of so much more then our desires and hopes. The things we love have a life of their own, and the best any gardener can hope for is to be available to offer guidance throughout the growing process.
"To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master."
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
“Yes. Shrubberies are my trade. I am a shrubber. My name is Roger the Shrubber. I arrange, design, and sell shrubberies.”
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The Seed Vol. 18 Aug. 20, 2008 A Giving Tree Gardens Newsletter
Photos by Russ Henry ©2008 ,Text by Russ Henry ©2008 by Giving Tree Gardens, all rights reserved.
“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.”
Plant Profile:
Rhus aromatica
Fragrant 'Gro-Low' Sumac
Need to control that slope before it runs down to the sidewalk below? Do you wish you had a shrub that would look attractive in the sun or shade? Look no further my friends. If I had a nickle for every time I've recomended the use of this 'Gro-Low' Sumac, I'd have a big jar of nickles! Unlike the sumac you may be used to seeing along Minnesota highways, this form of fragrant sumac stays low to the ground reaching only a height of 3 feet tall,but the spread of this hardy shrub is between 6 and 8 feet wide, making it a perfect canditate for slope and run-off control! Small attractive yellow blooms in the spring are followed by a season of changing foliage color. The leaves start out bright lime green, and by the time mid-summer rolls around the first leaves of the season have turned dark forest green while new foliage consistantly emerges bright and beautiful. If all that eye catching green isn't enough to sell you on bringing one of these verdant creatures home, then just have a look at it's fiery orange-red fall color.
Giving Tree Gardens in the Co-op news!!!!!
Garden Design 101
Garden design can be a daunting subject even for some of us with green thumbs. I’ve encountered lots of folks who are somewhat mystified by the abilities of others to design attractive gardens. I must admit I recall a time when although I’d had years of experience working in nurseries, I was intimidated by the prospect of making my own garden designs. As with any investment in time, energy, or money, it’s important to feel successful in order to boost confidence, and I’ve come to the conclusion that success in garden design is achievable for anybody willing to be patient with themselves and their garden.
Note the use of perennials, and annuals along the garden border. In this picture you can also see foliage contrasting in color and shape as well as visual collaboration between the thin leaved grasses that flow throughout the space.
In this brand new North Oaks garden, decorative boulders and pieces of wood have been incorporated in order to provide a wisened, aged feel. Your garden is your imaginations play ground!
The blank pallet that was the front of Bobbie and Tarmo's Noth Oaks home was a sweet delight for this dirt gardener. The visual impact of changing this space entirely has been enough to slow passing neighbors, and with many years of change and growth to come, this garden should be stopping traffic well into the future.
In order to add a little traditional flair to this baby garden, we've incorporated the use of cairns,or rock stacks that show the way along a path. The beauty of these simple decorations are proof positive that patience pays!
