Garden Planning and Landscape Design

Flower Garden 2

MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN and said of the importance of design in even the smallest garden. That is, basic, "drawingboard" design, if we may use the term. But we feel that too little has been said about carrying out that design in terms of plant material. It is easy to draw lines on paper and make a pretty plan; a well designed one, too. Carrying that plan out in living material is another matter. Too few of us, and we include the profession, realize that if we would succeed in creating a garden that is wholly pleasing we must use the right plant in the right place. When we fail to accentuate good design by proper planting it is no longer effective, and of course no amount of planting will cover up poor design.

There is great danger that enthusiasms for plants as such may lead to the creation of gardens which are highly floriferous at one season and a dreary waste at others; or one may simply gather plants together and create a plant collection rather than an artistic display suited to the design, the locality, the site, or even one's personality. After all, a garden isn't merely an assemblage of plants. It is an artistic creation combining in itself pure design, architecture, plant material, and the sky overhead. It is a fundamental principle of landscape design that all gardens must have enclosure and a proper background. Three or four beds grouped around a sundial in the middle of the lawn fail to function as a garden until they are enclosed. The very term "garden" means an enclosed area. You must realize, furthermore, that much of the effectiveness of plant detail, color, texture, and grace of form is lost if there is no effective background to serve as a foil for their loveliness.

The best and tallest spires of Delphinium ever seen would hardly be noticed unless there was some background against which they would stand out boldly. No garden can be properly admired if the attention is distracted from it to the surrounding landscape, the distant view, the neighboring yards, buildings, and activities.