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GREAT GARDEN DESIGN

(in the beginning…)

As much fun as it is to look at other people’s quirky creativity and try to copy it, there is wisdom in doing some homework first. Great gardens have basic design principles and gardening practices in common – but that doesn’t mean they look alike. Unforgettable gardens, like our Buffalo-style examples, take off from strong design elements. Consciously or simply intuitively, these gardeners apply design principles and then add those powerful, personal extras – the fun self-expression that comes later.

There is no sidestepping design. Before you decorate a house you have to build it. You’ll start with decisions about the setting, size, shape, and the features you require. In the garden world, before you choose and plant the flowers you must build the garden, starting with big decisions about location, shape, proportion and structures. Often this means you have to set aside the image of what’s there already, and possibly reevaluate your preconceptions about what’s normal in the neighborhood.

The McCall/Lach garden

It’s easy to accept a typical landscape in your neighborhood, or what was there when you moved in.

But it could be so much more!

Getting real about your space

If landscape design isn’t exactly your area of expertise (that would be most of us), it’s easiest to just accept the garden or yard you already have, or the one that was there when you bought the house. It takes some courage – and perhaps some coaching by someone with fresh eyes – to see that the 2-foot border along the back fence (that was always planted with Impatiens) is puny and disproportionate to the size of the yard. Or to notice that the expensive front landscape from twelve years ago is overgrown and no longer even remotely pretty. Avoid the trap of “what’s there” and think like a landscape designer: What could this space be?

Garden design can certainly sound downright daunting. Books, courses and online sources with “the principles of garden design” can overwhelm a gardener who just wants to plant some flowers and enjoy the yard. Or it’s boring. But design shouldn’t be a burden or a mystery. You probably already understand many design principles intuitively: You don’t put a polka-dot shawl over a plaid shirt, do you? You don’t buy ice cream parlor chairs to put around the grand oak dining room table. And you probably just know when a painting is too big for the room.

You already know a lot about design, so let’s find a common language for talking about it.

You may understand design intuitively, but it helps to articulate what design principles are in play. (The Hochadel/Tooke garden)

Learning to see

Sally: Before we look at more gardens, I would like to talk about how people do the looking. Millions of people tour gardens, but how many can consciously articulate what they have seen? Like so many people who visit gardens, I spent years looking but not seeing: I could not explain, after visiting a special garden, what made it special. Why did one garden cause visitors to say, “Wow” when other gardens – with equally pretty plants and apparently good horticulture – left a ho-hum impression: “Very nice… Loved those dahlias.”

I had not learned to learn from gardens. I looked but did not see.

My breakthrough came when my friend Joseph Han, a fine garden designer (The English Gardeners, Ltd.), showed me a client’s garden. He wanted my suggestions about perennials. We walked in the driveway and Joe opened the gate, giving me a quick first glance at the garden. From behind me Joe said something and I turned to respond. He said, “Wait – don’t look back yet. Tell me what you saw in that first glimpse; what do you remember?” It was Joe’s way of finding out what he had achieved, and what he could do better, to create a memorable first view of that garden.

It was my introduction to the Blink Test.

Ever since, I have used the “blink test” to help me see what was working or lacking in my own or clients’ gardens, and to help me write about gardens. Try it. Look at any space for one second – it could be your living room, the front of a house, or a garden – and then close your eyes. What did you see? Describe it. The answer will tell you lots about that space: Is there a focal point? Does it have a frame or a backdrop? What colors dominate? Where was your eye directed? The answers are clues to why a design is or is not effective, interesting or special – as opposed to just blah.

Of course there is more to garden design and plant selection than what you’ll see in the blink of an eye. But the approach helps the gardener or designer fill in the gap between “nice” and “wow.” It also helps the garden visitor articulate what she has just seen, and what was important in the picture.

The conscious effort to see and articulate led me to develop a series of lectures called “Lessons from Private Gardens” or “Peeking at Private Gardens: what they can teach you.” This book evolved from there. Whether they’re seeing Annabelle’s garden in Buffalo or a mansion garden in Newport, I would like people to get more out of garden touring beyond making a plant wish-list and remarking “Oh, that was pretty.” I wish them – you – to take home in your mind’s-eye what you have seen. Then apply some ideas. And make a personal, unforgettable garden.

Your Garden Design Starter Kit

Many fine gardeners don’t even know they are applying design principles, but if you look at their yards or gardens you’ll see that consciously or not somebody had considered the overview:

The principles of design for nearly any type of visual art include:

• Balance: Visual symmetry (or purposeful asymmetry) of objects, colors, texture and space. You also know it when you see it: A center entrance Colonial house might have precisely matching shrubs on either side of the front steps, and the same flowers lined up on the front path to the door. (It can be boring when symmetry goes too far!) An alternative is an asymmetrical design, which can be balanced and comfortable to look at and the opposite of boring.

• Proportion: The relationship in size of the various elements that make up a design. This feature is easy to feel when it’s “off,” although we all get used to things in our own gardens and can’t always change what’s there. Trees and shrubs need to be in proportion to the buildings and property; a landscape bed should be in proportion to the height of the house; the tallest shrub in a landscape bed should be in proportion to the size of the bed. But not always…proportion can be tricky. Look for examples of well-planned proportions in the great private gardens in this book, and see how some gardeners have made out-of-proportion plants appear to fit perfectly within their spaces.

An asymmetrical house design with asymmetrical, lush plantings. (The Bucheker/Case garden, Buffalo)

A tip about listening

Jim has managed about twenty portfolio workshops for aspiring student graphic designers, rather like “speed dating” events. In these workshops, multiple professionals review the students’ work. He offers you the same advice he gives to them – especially if you’re getting many opinions on what to do in your garden: If you keep hearing the same thing over and over again, don’t react with hurt feelings. Heed the advice. One-off suggestions are still valuable in one way or another – but if you’re hearing similar things from a variety of people, whether design pros or everyday gardeners, listen.

Oh, the heights your plants can reach!

Jim: When it comes to plant proportions, different kinds of plantings have different requirements – whether for borders, beds or containers. It’s all about scale in relation to what is around the plants or their containers.

Around a fence or wall: If they surround a border garden the fences or walls will tell you how tall the plants should get. You’ll want to integrate fence (or wall) and garden, so choose some plants tall enough to peek above the top to break the horizontal fence line. A 6-foot fence is asking for a 6½-foot-tall plant (or taller). The plants should be the focus, not the fence or the wall.

In garden beds or islands: You see these from all sides. A rule of thumb says your tallest plant should be less than two-thirds the width of the bed. It’s fine to break that rule, as it’s just a starting place. The larger the bed, the taller you should feel free to go. Just make sure the tallest plants are in or near the center, and the plants around them are scaled down in height. If the garden bed features artwork (or a mailbox!), don’t let the plantings overwhelm the featured item.

In relation to containers: You’ll be constrained somewhat by the size of the container, but standard advice is to choose tallest plants that are only as tall as the container is high. The wider the container, the larger the plants you can use as well. Very large containers may limit your options depending on where you place them. Consider how tall the plants will get eventually: Will they block a view or a window? Can you move the container if they do get too tall?

Eight Paths Garden

When you need taller plants in a hurry: You can easily get needed height by placing containers with tall plants in a bed or border. (Consider putting them on pedestals for even more height!) This way, you don’t have to commit to tall, permanent plants. You can switch up plants and change them from year to year until you find something that appeals to you.