Cape Town - What is the secret of a successful garden?
It is knowing when to keep the good, and when to remove anything that hasn’t been successful. Sometimes all that is wrong is that the balance has been lost.
Gardens are now high fashion and landscape designers are regarded as specialist exterior decorators. With loads of plant knowledge and an artistic eye, they know when to leave a space or when to fill it, how to make the maximum use of colour, and where to position statuary and ornaments.
What can you learn from top landscape designers?
The importance of space
One of the most misunderstood elements in garden design is space. Space in a garden can be defined as the distance between an avenue of trees, between the house and the boundary, or a transitional space between indoors and outdoors, such as a patio or pergola.
Traditional Japanese gardens emphasise the importance of leaving space for quiet contemplation and thought. The minimalist garden visualises and uses space as a sculptural concept, where the emphasis is on clean lines and pure form – where a space is deliberately left empty to create a void.
Space is important in all gardens to a lesser or greater degree, depending on the style of the garden. In a formal garden, space remains more or less constant, because plants are restricted by regular trimming and pruning. The opposite applies in a cottage-style garden, where the emphasis is on an abundant, generous look.
The importance of colour
In our gardens, colour expresses our personal taste and preferences. Everyone reacts to colour differently; some people prefer subtle colours, while others are stimulated and excited by bold shades. Colours in a garden are not isolated and alter in relation to other colours and to the intensity of light.
Blue is a good colour to use throughout the garden. Grow bright blue flowers to emphasise a flight of steps, soft blue to carpet a mini-woodland. Don’t limit the use of blue to plants in a garden. Paint pots and benches and arches in grey-blue or jacaranda-blue, and repeat the colour in nearby flowers.
If you are not confident about using bold colours, pastels are one of the safest and easiest colour schemes. They will appear to add greater depth to a shallow border, and when planted along the length of a narrow garden will give the impression of greater distance. Pale colours are also useful for lighting up dark corners, remaining visible in the twilight long after darker shades have disappeared.
Purple adds depth to pastel colour schemes and looks stunning when combined with red, or when used as accent points with lemon flowers or lime-green foliage.
Dark foliage provides a strong contrast when combined with hot pink or lime green flowers. In a mixed border, apricot flowers mix well with copper and cinnamon foliage. Maroon foliage plants are effective in front of a grey wall, grey foliage against a maroon wall.
The importance of ornaments
There are as many reasons for including ornaments in a garden as there are for excluding them. If an ornamental feature is to look right, it should enhance the design of the garden and suit the architecture of the home.
A mischievous rabbit, a scarecrow or a “pot” man belong in a vegetable garden, animal wire sculptures made by local crafters make charming additions in herb and country-style gardens, and obelisks crafted out of saplings become focal points for climbing roses in borders.
Outdoor entertaining on a grand scale calls for an elegant setting, and this can be achieved with a paved area and classical pillars and overhead timbers as supports for a climber.
A statue, placed where paths intersect, commands attention; an arbour creates a destination. A garden bench can focus on an attractive view or a pretty border; a path can lead to a sundial surrounded by a ruffle of lavender.
Containers are not just for patios, they can be used as focal points at entrances, at doorways, and to define intersections at paths. Biodegradable pots and Perspex, fibreglass and metal containers are replacing classical urns.
Giant clay or glazed pots can be used in the garden as focal points, and often a row of containers will repeat one type of plant, such as bold-leafed phormium or restio, chosen for their interesting form. Large pots of clipped syzigium could define a walkway; an oversize jar would add importance to a pool.
In designing a garden, always take into consideration whether to fill or not to fill spaces, the choice of suitable ornaments and the pleasing use of colour.
Kay Montgomery, Weekend Argus