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Where Would You Like To Sit?

I took a picture of my tripod outside the shop today.  I shortened the telescoping legs as much as I could.  This height put my camera just 24 inches above grade.  What is my idea here?  The perspective from which you view a garden, or a landscape, much influences how it should be designed.  My driveway is set at the same grade as my basement.  This means that even though I have a 1 story ranch, I see my driveway from a deck which is one story above that basement.  I don’t really spend time in my drive.  I load the dogs, and drive to work.  I unload the dogs when I come home from work, and walk up the basement steps to get into the house.  But  Buck and I frequently sit on the part of the deck that overlooks the drive.  This means we are looking down on that landscape.  This garden is an overlook garden. 

My tripod set at 24 inches tall records a different view.  The view I see when I am seated in my garden.  This post is not only a discussion of those factors that influence landscape design; it is my prelude essay to talking about choosing and planting containers.  The questions I ask first up, whether it be a consult for a landscape, garden, or containers-how will you view it?  Will you be looking from a second story window?  Will you be sitting next to it on a lounge chair on the terrace?  Will you be looking as you drive or walk by?  Is this a space you view from a window, or a place where you sit and spend time?  

Small containers are perfect on an outdoor table.  When you are seated, the presentation of a container and a planting is close to eye level.  The view of an 8 inch diameter pot when I am standing-a bird’s eye view.  Small pots, containers and urns need to be elevated for good viewing-and placed where you are likely to sit. 

Seated on a bench, I have a great view of these handmade Italian Terra cotta pots from the side.  I also have a great view of a pair of machine made Italian terra cotta pots.  What do I make of this?  Those places where I sit in my garden, those containers need to be every bit as beautiful as what is planted in them-I have a view that asks for that.  I sit in my rose garden.  I have faced down my arborvitae with boxwood; I need a landscape element at eye level that is beautiful.  Arborvitae tend to get thin and straggly at the bottom.  Were I viewing the arborvitae from the second floor, I would be less concerned with their habit at ground level. What is all around me in that part of the landscape where I spend time needs to stand up to close observation.  Places where I am looking from afar, or looking down-I need serviceable containers that feature the plants.  Any fabulous pot or garden ornament needs to be places where it can be seen-regularly.

Though I might be seated in a garden, I would not want every element at the same level.  A change of level provides great interest.  This two-tiered planter welcomes other elements at its feet.  It also permits a view through to an element further away.  The Cotswold stone pedestal is a visual stopper; it is solid and weighty.  The mix of the delicate steel legs and solid stone,  the objects set at different levels is visually interesting.  Every element here is providing company to what I see when I am seated. 

When I stand in my garden, the sky, and the trees of my neighbors comprise a large part of my view.  When I am seated, the sky is eliminated from my view.  The view as pictured above represents a much more intimate garden experience.  Landscapes that involve mountains and sky make for a much different, less personal experience.  

I have been made much more aware of the importance of what goes on at eye level, thanks to my corgis.  Their legs are barely 8 inches long.  They experience the world at a level that I never do-unless I am lying down on the lawn in my yard.  The world is entirely  different from this perspective.   

I love how I am seeing every container in this picture from the side. Low to the ground makes for clear observation of the details.  In the landscape industry, some trees are designated “park grade”.  This means they will suffice visually at a great distance.  A poorly grown tree will not survive visual scrutiny up close.

Many changes of level are represented here.  Were I to photograph the same spot while I was standing, the changes of level would not read nearly so well.  The idea here?  Any place you view your landscape standing up should be tall and taller-and then very tall.  Create an interesting great view at eye level.  The pots you choose for your front porch need to read from the street, and read when friends come to call.  This means large pots, planted rather tall.     


All of the dogs are greatly entertained by each other, and by what goes on near the ground.  It is a landscape they recognize-a world friendly to them.  There is a lot going on here-at their eye level.    What goes on in your landscape needs to engage your eye-wherever that eye of yours might be.  Well done landscapes engage on many different levels.

Posted on: May 2, 2011 3 Comments
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Garden Design Tagged With: , ,

Bare Bones

 

This landscape under renovation is at an even more bare bones stage than it was when I posted about it early in the week.  Over the past few days, all of the boxwood surrounding the walk got transplanted to the east and west property lines.  All you see left are large and irregularly growing patches of sedum.  Sedum does a decent job as a groundcover in full sun, but a plant in this prominent a spot needs to be better than decent.  It needs to be stellar.  Few very short groundcovers for sun are better than lawn.  No living material better describes the sculpture that is a large piece of ground or land.  How little could I live with in a landscape?  Grass-whether it be mowed or left rough, and some trees.     

In addition, a very large bed to the east had been mounded quite high with soil.  A pink horsechestnut had been planted very high; the bed surrounding it had been built up to the grade established by the crown of the tree.  Most of the tree was dead-the living part derelict.  The grade would need to be lowered.  Cleaning out and regrading takes a lot of time and hard work, but it is the foundation upon which everything to come is built. The shape and grade of the beds and lawn play as important a part in the design process as the plant material.  


I posted this picture of the house from last October several days ago; there were 15 trees in the front yard.  9 Japanese maples, 1 amelanchier, 2 red horsechestnuts, 1 sugar maple, and 2 red maples.  Of the 15, 7 were in an advanced state of decline; I doubt they would have survived but another year or two.  Lots of landscape asks for lots of maintenance; the two go hand in hand.   

I took this picture yesterday; all of the boxwood has been moved to other spots in the yard.  12 that were heavily damaged by leaf miner and who knows what else were pitched.  The ground was regraded to match the grade of the sidewalk and the paver landing at the street. 

I do have a thing about how a driveway is landscaped.  Everyone drives up and down their drive every day. This arrangement is particularly jarring.  On the left, lawn, boxwood, a very handsome hemlock, and some hollies.  On the right side, a field of ornamental grass intersected with one lone serviceberry, and a blob of hydrangeas.   

kkTransplanting boxwood to line the drive reveals a particularly handsome and well kept yew hedge which happens to belong to the neighbor.  This arrangement which respects that hedge makes it seem as though the yews belong to this property.  Borrowing this view helps to visually set the drive within the landscape more gracefully. 

This picture says much about the relationship of the lawn to the landscape beds.  The small piece of lawn that runs from the sidewalk to the street is in stark contrast to the giant lawn bed on the far side.  Conversely, the landscape bed in the foreground dwarfs the bed on the other side of the walk.  This speaks to visual balance.  I like asymmetrical compositions, as long as they are balanced.  Sometimes it is a good idea not to press a hard boundary too hard. This little snippet of grass next to the curb is all but overpowered by all of the pavers. 

So here we are, on the verge of something new-always a daunting proposition.  A landscape renovation of this depth is also a luxury; my client decided to just about start from scratch.  Landscapes ordinarily need renovation.  Plants fail to thrive or die.  A storm can take a giant tree down.  A small area may need to be reworked.  But this is a large scale renovation.  The best of what it has going for it at this moment-a very beautiul house 


This is a very important and exciting moment-there is a spirited conversation going on.

Posted on: April 23, 2011 1 Comment
Filed Under: Landscape Design Tagged With: ,

Placing Trees

Some time ago I voiced the opinion that I was not a big fan of Japanese maples.  I heard back about that in spades. So yes, I will concede that they are beautiful trees with enchanting habit and great bark and leaf color.  But they can be very tough to place beautifully in a landscape.  The red leaved varieties are striking in appearance.  The flip side of striking?  Visually demanding.  A specimen tree is just this-a stand alone special element around which an entire space may be organized.   

A beautiful specimen tree asks for a placement that reinforces this idea.  If the idea is to feature a particular plant, other elements in the landscape need to take a supporting role.  Of course landscapes can be organized around a series of spaces or rooms, each with their own diva.  In my own landscape, my trees are either hedged, or planted in drifts, as the divas of my landscape are ornaments.  A fountain pool and groups of pots are focal points.  This is by no means the best way to design a landscape.  This is merely what I like.     

This front yard landscape was home to 9 Japanese maples, representing 5 different cultivars.  When I first saw it last October, some of the maples had black-red leaves.  Some had brown-red leaves.  Others were more clearly red.  In addition, there was a lovely sugar maple, showing yellow fall color in this picture, and 5 additional shade trees.  This made for 15 trees total in the front yard.  Some trees were in poor condition.     

Landscapes in urban neighborhoods are tough to design. They require a judicious hand, and a willingness to edit.  Every landscape gesture needs to be informed by that scarcity of space.  A landscape also needs to work in close concert with that dominant element-the home.  A landscape that respects the architecture will read coherently. There are many voices here struggling to be heard.

Of course it is easier to see years later how a placement of trees might be wanting.  Hindsight is 20-20.  Imagining the space a tree will occupy at maturity is an art; the best practioner I knew is this regard was Al Goldner.  He fearlessly placed trees in anticipation of what they might become 20 years later-even if the landscape looked too sparse and almost undone to begin with.     

Trees planted very close to the foundation of the house may be lovely the day they go in.  Years later, they can obstruct any view of the architecture they meant originally to celebrate.  It is equally as important to consider the views out from within as it is those views from the street.  Several rooms inside are dark, as the windows are covered by branches of the trees.  These branches are equally obstructing the views out into the landscape.  

Every landscape has a foreground, a mid ground, and a background space.  Those spaces need to work, no matter the angle of the view.  The Japanese maples might have presented a completely different appearance, had they been pruned differently.  Each had foliage to the ground.  They read visually as giant red shrubs, not small trees with interesting branching, and an airy appearance.  Maintenance is a very important part of a landscape.

Once the trees were gone, other elements emerged.  A pair of hollies on either side of the front door grew at different rates, and generally suffered from trees planted over them. The boxwood had declined as well.  They have damage from leaf miners; perhaps they were pruned too late in the fall.  There is some work ahead restoring them to good health.   


The beautiful sugar maple, and the hemlocks flanking each end of the house are appropriate and friendly to the architecture.  We moved a lot of plants yesterday.  Viburnums, azaleas, hollies, oak leaf hydrangeas, limelight hydrangeas, boxwood and fothergilla.  The renovation of this landscape is underway.

Posted on: April 20, 2011 14 Comments
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Woody Plants Tagged With: , ,

Designing: The Inviting Landscape

 
Our spring is taking her own sweet time turning on the lights and opening the door.  Was it not amazing to be outside in the 77 degree weather on Sunday without so much as a bud showing green on any woody plant?  A hoticultural twilight zone is what we have going on now.  That day, my tulips at home breached the surface of the ground, and went on to grow up 4 inches.  They are ready to get going-just like every gardener I know.  If you have issues with your landscape, I am sure you are wringing your hands over which way to go.  What lane will you choose?   

The very first order of business is to think long and hard about what you want your landscape to do for you.  There are lots of choices.  It could provide refuge from a frenetic world or a stressful job.    It could provide an environment for your kids to play.  It could be a laboratory for your tinkering; growing this plant from seed or nurturing that 3″ hellebore seedling can be incredibly rewarding.  Teaching your kids how to grow beans and potatoes-this has to be equally rewarding.  It could provide your family with home grown food. It could satisfy your longing for roses, or your lust for geometry. It could enclose you, provoke you, challenge you, amuse you, or knock you over.  How do you know what you want, and what you need?  Make a list, and edit.  Throw out all the 3 rated wants, and focus on the 8, 9, and 10 rated wants. This essay intends to address only one want-an inviting landscape.  The soft, fluid, and colorful landscape pictured above-inviting.  

Landscapes that invite provide places to be, and places to sit.  Places to linger, places to talk.  Engaging places.  Inviting landscapes accomodate company.  Though this picture says much about structure-a table, a bench, the geometry implied in a series of espaliers in lead pots, what engages the eye the most are the flowers.  Flowers soften structures in friendly way. 

Pots at the back door say first up-here is the door.  Secondly, they say hello, and welcome.  This landscape without the pots would be fairly austere.  Though glass permits a view through, glass in the landscape is not transparent-it reads black from outside.  Should you wish your landscape to invite, soften the appearance of that black glass as best you can.    

A walkway asks for a landscape of interest on both sides.  Avoid a walk with a garden on one side, and lawn on the other.  This makes a walk a border, rather than an experience. Lawn has its place.  Lawn that is utilitarian, and has a beautiful shape is as muich a part of the landscape as the trees.  Treat your guests to a garden tour before they get to the door.   A welcoming landscape encourages guests to arrive at the front door, smiling. 

Terraces are a hard surface of a certain dimension  laid on the ground plane.  They make for a surface that is navigable.  Though stone, brick and gravel are hard surfaces, they are natural surfaces.  They make it easy for groups to congregate.  Your son’s softball team and all of the attending parents, a fundraiser attracting lots of guests, a neighborhood group coming for lunch, a graduation party with friends and family-a terrace gives every guest a firm footing.  Beyond that, a terrace can be landscaped such that people feel welcome.  When I sit down on a terrace, I want plants at eye level.  This makes me feel comfortable, and welcome. 

Some very contemporary landscapes make much of what I would call an immature and shallow call to the idea of alienation.   As if alienation were a goal a gardener should seek. Nature portrayed as alienated-oh please. Nature is involved up close in the lives of all of us.  Great geometry-I am on board with this idea.  Want to make your modern  landscape inviting-introduce a plant element that waves in the breeze.  Great modern landscapes can be as inviting as any cottage garden-just different. Clean, clear, and in motion; this modern terrace is inviting.   

This established landscape is all about providing a comfortable place for friends and family to congregate.       


This new landscape is just about ready for those softening elements that will make this space inviting.

Posted on: April 12, 2011 2 Comments
Filed Under: Landscape Design Tagged With: ,