A few weeks ago I posted on social media that I was going to slow down in the number of articles I posted to my website. This was due to some ongoing health problems and because my schedule has become increasingly busy with talks, book signings and trying to work on Volume 2 of the Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region. There just don’t seem to be enough hours in a day to get it ALL done. I was blown away by the level of support I received over my decision – your kindness has been extremely gratifying – even though it’s made my decision to cut back a tad more difficult.
I asked what it was you’d like to see me continue with, since I could no longer do everything, and one of the suggestions a long-time friend made was that I should write an article about (to paraphrase her) “how I designed my gardens to make them look so nice”. This is an attempt to answer that.
For starters, I’m extremely lucky to live in Ridgetown, Ontario, a small town in the heart of Canada’s Carolinian Zone. The soil is a rich sandy loam and there’s a good 6’ elevation drop from front to back, meaning I have high and dry, low and moist all in one yard. I also have several large sugar maples (and have planted several other trees) so I have full shade to full sun, and everything in between. And to top it all, my property is a double lot (110’ wide by 220’ deep) with a tiny (25’X27’) war-time bungalow that is located so close to the front of the property that if I ever need to replace my front step, I can’t. It’s actually on city property. So that gives me a HUGE canvas to work with.
When I bought the property in 2004, other than a few non-native forsythia, a beauty bush, and a lovely saucer magnolia in the back yard, it was basically a bare lawn. I had just started a new job, and I didn’t have a lot of time to garden in the first couple of years, so I started small. I planted a few shrubs in what felt like strategic locations, and a couple of trees. Most of these had to be relocated within the first 2-3 years as I got a better feel for the lay of the land and a vision started to materialize. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time. Plants move – usually pretty easily.
Needless to say, over the next 15 years, the flower beds grew in number and size as I became more comfortable with the yard. But so far none of this discusses the principles that guided my design.
For starters, I have no formal training in landscape design. But I am a keen observer of nature, and I have always been fascinated with optical illusions. And my garden designs use both of these interests to the extent that it is possible.
First off – nature does not produce straight lines. Things flow, in curves and meanders, in nature. This is probably the first rule of design for me. My flower beds are all laid out using a garden hose to mark nice, curved edges (making sure the curves aren’t too tight – I still have to get a lawnmower around the edges).
But, in my opinion, there IS a place for a few straight edges – especially near buildings. To me these add a bit of contrast, and can help transition the “box” of the building into the garden space.
And nature doesn’t grow short plants in the front and put the tall ones at the back, either. Instead, she tends to grow plants of similar height together. (This could be as much a factor of tall plants shading out the shorter ones as anything). So my gardens tend to be tall plants, or short plants, or mid-height plants, in their respective beds. But, as with so much in my yard, this is not a hard and fast rule and I do break it often.
Then there’s the optical illusions. In my yard there are a couple of vantage points that I have chosen as the “viewing locations” for the yard. Because my yard is over 200’ deep, and because it slopes from front to back, I design my beds and pathways to exaggerate this depth. The simplest way is to make the grass pathways between beds get slightly narrower as they go to the back of the lot. This gives a much greater sense of depth and distance than what I actually have.
To emphasize this, when I built my 10’X20’ garden shed, I put it in the back corner of the yard. But I made the decision to build it with only a 7’ eaves instead of the traditional 8’. This makes the shed look long (and thus large) but the low profile makes it look further away.
The other thing I incorporate into my design is mystery. From no one location can you see the entire yard. There are “surprise” flower beds, or a hidden gem of a specimen plant, tucked into corners, blocked by beds of tall plants or shrubs, and pathways that meander and take you to secret places.
If you are timid about designing your space, just spend some time contemplating the area. (I spent 3 years sitting in a hammock-chair observing and contemplating the layout of the “escarpment” I eventually built before I actually started it!) Then just go with your gut. Mother nature will fill the space with colour and insect and bird life, regardless of what the initial layout looks like. And, if you don’t like it – plants can be moved. Easily.