Think of scale when creating or modifying your garden
“One size fits all”. Yeah, I’ve never believed that either. It’s not the case with socks and it also doesn’t hold in garden design. The best way to describe scale is to think of Matchbox cars (remember those tiny replicas of your favorite muscle car?) or picture a dollhouse furnished with all those miniature pieces of furniture. When I was a professor at The University of Tennessee in Sustainable Landscape Design, with each new design class I would rattle off the same principles which must be considered when creating any new space. The biggies were line, form texture, and color. But other terms were equally important but somehow rarely received top billing. These were balance, hierarchy, unity, contrast, and scale. This is by no means a complete list but it represents a pretty solid design vocabulary.
The foliage may give it away but the pen placement gives an idea of the scale my mind loves to wander to now and then.
I use all of these words when describing my design rationale to clients but there is one word that seems to come up more than others and that is scale. I am a big believer in good circulation on all of my designs. Every user must be able to get from one place to another in a logical and comfortable fashion. The width, materials, and size (scale) of an inviting entryway are much different than those used on a woodland path. Hardscape scale (patios, walks, decking, etc.) is especially important as once those decisions are made, they are kind of literally written in stone. Not much chance these will change. Softscapes decisions (plantings) on the other hand are much more fluid and dynamic as the plants themselves morph and change throughout their lifetimes.
One of my former students in an oversized chair in Copenhagen.
When choosing the scale for any hardscape, always err on the side of being too generous rather than too skimpy. You can always make a space look smaller visually by adding some furniture, planters, and even people. But if a patio or entry is just too small physically, there’s not much you can do except demo and start again.
Planting bed scale is also something that should be considered when laying out a garden. Tiny kidney bean-shaped planting beds seem to have become the norm but this is another place you shouldn’t skimp when it comes to size. Allow your planted areas to be in proportion with your entire property. If you take this advice and then feel as though the bed is too large there is one easy solution…go shopping! (For groundcovers and perennials). One of my recent writings “Filling the Gaps” will give you more insight there https://ahomeforyourgnome.com/filling-in-the-gaps/
Though water features may not be everyone’s cup of tea, for those of you considering adding a garden pond, this is another place not to be shy. Yes, garden ponds are the opposite of those two words I always dread hearing but know they’re on their way, “low maintenance”. If you’re going to invest in such an amenity, make a pond, not a puddle. I once saw a video on garden ponds and their passionate owners in which it was mentioned that one thing most had in common was that they thought if they could do it over again, they would have made their pond larger.
Our pond. Yes, there’s maintenance but worth every bit of the “work”.
Lastly, I should mention something about the scale of individual plants. This is a toughie as it is so easy to underestimate a plant’s mature size, especially as it compares to our own time/life span. I speaking mainly of shrubs here as we expect trees to grow to the sky and perennials are somewhat fleeting with regard to the horticultural clock. When it comes to selecting size, there is the size at the time of purchase and then the plant’s ultimate size. You have a couple of choices with the latter. Buy more mature-sized plants, which are rarely available and then mostly out of the common person’s budget. Or you can purchase plants that will ultimately fit the bill (size you ultimately want) but will seem quite small at the time of installation. The key here is patience.
Till next time,
KEEP THE PROPORTIONS!
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