If you want an organized space that looks good year-round, try thinking like an architect
An designer in the garden . The melodic theme might conjure images of an nonfigurative landscape painting with a severely limited industrial plant palette , instinct with hardscape . Although I am an architect , this was not my gardening track . rather , I desire to make a landscape where the plants themselves reigned supreme — not the difficult edges of geometrical cleverness , with the plant playing a subservient persona . The Architectural Designer Me continually duel with the Plant Collector Me , neither one ever deliver the goods . A balance of the two is rarely achieved in my watching of gardens , but this was my goal : a balance between the insatiable collector and the incurable fashion designer .
I am also aware of the irritating — if precise — quote by Mirabel Osler in her delicious bookA Gentle Plea for Chaos : “ There is an antiseptic tidiness that characterizes a well - assure nurseryman . And I ’d go further and say that usually the nurseryman is virile . adult male seem more taken up with order than women . ”
Without doubt I am guilty as charged , but that quote haunt me and keeps me from overemphasize architectural order , allow the garden to be the amorous oasis any garden should be . touch base my two worlds of architect and gardener , I long ago start to see my garden as a urban center , a collection of individual plants ( that is , buildings ) wilfully molded into a bigger whole . street , squares , piazzas , gateway and portals , spheres and power pylon , public streets with public buildings , hidden neighborhoods with private domicile , axial urban vistas and curvilinear suburban geometries . This coming creates in my garden what many advert to as “ bones , ” and it ensures four - time of year visual stake .
The space at a glance
Strike a balance between pandemonium and ordering . uninfected layer parentage , angulate layout , and plant with a strong outline help keep this multifaceted garden in check .
An axial arrangement gives the space organization and flow
The Forbidden City in Beijing had a large influence in my garden ’s system . I traveled there frequently when I had an business office overseas , and it was there that the importance of axial arrangement ( when parts of a structure / landscape painting are arranged lengthwise , along a give axis ) became vindicated . The Forbidden City ’s axial methodological analysis of linking gravid and small thing and its collocation of connecting vast quad with intimate places captivated me . The rich spatial chronological sequence are understood only by walk through them . This concept has always seemed relevant to me when arrange the suite within a new house I was designing , and that was certainly the case when it came to design my garden . From key spots you should be able to make out the connective of one part of the garden to another , in a clear and concise way .
Garden Plan
The 3 keys to ordered chaos
1.Axial arrangements . Various parts of the garden are coif to allow for recollective , continuous sightlines . When stand at a specific center full point , you’re able to see clear connections between various garden chemical element .
2 . Year - round interest . Sharp edges , stone wall , evergreen plant , and a unique serpentine hedge summate definition and interest regardless of the season . Even in snowfall , these constituent support out and give the garden ocular appealingness .
3.Unifying gateways . Whether it ’s a pair of neatly cut back boxwoods or an arbor covered in blush wine , various insidious gateways are used to signalise the transition from one area of the garden to the next .
In my extremely emended versions of those not bad traditions , the axis is employed with subtly and let on itself easy to those who research for it . For instance , a focal point in time blue Atlas cedar ( Cedrus atlantica , Zones 6–9 ) is visually connect by an axis across the lawn to a stately Korean fir tree ( Abies koreana , Zones 5–9 ) 200 feet away . The red Gothic - inspired garden gate aligns with the centerline of the pool . And the dry garden with its adjacent brick path aligns with the front door of the master house . I never wanted the axis to be a dominant visual element , as in classic Gallic garden where it is all correct angles and prominent long line . Instead , I wanted subtle axis to connect primal garden focal points , whether they are plants or other element . Aside from organizing the space and aid set the flow , this axial arrangement helps ground the garden , forestall sure are bare . At these times of the year the framework itself is most seeming , and the “ bones ” are now call upon to do the work of keep a visually logical layout .
Sharp outlines flirt a critical function in draw the garden framework twelvemonth - round , including crisply edged bed and borders , as well as over 200 one-dimensional feet of carefully squared - off gemstone wall . All the gem was “ quarried ” on - site as a result of the need to shell granite just below the airfoil to add the kitty and septic systems . Additional edge let in cut back hedges utilizing an array of woody plant , such as yew , beech ( Fagusspp . and cvs . , Zones 4–7 ) , Japanese holly ( Ilex crenata , Zones 5–8 ) , arborvitae ( Thujaspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–8 ) , and hornbeam ( Carpinusspp . and cvs . , Zones 4–8 ) . Perhaps the most unusual morphologic feature in the garden is the 75 - foot - long arras hedge , sculpted as a cavort snake and be of a twelve species of evergreen plant shrubs . It is at its finest when seriously clipped , showcasing the interweaving of its unlike leaf grain . Another signature lineament of the garden is a 50 - infantry boulder bulwark with a swarm - pruned boxwood hedging atop , create an core of green Boulder atop gray boulders .
Over the geezerhood , I have reduced the perennial population in the English - dash borders in favor of more evergreen . The seam are now more interesting year - round and demand less sustainment as a result . And I can now count on them to provide a strong framework , even when they ’re covered in snow .
As it turned out , being an architect in the garden was more of an reward than a disadvantage , and I ’m pleased to say that my eye delights at the panorama from my drafting control panel every calendar month of the year . Frederick Bland is a manage collaborator at Beyer Blinder Belle , an architectural firm in New York City . He is also the former chairman of the board for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden .
Tip
plate and symmetry are meaningful concepts to architects but vague and imprecise to most multitude . To me , they are vital components in creating a successful garden . The kinship of one thing to another can chop-chop get out of balance , interpolate the proportion of a single shrub or tree — or an entire section of the garden — and cut back selectively ( but continually ) is my way of maintain scale .
ABP stand for “ always be cut back . ” The books say to crop most tree diagram and shrubs in winter . But I clip continually , year - round , whenever my centre says that something is get out of proportion . In a mature garden with such denseness as I have , pruning is one of the most authoritative tasks and the only way to ward off the imminent jungle .
Tour this garden and see an interview with the gardener
Frederick Bland is a managing collaborator at Beyer Blinder Belle , an architectural firm in New York City . He is also the former chairman of the board for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden .
Photos , except where noted : Danielle Sherry
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A structured layout still leaves room for a varied plant palette. Within the borders, you’ll find an array of blousy perennials and floriferous shrubs of every color and texture. The linear turf pathways and perfectly manicured hedges help to keep everything organized visually.
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Strike a balance between chaos and order. Clean bed lines, angular layouts, and plants with a strong outline help keep this multifaceted garden in check.
Illustration: Tommy Solano-Szostek
The axial arrangement is subtle. Unlike in some formal garden styles, the linear relationships here are more obtuse. The sightline to the front door is softened by plants spilling into the walk (above), while the red Gothic gate lines up concisely with the pool’s center, but that is only apparent from certain angles (below).
The outline is clear, even in winter. The framework of the garden becomes even more pronounced in the off-season thanks to crisp edges and clean lines (above). A large, multispecies hedge is a focal point in every season, whether it’s covered in snow or not (below).
Photo: courtesy of Frederick Bland
Gateways invite visitors to move further into the space. While traditional garden rooms can feel claustrophobic, subtle entryways in the landscape are a less jarring way to define one space from another. Pairs of tightly clipped shrubs can do the job (above), as can garden structures such as pergolas or arbors (below).
