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Simply Grow

15/5/2020

8 Comments

 
Simply Grow has perhaps more posts than any other category in this blog (next to Simply Live which is my kind of default category) and I think I will be adding to their mumber as I am not doing much other than gardening for the foreseeable future!

As I mentioned yesterday I am looking at how the garden has matured and has it's own personality and relationship to the wider landscape. I do tend to see it in architectural terms as well as from a botanist or horticulturalist view point.

It is like a three dimensional composition of shapes and forms. There are circles and ovals, rectangles and squares, horizontal and vertical elements, straight lines and curves - all playing off one another. They could be likened to floors and ceilings, walls and openings, exits and entrances enclosures and open spaces, light and shadow and even furniture, and it might be fun to lake a look at the front garden in those terms.

Picture

I especially like horizontal forms - I think they create a tranquil atmosphere -  and here is the second of the cornus controversa, smaller than the central one

Picture
The third one is slightly smaller still and set in grass. I spent a long time positioning them - think  in plan of a triangle with three sides of different lengths - and I like the dynamic between them.

They were all the same size when planted and I love that they now vary in size - pure chance of course!  The fact that they will grow makes placing long term things even trickier.
 
We also planted the lovely Viburnum plicatum Maresii with its tiered layers and it did wonderfully then, inexplicably most of it died. It went from about 6 feet wide to about 18 inches. It may recover, but slowly.

If I call these shrubs furniture they are the long elegant sofas or coffee tables, but as they mature into trees they will play a different role. The challenge of designing with living things is that they wil change.

I have mentioned before the garden I designed around an existing broom which promptly died! I didn't know at the time that brooms are short lived shrubs.

I hope you are able to enjoy a garden, park or open space during lockdown.


One of my favourite books on landscape architecture is The Landscape of Man by Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe.
8 Comments
Elizabeth
16/5/2020 12:30:52 am

Love your garden Freda, and fascinating to look back on that long ago post with its forward planning and have insight into the rationale behind your choices. I always find the tension between the planned and unplanned interesting too.

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Freda
17/5/2020 07:52:13 am

I think that tension you mention is also what keeps it interesting - there are always new challenges!

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Mary
16/5/2020 04:42:27 am

The difference in height between similar objects that once started out the same is displayed by two trees on our property. When we first moved into our home, there were two west-facing oak trees in the front yard, both perhaps 20' tall. 25 years later and the southern most one is about 80-90' with an expansive canopy, but the northern one is perhaps only 60-70' tall and much smaller (e.g. trunk diameter and canopy). However, unlike the mate, it is hemmed in not only by the other oak, but by a couple of even larger trees on a neighboring property and by a small forest of trees across the street--blocking additional light--which means its leaves unfurl a full month later than the mate, too. Always feel bad for the fellow.

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Freda
17/5/2020 07:54:09 am

With 25 years in one garden you will certainly be aware of the challemges of a mature garden - but what trees! They sound magnificent.

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cath
16/5/2020 09:10:35 am

Fascinating how you look at your garden. A mix of designing/landscaping/architecture and painting as I experience it.

I may have asked this before but don't remember: did you ever read The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng a novel which is as much about war, memory as it is about a garden.

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Freda
17/5/2020 07:55:41 am

It does reflect all my interests Cath, and I did read and enjoy that book.

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Sheena
17/5/2020 12:45:31 am

The way you use shape and form in the frame of the garden is wonderful and, maybe, comes from your painting. Gardening books always talk about good bones in a garden and the structure you have built in to the garden does mean it looks good year after year. Unfortunately I started as a plant collector so the design had to fit in around the plants. I love my garden but it is a lot of work and, like the elderly lady who sparked your design, it will only get worse. Think about that next year!
I had a Viburnum plicatum Mariesii for some years and it did exactly the same as yours, Freda. I eventually got fed up with it and took it out as apart from anything else as it renewed itself it would move over a bit and ended up growing about 6 foot away from where it was planted

Reply
Freda
17/5/2020 07:58:28 am

I am finding decisions about the garden easier since the plant collector part of me appears to have waned! (It was fun though). I now look at which plants give the best effect for the least effort, and grow more of them.
Shame about your viburnum too.

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    An artist seeking a simpler life - (but not too simple!)

    All words and images copyright Freda Waldapfel 2010 - 2020

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