To illustrate aspects of Paradise/Formal landscape styles and the more pastoral English landscape style – subjects of my two previous posts - let's visit Boston Public Garden as it appeared in May 2010. These 24 acres – a salt marsh until 1837 – along with Boston Common (created in 1634), form the northern end of Boston's Emerald Necklace, a string of greenways designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.
The geometric, highly organized, and formal-looking Paradise garden style (see previous post) dominated garden design for centuries. Then the Brits revolted.
One of my recently completed landscape design lessons required researching three major landscape styles and submitting a report on my findings and how each style - Paradise Gardens, the English Landscape Movement, and Japanese Gardens - impacts modern garden design.
Though advancing through my landscape design lessons more slowly than I'd like, what has been presented so far is starting to make sense. (read through my previous landscape lesson posts, click here or go to Training in the category list in the right sidebar) The last assignment required building a computer aided drafting (CAD) pergola, complete with a tiled patio underneath, planting beds, vines over the pergola, and patio furniture. The point: to become comfortable with methods that allow taller, more prominent objects to appear taller and shorter, less prominent objects to look farther away or as if they are underneath taller structures. Doing so calls for the use of different line widths, cutting away lines of objects sitting beneath others – such as the chairs and table under the pergola – and learning how to use hatch patterns so they actually look like stone, pavers, etc., rather than black blobs.
Following a planting plan has been one of the major hurdles I've had in my gardening life. I tend to visualize a specific garden plan, roughly draw it out on paper, jot down a few plant ideas, then dig in. I rarely stick to the original design. I often plop plants here and there as an idea pops into my head. This design method has served me well for many years. Yes, I've had to redo some areas, but my gardens generally look pretty good. However, using this method means I rarely plot out any completed project. Kind of explains why I forget where bulbs are planted, hey?
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