You are reading on Flower garden designing techniques (Principles of garden design).

Designing a flower garden (contd)

Texture

The surface character of a garden unit is referred to as texture. The texture of the ground, the leaves of a tree or shrub will all determine the overall effect of-the garden. The texture of rugged garden can be improved to an appreciable extent by laying small pebbles from the riverbeds.

A gulmohar is a fine textured tree when it is full leaved, whereas Spathoda campanulate is a coarse textured tree. The placement of all these various textures with harmony and contrast has to be achieved to get the ultimate desirable effect.

Time and light

In a garden, the time factor is very important. There are three different categories of time garden. First comes the daily time, which provides different quantities and qualities of light during the course of the day. As the morning sun is vital for all flowers, the designer has to take into account while planning. In most of the parts of India, the garden design should be planned in such a way that in the afternoon it is possible to sit in a shaded place from where the best part of the garden can be viewed. The second type of time is the seasonal changes in the year. A good planner must roughly take into account the seasonal movement of the sun and where the shade and light are likely to fall during the different parts of the season. A lawn which receives shade during the early parts of the day in winter will not grow or remain patchy. A good and knowledgeable gardener can visualize such eventualities.

The third time, which most people overlook and cannot visualize, is the fact as to what shape and proportion the shrub and trees will attain height in the years to come. Often we can see sick and lanky shrubs growing near the trunk of a large tree because of lack of light and nutrients also. The right type of tree should be planted at the proper place so that shade is obtained during the hot days. A cleverly planted tree can also protect a window from strong afternoon sun or an unplanned tree can ruin the view of the garden from inside a window. The pattern of shade cast by a fine leaved tree on lawn looks very artistic. Similarly, straight trunked trees like the Royal palm (Greodoxa regia) or Eucalyptus, when planted in a row along a path, will throw oblique bars of shade in the mornings and after noon and will cheer up a dull walk.

Tone and colour

A tendency on the part of amateur gardener is to create a disorder of colours by indiscriminately planting flowering annuals of all shades. This practice is not desirable. Moreover, such disorder of colours has only temporary effect. In a landscape garden the permanent backdrop is the green tone of the various trees and shrubs. It is possible to lay-out a garden with suitable tone of entirely white or yellow flowers, but at the same time making it charming also. Another important point is that it is better to have masses of single colour rather than mixture of colours. A bed of same colour has a much softer tone and beauty, than a bed containing a mixture of colours.

Mobility

In temperate countries, the garden changes colour very sharply and contrastingly from one season to the other, thus symbolizing mobility or movement. For example, many trees in the temperate regions attire themselves with wonderful hues due to changes in the leaf colour in the autumn. Then suddenly in the winter leaves fall and everything goes to rest bringing an atmosphere of dullness all around. Again in the spring the plants come back to life with the appearance of new leaves. In parts of tropical India, these contrasting changes can not be achieved, it is possible only to bring in some subtle changes. For example, to create some symbol of movement, trees such as Bengal or Indian Almond (Terminalis catappa) changes its leaf colour into striking red twice a year before falling.

The movement and cluttering of birds also bring life and mobility to the garden, though sometimes some birds may become a menace. Large trees and bird baths attract birds. Some plants bearing berries, such as Ficus infectoria and Syzygium cumini can also be planted in some remote corners though they may not look ornamental. Flowering trees such as silk cotton (Bombax malabaricum) or Erythrina also attract birds when in bloom. The seasonal flowers will bring in the motion and movement of colourful butterflies. Fountains or a lawn sprinkler and stream in a garden also serve the objective of movement. The lily pools should be filled with coloured fish, the movement of which will be an added attraction.

Style

Lastly, one has to decide about the style to be adopted for one's garden. Every garden lover has to invent his own style of gardening commensurate with his budget, taste and the nature of the site. But one can develop his own design only when he studies carefully all the great garden styles of the world and grasps the underlying principles in them. There is no doubt that person not having enough specialized knowledge will commit mistakes, nevertheless, one should not get deterred by this fact. One word of caution to a novice gardener is that he should not get used to his mistakes but improve upon the design with acquiring new knowledge through experience and learning from others

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Principles of garden designing - Flower gardening

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