The Use of Different Shapes in Designing a Garden
The use of different shapes is perhaps the single most important element in designing a garden. It is the chief tool with which a gardener defines the spaces and structures of a garden – his working vocabulary. In a really good garden, consideration will have been given to the shape and purpose of every component, from broad issues such as the outline of a path or lawn to the details such as the contrasting shapes of miniature shrubs in a particular stone trough. It is the sum of all these parts, large and small, which gives a garden its character.
The garden’s perimeter is the first shape to consider in relation to the site as a whole. The internal structure can complement the shape through a geometrical composition, using straight lines and circles, with the emphasis on hard landscaping (the walls, paths, steps and so on). Alternatively, natural flowing forms with no straight lines may be preferred. Again, a blend of the two approaches might be more suitable. In making this decision, the practical requirements of the garden must be considered: the need to get from one place to another, to create enclosures and the like. All the components of a garden – from lawns, borders, island beds and parterres to paths, topiary, pergolas and water features – can be treated in a geometric or an organic way. There is no right or wrong, only a variety of options with which the imagination can experiment.
Within the layout, the shape of the plants themselves comes into play. All plants fall into one of a number of basic shape categories, the plants in each category fulfilling a similar role in the overall scheme. There is the tall upright shape of fastigiate trees and conifers which leads the eye upwards and commands attention, especially when used repeatedly in a group or row. The effect is the same whatever the scale: notice how the Kochia scoparia tricophylla, burning bush, dominates in this way when used in a bedding scheme. Low rounded shapes or domes are equally arresting, but in a more earthbound way. They sit heavily upon the ground and fix the eye. Think of clipped spheres of box or chunky potentilla bushes. Fans or fountain shapes offer a softer touch, lifting the eye but in a gentler lighter way than a conifer. Grasses, bamboos and irises all shoot up in a fan, and many then droop over at the top, like a subsiding firework. A more extreme version of this effect is the weeping shape, less visually static than the sphere and less busy than the fountain. Finally, there are the horizontal shapes, found in plants like the architectural Viburnum plicatum ‘Mariesii’, Cornus controversa and some of the low junipers, for example Juniperus horizontalis and J. x media ‘Pfitzeriana’. They keep the eye peacefully arrested, moving neither up nor down, forwards nor backwards. Obviously there are endless variations within and between these categories, but when planning a layout they are very useful tool.
It is the arrangement of these typical shapes that gives movement, balance and punctuation to a garden design. For example, movement can come from the repeated use of upright shapes which takes the eye away into the distance. The effect will work either in a formal symmetrical context, as in an avenue, or in a more informal zigzag fashion. Balance will help the garden to look restful to the eye. For instance, a dramatic upright shape can be countered by an adjoining low mound, and the two held together by some horizontal shapes. Strong shapes can be used to focus and punctuate the different areas within a garden, perhaps by closing an avenue with a tight specimen tree or by flanking a gateway with two strong mounds or sentinels of foliage.
Apart from these structural uses of shape, a garden is kept alive through its detail, by the constant interplay between neighbouring plants. Shape is just as important here as texture or colour. It is the continuous interplay between shape, colour and texture which makes a mixed or herbaceous border so fascinating, and so difficult to achieve over a long period, presenting a challenge to the gardener.
It is often helpful in the planning stages of a garden, or even a border, to make simple sketches that block in the most important shapes and lines (as well as the main colour effects). This will enable you to envisage the composition in advance and allows the main refinements to be made before planting begins. It is also useful for considering the mature aspect of the garden, which should include appropriate spacing of trees and large shrubs. This is an excellent tool for clarifying your ideas; on paper, the imagination can run riot, but once planting begins, changes become much more difficult. A plan can bring you that much closer to your ideal, well balanced garden.
