Pic, above, here.
Beginning a Garden Design on paper, a typical subdivision home/lot, once a quarter of the drawing is done, the plantings design is essentially completed for 100% of the drawing,
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Great example, below. Once an allee of rectangular evergreen meatloafs were chosen half the space is complete. I especially like their existing canopy trees, below, left in place no matter their asymmetry. Creating a park-like walking avenue, with great geometry, yet sprinkling of Nature. Good fortune being able to keep existing mature plantings, they age a new Garden Design.
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Notice the gravel, below, lapping at the base of the canopy trees? Perhaps the greatest of their design choices. Why? Allows the axis of the avenue, from the house, to flow. Boxing the trees, at their base with a square of cobblestones is poor punctuation, no longer a flowing avenue.
Pic, above, here.
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I don't think of plants first when beginning a Garden Design, I think of axis, flow, shapes, color, focal points, materials, finally, heights, layers and specific plants.
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Plants are the last thing I choose in a Garden Design.
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So. When I find myself in a situation, socially, at someone's home I don't know, (which I try to avoid) they discover what I do for a living, they obviously truly don't care about Garden Design but wish to be polite making small talk about their landscape, and get a little free advice about a plant in the throes of death, arrives the DREADED question, after much build up, ta-da, they ask, "What plant should I put here?"
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I smile, nostrils flaired from earlobe to earlobe, feeling rather like a donkey with someone putting a heavy load on my back, and all I wanna do (thank you Sheryl Crowe) is buck their question to the moon (thank you Honeymooners).
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Honestly, "What plant goes here?", begins to cover what my eyes/mind/heart see?
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How do I say, "You'll need to move these, gesticulating gracefully with hand/arm upon half their realm, put in a flagstone path, 8' wide, on axis from that window, leading to a focal point at least 4' tall, on cross axis from........ another path beginning there.........leading to a roundabout........and there is your double axis to the subsidiary focal point....., after we decide your exterior color trinity......see into those windows upstairs and the 2 over there downstairs we need to change the interior design so it's gorgeous from the garden view and not showing.........the fence must be stained 2-3 tones darker than one of those trinity colors...........the windows there, & those too, must become French doors.....your deck is already old, great timing I'm here you would have probably rebuilt a similar deck, it needs to come off, with stone steps from the new French doors onto a new stone terrace extended beyond the end of where the deck was...........now it's obvious your patio furniture must all be replaced.......notice the myriad pots you have sprinkled about they need to be replaced with larger pots and a style/color chosen, I have 2 great resources at the merchandise mart you'll love them.....light fixtures on the house must be changed, you'll adore Laura Lee lighting they're online, flowing with the theme of your garden......oh, forgot to mention you must pick a theme for your garden and then overdose on your theme, of course all of this must flow from the front of your home........so, back to your question, we don't need a plant PUT HERE."
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Continuing my donkey grin, I typically say, Take the plant out when it dies, and let the other plantings grow to fill in. And they are well confirmed that Garden Design is a ridiculous profession.
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Pic, above, here.
Question?
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Garden & Be Well, XOT
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Pic, above, here.
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How many dinners, during childhood, did we sit down to the table, and dad had the Honeymooners on? He loved to hear, Jackie Gleason say, "How sweet it is." If we were talking, he would hold up a hand for silence, once Jackie Gleason was about to say ....
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Beloved played golf in high school. He attended a major pro-golf tournament sponsored by Jackie Gleason, and has all the golf greats, of that era, autographs in the playbook. Finally, close enough to ask for Jackie Gleason's autograph, it was not happening. Jackie Gleason was wildly, happily, drunk, being driven to the clubhouse in a golf cart..
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All of the, above, happening at someone's home, on a tight budget, they obviously are newly thrilled with gardening, what fun !! They get the, use- mostly- what- you- have-, hunt/gather, DIY, Garden Design and the entire evening has flown by, and they've ignored all their other guests ! No donkey.
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Yes, I see gardens intact, completed. Designing them is taking dictation from Muse. More, the dictation is at myriad price points, from no budget restraints, to total budget restraints. No budget, love the pun. My peers do the same, how we love our time together. Conversation in our own shorthand language. Time ceases to exist. We've dipped into that joyful realm of eternity- on- Earth Joseph Campbell mentions.
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