With Christmas just a few days away, I’m in a contemplative
mood. Let’s talk about your garden and the fact that landscaping
truly is a spirit.
With Christmas just a few days away, I’m in a contemplative mood. Let’s talk about your garden and the fact that landscaping truly is a spirit.
Your garden is more than just planting trees, shrubs and flowers in hopes they will grow. There are five basic elements that go into any Garden of Eden.
Before planting, make sure your garden is defined and has limits. For instance, you can often create gardens within a garden by installing a small fence as an inner boundary. You can also borrow scenery by bringing the landscape outside of your garden to within your garden.
The latter can easily be accomplished by utilizing a neighbor’s tree as a backdrop. My next-door neighbors have a beautiful red-leafed Japanese maple that hangs over the back fence. I think I enjoy that maple more than they do.
That said, let’s get to the five basic elements of a contemplative garden. They are, in no particular order: earth, water, plants, air and space.
– Earth. When we talk about earth, we’re not talking about organic composts or planting mix to make sure your plants will grow in our adobe-hard soil. Instead, we’re talking about things like retaining walls, dirt berms, or small slopes and hills. These types of earth helps diversify the height in a garden, which, in turn, changes the air flow in a garden and eyesight lines. Earth can also include stones or boulders, which can often be viewed as the “bones” of a garden.
– Water. Again, we’re not necessarily talking about the water you use to irrigate your garden. Instead, we’re talking about the course of water. This can be a dry bed of rocks to simulate a creek or river, or can actually be a small pond. The sounds of water even help define a garden. Even a basin of water can create liveliness, clarity and unboundedness.
– Plants. Plants are the “fire” of a garden. Think of diversifying heights of plants. You need background plants against the fence, but you also need plants at eye level and those that trail over low parts of the garden.
You need color, but you also need foliage and foliage textures. Some of the most interesting plants are those with intriguing leaf colors such as yellow, red or silver.
– Air. Air is used in the garden by organizing pathways that create air and physical flow through the garden. Concrete pavers, stepping stones and gravel are all types of pathways that can create flow in a garden. “Mystery” pathways are representing by curves, while the “path of wisdom” is a straight path, such as a path to the hot tub.
– Space. Space is also how we move through a garden. One needs a foreground, mid-ground and background. Borrowing a neighbor’s tree as background will make your garden appear larger.
Thinking about these five elements of a contemplative garden can help you achieve a “landscape as a spirit.” Merry Christmas!
