reflections from recent garden design workshop
“Garden design is one of the most challenging forms of design. The ideal designer must be expert in the behaviour of plants, and the soil, and landscape in which they grow. (...) Finally, he or she must be able to see into the future, and imagine how the garden will grow and change over time.”
Recently I had a pleasure of leading a workshop on fundamentals of garden design. The workshop took place at the Greywalls Hotel, Gullane, outside Edinburgh.
Greywalls was designed by Edwin Lutyens and built in 1901.
The building is surrounded by beautiful gardens, which are thought to be designed by Gertrude Jekyll, garden designer and author, who has had a great influence on the style and creation of many gardens, and one of the very first designers who focused on the use of colour in garden design.
One of the very first questions we might ask when approaching the design process of a garden is: where to start?
I want to go back to a quote by Alexander Pope, an English philosopher, writer, who was also an influential figure in the creation of many historical gardens.
Pope said: In everything you do, you should consult the soul of the place.
It is very important before you begin, to reflect on the space of your garden and its surrounding landscape. Your garden design should sit comfortably within its locality and its neighbouring scenery.
Think about the views, the landscape beyond the boundary of your property, as well as the architectural elements - neighbouring buildings.
Another important consideration is the history of your garden space.
When thinking about relating the history of your property and your space to your garden design, so that it sits comfortably within its historical realm, you might want to adopt several features that are common in a more formal garden setting.
This might be reflected in introducing more symmetry into your garden space, as well as in planting some evergreen topiary.
If you have time to reflect on your garden space, allow yourself to walk around it and absorb its feel and its atmosphere. Tune in into your garden surroundings and the landscape, and ask yourself how you feel, what emotions it evokes and how these can be reinforced.
I would encourage you to get yourself a notebook and a pencil, and walk around your garden space making notes and sketching.
Also, writing your thoughts down makes it much easier to retain the feelings and emotions that each of your garden spaces evokes.
The first steps of any garden design process are centred around spending time in your space and learning to look and see.
This exercise will not only help you familiarise yourself with your garden, but it will help you start to see more clearly what style, plants and hardscape elements would work best for your garden design.
Remember not to rush this process. For example, if you are re-designing an old garden, you might want to indulge in the process of curious observation for a little bit longer, perhaps over an entire year, to see more clearly exactly how things change with each season and what could be the impact of your design ideas on your current garden.
Designing a garden should be a gentle process of understanding and emotionally connecting with the space you are going to work with.
We need to take the right amount of time to allow us to tune into the garden, its history and its features, so that we can come up with best solutions and planting palette.
In a garden, drawing, Garden Museum