Jenny Wren
First thing in planning a garden is genius loci, the genius of place. You know it already I suspect
What appealed to you when you purchased or rented a property? Was it the view, the soil, the land size, the convenient location, the privacy, the established garden, the inside of the building, its layout? Maybe the garden was an empty canvas. Once you know what appeals to you about your home and garden, planning or improving it involves accentuating the features you already like, accentuating features you may not have noticed before or designing you own features.
We have all read stories of people getting into trouble for cutting down trees to take advantage of a view but maybe the trees themselves were a beautiful sight and they should have looked no further than the trees. Maybe you have a fence that provides privacy but there is a beautiful silhouette of trees or mountains beyond the fence. Your view is important, so how can it be enhanced accentuated, drawn in to be part of your garden. By blocking an ugly view by strategically placing a tree you may be able to solve a difficult problem. Extending the layout of your house into the garden to draw the views in but extend your house out can be accomplished with good garden planning.
I wasn’t sure what I would write today until I went for a snowy walk in a convenient location, one of the reasons I love where I live and the genius of my place. It is easy to appreciate the genius of a wild location because we haven’t messed with it too much and a wild location is a good place to show what I mean. Nature does these things well.
The genius of the space I visited is the openness of an area around a wetland, lake. Interestingly it was humans who enhanced the water feature but nature has designed it. A large part of the surrounding area is not dense forest, which is common in this part of my world. Nature has provided sparse appropriate deciduous trees in strategic locations, willows next to creeks, for example but Nature has kept the plantings low in height so as not to obscure the view, rather like a prairie but with endless lake and sky. Viewing is directed with a human strategically placed platform, in this case for dip netting but its placement is perfect. The Crested Wheat Grass, Bulrushes and Mulleins provide year round interest without spoiling the views. In summer wild Roses, Snowberry bushes and divinely scented Wolf Willow add flowers and fragrance. The mystery of the area is a contrasting mostly coniferous forest which stretches down one side of the water. The Douglas Firs and Larches provide a great contrasting backdrop to the prairie. Poplars with their eye catching white bark are a standout in places.
These elements are features we need to provide in our own gardens but first identifying the real genius of the place is important. Views designed to be seen from windows, focal points, mystery, garden journeys, interesting planting for its look, texture, shape, colour, winter interest, comfortable seating areas and more are all important elements of a well designed garden.
I will explore these elements in more detail as we do our armchair winter gardening.
I would be really interested to hear what you think is the genius of your gardens and if you wish to share or have comments send them to my contact information on zonethreegardenlife.blog and I will share.