Romancing the Garden: A philosophy of gardening Pt 3

The next step is: How do you carry it out?

Mine in a nutshell is:

“Create a romantic garden and then live in it.”
A Paradise Garden
The Garden of Eden

Dictionary definition of romance:

“Imagination, love, idealization, wafting one to another time or place excitement, love, and adventure of the kind found in romantic literature. A romantic quality or spirit. To be fanciful or imaginative in thinking or talking.”

“Having some aspects of the imagined, though unseen reality. Adventurous, idealistic, Passionate, visionary, Emphasis on feeling and originality, A suitable setting for love.”

So it is something one feels
And that gives delight
And that one cannot put one’s finger on.

One cannot analyze it exactly:

1. When you create a garden, you are not creating nature but a man-made (woman-made) copy of nature

• A figment of our imagination,
• Not exactly nature but pretending to be.
• Creates an amazing feeling
• People become passionate about gardening
• Like falling in love
• Projects one’s feelings onto someone else
• One’s own love is reflected back

But gardening is also very practical. How do you carry out this desire in a practical way? So how does one create a romantic atmosphere?

Techniques to achieve it:

Go up in the air –

• Build pergolas to walk through,
• Arbors to sit under
• (Not everything down flat on the ground)

Grow climbing plants –

• Climbing roses
• Wisteria
• Hang baskets from trees or overhangs
  • Install drip system
  • Hide the drip lines.
• (unnatural materials and plastic destroy romance.)

Think of your garden as having walls, roof, and rooms

Change the level of the ground –

• If you live on a hill,
• Or have a bank
• Add terraces and steps,
• Even if you live on a flat area build:
• Planter boxes
• Raised boxes,
• Earth berms, banks
• Make steps up, down
• Level areas for plants, sitting
• A structure for shade.
• Excavating earth for a swimming pool?
• Use to create a higher area held up by a retaining wall.
• Chinese gardens with their hills
• “The Floating Life” (translated by Lin Yutang in his book: The American Library “The Philosophy of Ancient China”)

Aim for a full garden, though not a cluttered garden –

• allow spaces so you can reach plants
• Patios, but not gaps in beds
• A messy, cluttered garden is like a cluttered house
• Groomed plants are like dusted furniture
• An ideal to consider is to have plants filling beds, spilling over paths, but always clean and largely deadheaded.
• No bare ground.
• Mulch, mulch, mulch!
• Bare ground in a garden is like a mouth missing some teeth.

Have 2 patios, one for winter, one for summer

Make many places to sit –

• 1. Long table for entertaining under a pergola with 14 chairs, enough for whole family.
• 2. Comfortable chairs here and there in many places for small groups and large
• 3. Round tables with benches.
• 4. Chaise lounges for relaxing
• 5. Set ups for easy entertaining that suits you.
• ? Could include having many umbrellas in summer
• ? Could be well-placed trees:
• Painting ladies, like living in a French movie
• ? Voices wafting, laughter from a distance
• ? Good food, easy to prepare.
• ? So you create a stage and then you bring in the groups you love, whether family or friends
• ? Lunches with one’s mate together down in some special nook or secluded patio,
• ? Very special times for good conversation or just watching the birds and enjoying the beauty.

Don’t have all space so it can be seen at one glance –

• Could be a garden of rooms
• Even on a small patio or porch you can make them go round a corner to see what is there.
• Great gardens have:
• Hidden spots to sit,
• Secret places to visit

Every path should lead you somewhere –

• A statue
• Seat
• Gate
• Fountain
• Unique permanent plant or container

Have some formal aspects, not just paths wandering around without end (makes you feel you are lost)

• An overgrown garden with nothing but wandering paths is depressing —even spooky
• Some gardens are sad
• Strive to create a happy atmosphere
• Follow some good rules of feng shui
• Covered bench facing the entry
• Space for sitting under an arbor

Formality is cheerful

• A straight path
• Axial paths
• A small herbal parterre
• A large parterre

Make sure your garden appeals to the sensual side of human nature. The best gardens appeal to all five senses:

1. The sense of hearing: sound: attract birds.

• Birds are the music of the garden
• Create a stage (water, plants, bird feeders, houses),
• Birds are the musicians
• Butterflies are the ballerinas
• A garden without birds and butterflies is a dead space

2 .The sense of hearing water:

• Wind chimes chosen with care for artistic value, placed in correct spot
• Could be a bird bath with dripper
• Moving water is best such as a raised fountain to bring birds.
• Recirculating water on timer
• Keep clean, and in good working order
• good feng shui)
• Worth getting a good setup, something that works.

3.The sense of smell:

• Fragrant plants so you will have fragrance in every season
• Fragrance adds mystery and magic to a garden
• Where is that coming from?

4. The sense of sight: use color schemes.

• Spring: pink white, blue, yellow, and lavender,
• South of border: shocking pink, fuchsia, orange, chartreuse, royal blue, purple, bright yellow
• Sun colors: orange red, blue, white all the colors of sunshine
• You would not fail to do that in your house.

5. The sense of touch:

• Textures of plants
• Soft fuzzy leaves
• Smooth surfaces
• Rocks and pottery
• Sculptures

6. The sense of taste:

• something you can eat
• a lemon tree
• vegetables
• fruits
• herbs