Designing for the Garden

A beautiful Lenten Rose in my garden, also known as a hellebore, lifts its face to the sky.

Designing for the Garden
By Annette Bartlett-Golden

The sun is out, the snows have melted and it's spring in North Carolina. Daffodils, hyacinths, hellbores,  quince and a variety of other flowering trees and shrubs brighten the landscape. Soon azaleas will glow with vibrant colors, barring any frost damage, and the weather will be warm. By the pond hostas are shooting up as well as the Jack-in-the-pulpit we planted last year. It's a very exciting time full of expectation and possibilities and I can't wait to start planting in my garden.
 
Inspired by a British gardening show called Love Your Garden, I have a lot of new ideas I want to put into place this spring. In this upbeat show, Allen Titchmarsh and his crew completely transform gardens for families dealing with difficulties, usually health issues, so that they can have a beautiful, functional and restorative outdoor living space. I love watching their process of creating amazing gardens specifically tailored to the need of every family member and the family’s genuinely delighted reaction after the transformation is revealed and they have had time to enjoy it. Besides being a very inspirational program, it also includes visits to other gardens, gardening tips for viewers ranging from plant selection and care, and design ideas and advice.
 
For years, a problem area in our garden has been the dry shady spot beneath large oak trees next to the back chain link fence with an unappealing view beyond. After watching a number of episodes ofLove Your Garden, I am starting to understand how to structure plantings to create a fabulous effect. By planting a mixture of interesting shade loving shrubs with varying heights, shapes and textures near the fence and other shade loving plants towards the front of the border, I can create a lovely focal point and screen. But before I go out and buy plants, I need to decide what I want to see when I look at that area.
 
A very helpful suggestion from my son, who soon will be graduating with a degree in horticultural design, is to sketch out in general terms what I want the place to look like. It can be as simple as taking a photo of the spot, placing tracing paper over the photo and tracing the basic lines of the location, for example trees and the path that will stay. Then draw basic shapes of plants you might like there–ovals, circles, and triangles will do fine.  You can also add color to the shapes. Experiment with the size and placement of the shapes and also color. The idea is to work out a pleasing visual composition.  

A photo of the woodland patch, a problem area I want to change.

My plan to transform the woodland patch at the back of the yard into a beautiful spot. 

Now that I have a composition I’m happy with, I’ll turn the plan over to my son who will be in charge of selecting site appropriate plants that will bring my sketch to life.  Besides considerations of shade, all the plants we choose will need to be drought tolerant and deer resistant as we still have herds of deer that journey through our yard on a daily basis. Another equally important aspect, which Love Your Gardenillustrates well, is to make sure that the planting area is properly prepared for the new plants with good soil. We certainly have a bit of work to do but I’m looking forward to it with zest.  ​