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Bring Variety to Your Landscape
In
school, children are now taught “sequencing” in many different
subjects. Ask any third grader what it is, and they will tell you
that sequencing is putting things in order.
In landscaping, sequencing is an essential tool, linking
objects or plants that have nothing in common so they have overall
cohesiveness and order. Coupled
with another design principle – variety – we can create a
landscape that seems well organized, planned and interesting
instead of haphazard, ill-conceived and monotonous.
So lets look at these two concepts in conjunction and apply
them to gardening to make them work for you, giving your landscape
a professional touch that you can do on your own.
What is one of the first
things a choir director must do with a new group of singers?
If you said organize the sections and place according to height, you
are either brilliant, well versed in choir logistics or you read ahead.
We do not normally start with a clean slate of plant material, just as
a choir director must work with what he/she is given in terms of talent and
height. Take note of differences
in items (variety) and then determine how you can bring a sense of
organization to the scene (sequence).
Theme:
Finding a commonality, or a theme, is often the easiest route to good
garden design. If you have been
blessed with a gorgeous redbud, you might plant other pinkish purple blooming
plants that have a simultaneous bloom with the redbud in different areas of
your yard, like a swath of Louisiana phlox near the front door and a grouping
of formosa azaleas under the pines. By
repeating the same color, albeit through different plants, you can create a
splendid scene that will have neighbors running to your house for Easter
pictures each spring. These diverse plants have a common color bloom to create
the transition in forms without distraction.
Texture:
Another use of sequence and variety is texture. Just as color can be
repeated to join areas into an overall pleasing design, so too can a specific
texture. In shady spots, we can
draw on this technique easily by using various “ferny” plants. They don’t all have to be wood ferns, or holly ferns, or
autumn ferns. How about a
Japanese maple to tie together elements in this setting?
Any plant that has some of the characteristics of a fern could help to
bridge the other shrubs and trees into a cohesive area.
Form:
The layering method of design uses variety and sequence based on size
or form. A pleasant layering
effect of plants is achieved by placement according to height with short, then
medium, and then tall, just like in the choir.
This trick can increase the perceived depth of an area.
Form might also be seen as
the shape of a plant. Even if the
blooms are different colors, by repeating a similar form, such as the round
face of a sunflower or the pointy steeple of a delphinium, a pattern will
develop.
Luckily, sequencing and variety are not concepts
we will need to go back to school to learn. Applying them to our landscapes
can be quite simple and will make a better-designed environment.
So sit up, pay attention and take note of your surroundings.
Patterns are all around us…just ask any third grader!
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