Better homes and gardens garden planner professional#

The raised beds in my vegetable garden are 5 by 8 feet. Numerically, the Golden Rectangle ratio is close to 1: 1.6, a proportion I regularly use to lay out terraces, patios, arbors, and lawns. The practical application that I make of the Golden Ratio involves its sibling, the Golden Rectangle, in which the ratio of the short side to the long side is equal to the ratio of the long side to the sum of both sides (a/b = b/a+b)-you probably didnвЂ™t know that landscape architects had to learn math. One is the Golden Ratio which is a ratio of proportion thatвЂ™s been observed in everything from the Great Pyramids at Giza to the Greek Parthenon and has been used throughout history as a guide to a pleasing sense of balance and order. 03: USE THE GOLDEN RECTANGLE TO GET PROPORTIONS RIGHTД¬ertain rules help us refine design.

Better homes and gardens garden planner professional#

And IвЂ™d say that the use of the regulating line, more than any other concept, separates professional from amateur design. First is the idea of underlying order: that the garden, for all its naturalness, or wildness, is founded on strong principles-whatвЂ™s sometimes known in garden circles as вЂњgood bones.вЂќ Second, that regulating lines-at least as I employ them-are subjective itвЂ™s the designer who identifies and manipulates them to create the garden. Le Corbusier hits on the two aspects (a bit paradoxical, perhaps) that make the regulating line so valuable. These lines intersect at the base of the tree. Another regulating line is created by the edge of the pool running parallel to the glass window on the home. The decking on a different project in Pacific Palisades, CA, creates a regulating line that is parallel to the plane create by the gray wall of the house in the upper right of the image. вЂњA regulating line,вЂќ wrote the great architect (and theoretician) Le Corbusier, вЂњis an assurance against capriciousnessвЂ¦It confers on the work the quality of rhythmвЂ¦The choice of a regulating line fixes the fundamental geometry of the work.вЂќ The result is orderly and cohesive, even after being softened with planting. For example, in laying out one backyard, I projected the lines of its building addition into the garden space and then aligned the swimming pool and wooden walkway with those lines. My formal architectural education also introduced me to the concept of the вЂњregulating line.вЂќ The idea is that an element of architecture (for example, a doorway, or a building edge, even a window mullion) or a distinctive landscape feature (prominent tree, existing pool, property boundary) can вЂњgenerateвЂќ an imaginary line that helps connect and organize the design. On this project in Pacific Palisades, CA, an existing and overgrown row of ficus was reduced by half knowing it would still more than adequately enclose the patio. Of course, there are times when the point of a landscape design is a monumental sense of scale or view, but the best gardens, whatever their size, modulate a feeling of enclosure and openness, and this rule will help.

Sit near a tree in the park, or a wall, and gradually edge away, and youвЂ™ll see how it works. Just yesterday, as I was starting the design of a patio that I wanted to separate from an adjacent play area, it gave me instant guidance for how tall a hedge I would need: the area was 17 feet wide, and so my hedge should be at least 6 feet. Probably derived from behavioral psychology studies, this rule came to me from a professor in graduate school, and it was one of the best things I learned. The law of significant enclosure says that we feel enclosed when the vertical edge of a space is at least one-third the length of the horizontal space weвЂ™re inhabiting.

Yes, this oneвЂ™s a вЂњlaw,вЂќ not just a rule! It addresses the root meaning of garden, which is вЂњenclosure.вЂќ This, to me, is absolutely critical in creating a sense of refuge and of feeling oneself within natureвЂ™s embrace. 01: OBEY THE 'LAW' OF SIGNIFICANT ENCLOSURE LetвЂ™s start with two rules that can kick-start the process of laying out a landscape, then move on to guidelines that help in scaling the proportions of a gardenвЂ™s elements and, finally, to choosing and using the right plants. Applied by any gardener, amateur or professional, they will result in a more successful, satisfying design.ДЇree newsletter with garden design tips every Thursday!

All have proven invaluable to me over my years of garden-making. However, after 28 years and hundreds of projects later, IвЂ™ve come to believe in certain rules and guidelines that are neither fussy nor constraining. ItвЂ™s tempting, in a field as subjective as garden design, to feel that rules do not apply. Use the Golden Rectangle to get proportions right.Obey the 'law' of significant enclosure.