Sunday, December 12, 2010


It has been spinning on my head for a  long while.  The time has come.  The implicit/explicit lack of aesthetics in any garden installation over this concrete/asphalt dominant scenery is brutal.  Not only for its beyond ugly, unimaginative characteristics in plant selection and installation, but for the ignorant maintenance that follows or the total lack of it in public, private, commercial or residential, botanical gardens, parks, beaches and other recreational spaces.  

To get to the point i will use the information below, with the pertinent reference at the end.

Through history, gardeners hid one from another plants, seeds and information for jealosy, Carl Linnaeus one of the greatests was no exception.
I believe there is nothing to hide, the garden, mine or yours is what it is.


The character of a line yields specific responses. Gentle slow curves and horizontal lines tend to be experienced as restful while jagged diagonals or vertical lines create more excitement and tension.


It is what is seen when first looking at a garden from a distance.  Every plant has a distinct growth habit, a unique mass and volume which develops and changes as the plant matures.  These shapes whether pyramidal, weeping columnar, spreading or round, divide and define the spaces in the garden. 

The siting of a specific plant may block a view, or open a sight-line or alter the view depending on the maturity and growth-habit or the plant open or compact, herbaceous, ever green or deciduous.  These plant qualities often change with the seasons and restructure the lines of the garden.

Other elements defining composition, what any garden should be: texture, scent, color, scale, sequence, emphasis, balance, variety and repetition.  All the information is in the site provided.

For a farewell I would suggest that you  look at the header picture, the first six photos in the right side, moving down to find those between Yucca manihot and Hibiscus.

My garden is in a flat surface, what is not in a fiberglass pot; is in a rectangle surrounded by concrete as you may notice now.

How you deal with your surroundings require constant observation to add and substract.  One can not really work with tromp'oleil on a flat surface, as the area I practice,  but in  one of the pictures down a hill I did. 

I would add that assymetry and symmetry are fundamental to master, understand gardening schools or styles.

I am so much into assymetry that even unconsciously, I plant in odd numbers.
It is an acquired taste after my Zen gardening fever passed away.
And it passed away because the only, pragmatic use of the Zen school, in my view,  are those spaces enclosed in walls for private enjoyment with white gravel or sand, rocks and perhaps a trio of bushes.

To finish as it is me habit, I do not think that a garden requiring 14 hours of maintenance daily, as many of this gardens with high maintenance require, every leaf clipped, stiff as hell and very orderly are cool to visit, but unless you are wealthy and got hired guns...
totally impractical.

apaga i vamonoh...


  1. Es verdad,como que al tener cualquier jardín aunque sea pequeño ,existe la necesidad de estudiar primero las plantas y si es grande anexar a esto los costos.

    Hasta pronto un abrazo.

  2. Excellent - all of it! Though I will say, that symmetry can also be nice, especially when loosened up, or the axes staggered.

  3. Chomp, de costar pues no se, lo hago todo no me cuesta nada. Pero quien compra plantas en vivero o emplea jardinero pues si.

    Aunque al jardinero/a que no analiza se le ira
    una gran cantidad de horas podando, cortando,limpiando, eso tambien es dinero.

    Desert Dweller, me beef with symmetry is in the placing of anything in pairs, particularly in rows or at the entrance of a house, an enclosure and so forth. In many instances it seems mandatory.

    But I agree with your perception.

    Until then.


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