shorelines ◦ interiors by gregory ◦
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"Outdoor Rooms"
The concepts for planning and decorating interior rooms can also be applied to the arrangement and planting of garden spaces. Just consider them outdoor rooms. With interior rooms you are limited by the scale and materials of the walls, floors, and ceiling; while in outdoor rooms, you must contend with the variables of sun, shade, wind, and slope.
I recently applied these techniques to a hillside garden outside of Lunenburg. The first thing I noted was the scale of the house commanding attention at the top of the hill. The garden was laid out below the home on a steep slope to the water. My job was to accommodate the existing pathways and pond, yet enhance the garden space with stonework. My accomplice in this endeavour was Paul Mailman.
Just like a blank room in a house, we needed to distinguish where the traffic will flow (the stone pathways) so the other areas can be appropriately decorated (planted). Our slate materials were sourced from Scotia Slate in the Annapolis Valley. The steps were recycled from an old foundation. We started with a slate flagstone patio for surveying the garden. The steps were built to be 3’ wide with a 7” drop per step. No more than two steps were set in a row before a landing was established, so the journey through the elevations will be subtle and slow. Visually, the steps will be more inviting if they effortless rather than arduous. As in a room, the scale of objects establishes visual comfort. If the scale is too small, one feels precarious. Imagine Gulliver walking through the Lilliputians’ garden. Too large of scale and one feels dwarfed and overwhelmed. Think Jack after he climbs the beanstalk. In the outdoor room, the steps can also act as the furniture, so we placed large, marshmallow-shaped stones beside some of the steps to support the sloping garden soil and to support tired “bums” resting along the path.
After the “hardscape” was set, it came time for arranging the plantings. This is my advice: PLANT FOR WINTER. What does this mean? It means evergreens in abundance and lots of perennials like sedum and lavender that offer sustaining visual interest through the winter months. One of my other favourites is yellow dogwood up against the evergreens. In winter against the snow, the yellow is electric. We arranged our plantings of evergreens against as many stone surfaces as seemed reasonable. This softens the look of the stone. Think upholstered surfaces juxtaposed with wooden furniture. In isolation, a sofa or a table can look lonely (that is certainly not inviting), but in combination the stone and evergreen like the upholstery and wood create visual comfort. Objects in isolation should be making a statement, like statues, birdbaths, and garden obelisks (Lee Valley offers a fine copper one). In my own garden, I used 3 old foundations stones buried on end to create a version of The Three Graces. Each stone is buried more than three feet into the ground. The 12’ stone is actually five feet into the ground. The stones tower over you for drama, yet at the base of the stones is planted heaps of coreopsis “moonbeam”. I must say, the effect is grand!