23 - Friday, April 10,°1987 - North Shore News

ook at the overall design
before starting to landscape

NOW IS THE time that a great many of you are thinking of
either landscaping your new home or renovating the land-

scape of your existing home.

The question I hear most often
at this time is, ‘‘Where do |
begin?’’ and tempted as I am to
answer, ‘‘From the ground up’ |
generally suggest a plan of action
which would include an overall
design.

I think most of you would agree,
it would be foolish to begin
building a house, a boat, or a piece
of furniture without some sort of
design worked out beforehand;
and you must further agree, effec-
tively landscaping your home is
not a small project. —

First lets look at the plan of at-
tack. Develop a goal, what do you

want out of your garden;-an at-_

tractive entry, a play area for the

entertaining, screening out unat-
tractive views, enhancing attractive
ones, a vegetable or flower garden,
or any of dozens of uses or com-
binations of uses.

Take a piece of paper and
roughly (you need not be an artist
or a draftsperson) sketch out a
plan of your property as seen from
above. If you have a copy of your
original survey so much the better.

Now make notes on this plan
regarding such things as screening
needed to create privacy or to
block a view, or provide shelter
from cool winds, enhance attrac-
tive views, Lest sun for vegetables
or flowers, areas that may require
major changes in ground eleva-

could affect the landscape plan.

Next, draw some circles which
rougily indicate the positions and
size of such things as patios, lawn
areas, shrub beds, hedges, walks,
drives, etc.

You should have compiled a list
of plant materials that you find
enjoyable and I strongly recom-
mend a few trips to the library in
order to look through as many
garden books as possible and
develop an awareness in the artful
combinations of these plant mate-
rials.

Consider good landscape design
principals such as creating outdoor
rooms. Just as the inside of the
house has clearly defined areas
which are public (entryways, liv-
ingrooms, etc.), semi-private (fam-
ilyrooms, etc.) and private
(bedrooms, etc.); the outdoors

children, a patio for outdoor

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Home Show features garden

. THE B.C. Nursery Trades Association is presenting
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Complete with colorful. shrubs, plants and ground
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Exhibits range from the beautiful oasis of Minter
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exotic plants that many don’t know existed, to a
unique garden display featuring water as an intricate
part of the landscape.

‘Outdoor Living Designs offers a unique service
showing visitors how. to.plan a garden or patio as an

tions and any other items that

should have clearly defined areas

extension of the home — not simply as an area to
maintain.

Experts will be on hand at the show to help plan the-

space to get the most enjoyment out of a garden.
Topiary, the latest creative gardening craze, is pres-
ented by Pacific Shanes Ltd.

Topiary plant sculptures are created by buii ding a

wire frame into the shape of an animal or other inter-
esting shapes, filling the cavity with potting soil,
covering the frame with spagnum moss, then planting
with your favorite plants.

Showtimes are weeknights from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30
p.m. April 10 to 19 at the Pacific National Exhibition.
Saturday hours are 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Sunday
hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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as well.

Use balance when laying out
your design. Try to spread the bulk
of the planting materials equally
over the design. I do not intend
symmetry here, rather to simply
avoid the weighting of certain
areas of the yard without attemp-
ting to balance the garden in
another area.

Try not to reveal too much of
the garden at once. Keep the inter-

est high by screening certain areas.

of the garden so that only so much
of the garden can be seen at any
one time. A useful technique is
changing the direction of walks so
that the point of view is necessarily
changed.

Create focal points. By creating
‘a centre of interest you can fix the
viewer’s attention in a certain direc-
tion. This can be accomplished in a
number of ways including an in-

.teresting plant or group of plants,

a piece of garden statuary or fur-
niture, or a dramatic change of
color, texture or shape.

Frame your views. Once you
have created a centre of interest,
try to frame that view in such a
way as to channel the viewers at-
tention to it. This can be achieved
as simply as placing two upright
trees on either side or less sym-
metrically by using various plant
masses balanced in a way that will
create a focusing effect. >

Mass your plant materials. One
of the most common mistakes

a TROT

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made is that of making a trip to
the local garden centre and buying
one of each of whatever catches
the eye. This is known in the trade
as the dog’s breakfast syndrome.

over the
garder. gate

Build unity in the garden. Try to
use repeated themes, styles, or
plant materials within one field of
vision in order to tie the character
of the garden together.

All of this may seem to be more
than you are currently capable of,
but I assure you that if you take
the time that your garden deserves,
you will be pleased with the

re

CEE IES