Most Important FIRST is putting (as the phrase goes) the “Right plant in the Right place.”  Aesthetics can follow with all-season interest in color & texture… spring, summer, fall & winter.  This alone is a very satisfying level of garden design.

The next level?  Form & scale… rhythm & flow… mystery & surprise!.. subtle aesthetics that can be appreciated, thus learned.  Observe nature.  Visit gardens.  But First:

FIRST, Suit the Site: Understand your

macroclimate’s cold-hardiness & its microclimates (often several on a site)…  notably their sun, shade & the bright shade between.  Your soil’s pH, fertility & moisture are very important, but soil is more easily amended and watered; pH is hard to change, but most garden plants do well in the slight acidity (6.5 to 7.0) of Eastern Mass.  Add 1 to 2 inches of compost to most garden beds, and mulch 3 inches with shredded pine bark (except the crowns). 

2nd, Fit the Space using a plant’s mature size to stay

below a window, away from a foundation or walkway, and from other plants... in a layered approach with lower plants in front of taller ones. 

EXCEPTION is a taller focal plant among the lower, such as an ornamental tree with flower, fall color & showy bark,

like Stewartia pseudocamellia.

Spatial function is yet another level:  How do you use the land?  Can you reduce lawn?  Plant the rest?   

Then Seek Beauty   The aesthetic is subjective, not right nor wrong.  I happen to prefer dense naturalistic asymmetry, but that is not inherently better than formal balanced symmetry with space between the plants.   Symmetry reflects the formal facades of many houses.   Naturalism relates to a natural thicket or conservation area beyond your boundary.  Native plants feed birds et al, and can be used in both styles; and both can be juxtaposed for contrast, or in transition from a symmetrical facade to less formal sides & backyard.

Balance the color & bloom of spring, summer & fall with winter interest such as bark, branching & evergreen leaf.

Your Aesthetic decides what is Right. 

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This Designer’s Process

THE SITE VISIT teaches me about your property, and you.  We walk the site, I listen and offer ideas, and design as much as you can approve in concept... so there are no surprises later.  We identify your FUNCTIONAL NEEDS (such as updating a home’s foundation planting, enhancing an entry, screening a view, or correcting drainage) & AESTHETIC DESIRES (as seasons of interest, or a preferred garden style).  I look for spaces to use your favored plants and colors.  For planting April through October, except the hot/dry summer months of July & August. 

Aesthetics are subjective, neither right nor wrong.  My naturalistic tendency is to plant asymmetrically and densely; this is not inherently better than formal symmetry with space between plants, which I might also use.  Your desires decide what is right. 

This first meeting conceptualizes the project.  It’s best to meet with ALL decision makers.  Otherwise, revisits and revisions may delay installation.

SITE ANALYSIS begins as I walk the site, again alone to better understand your land’s existing vegetation, structures and surrounding context.  With photos, measurements and careful notes, the base map is prepared in a few hours, a bird’s eye view which becomes the rough draft at my drawing table.

GARDEN DESIGN begins conceptually on site as a group of plants is suggested here, and an ornamental tree there.  First, I want to:

SUIT the SITE, noting your Macroclimate’s cold-hardiness, and your microclimates of sheltered and exposed areas, with varying sun exposure, soil moisture and fertility (pH is normally slightly acidic in Eastern Mass.).  Next: 

FIT the SPACE with the mature height & spread of plants.  Using plants that are too large for the space requires continual control to trim their size... more time / money... and sacrifices the beauty of natural form.  You, may, however, prefer a sheared hedge. 

Whatever you prefer, I want to provide all-season interest (spring, summer, fall & winter) with an interplay of color & texture, form & scale, rhythm & flow... perhaps mystery & surprise!

Drawing by hand, I continue to design on the original base map with pencil, inking as decisions are made (not with CAD, computer-aided design, an extra electronic step that is an obstacle to getting my mind back into the site, some say old school).  Handling only two pieces of paper hastens the process as an overlay of bedlines and plantings is drawn in ink on tracing paper.  Most important last, evergreens are distinguished with green marker on the final drawing, but color is added sparingly.  Too much color can confuse what is most important first to communicate.

PRESENTATION is best in person, although some clients are content with a mailed proposal.  To see plants, I prefer meeting at a garden center, (such as Weston Nurseries in Hopkinton, Mass., where we can personally tag specific plants to be used, or I will simply choose the best available).  Plants can be seen in leaf, perhaps in bloom... such as azalea and other Rhododendron shrubs in spring... a Stewartia tree in summer... or some herbaceous Actaea/Cimicifuga in autumn... when the fall color of many deciduous woody plants is also showy, such as the fragrant Summer Azaleas (Rho.) & ‘Henry’s Garnet’ Sweetspire (Itea).

INSTALLATION proceeds when plants and crew are available.  Some plants are not available all the time, but there are many plants to suit any site, and fit any space, at any time of the growing season.

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