Pots on the move

It is self evident that an important advantage of growing plants in pots is that they can be moved around. In every garden, there are spots which, at  least part of the time, are drab, if not boring. Pots are very useful to deal with such spots. Moving them to various places allows you not only to brighten a dull corner, but also to see your own garden in a completely different light.

Sitting in the Garden

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My last post was on pots.  In this one I thought I would move on to benches. Here is a collection of bench pictures taken in various gardens in the last few years.  These give some ideas of where to place benches to ensure they are comfortable and look attractive.

Large pots

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Inspired by the pot collections in one of Sophie's last posts, I thought I would also do a number on pots. However, looking at the pictures I put together, it appears that my post will be mostly about empty pots!
Pots, especially large ones, do not have to be filled with plants to be effective in the garden. They create a sense of scale. They provide interesting contrasts in shapes, and they especially act as focal points. The black pot in the flower bed in the picture below does all of these things.

Edging

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Although it plays an important role in how a garden looks, edging is not often given much attention. Simultaneously, edging holds the garden together and delineates its various sections: the lawn, the garden beds, the paths. I had a look at my garden pictures to find examples of various styles of edging in order to assess them from a practical and an aesthetic point of view. Here is what I found.

 

Mother and Children

This post is about a memorial garden. It is rather small - just a few columnar trees in a grassy enclosure with a monument in the center. It is on private land but sits right next to the road in a forested area. The public is welcome to stop and visit.

Garden Ornaments

I find that choosing and placing ornaments in a garden is interesting, but rather difficult. There are all sorts of ornaments from the reproductions of formal statuary to decorative scarecrows or urns or pots, all the way to garden gnomes. Some work quite well (that is to say, they improve the garden), but many don't. Why does some ornamentation seem attractive, while other ornamentation doesn't?

Plant supports as ornaments (Government House garden, Victoria B.C.)

Serendipity

We try various plant combinations in our gardens.  Some work beautifully, others are not as successful. However, I think that the best combinations are the result of a stroke of luck. Many planned combinations, even when they are successful, have a slight staginess about them, whereas the ones nature creates prolifically, in or outside our gardens, can be just right.  This is, no doubt, because our aesthetic sense was learned from nature in the first place.   

Conceptual Gardens

Last August, we visited Les Jardins de Métis which, every summer, host an international garden festival. The competing gardens are conceptual gardens. These are not traditional gardens but rather conceptual installations. Opinions are very divided about these gardens. Some people love them, but I think a majority of gardeners, fail to see them as gardens or are puzzled by them. Not long ago, I read a post by Chloris about Whether the Garden is an Art Form, and of course conceptual gardens were mentioned. I thought I would look up what these gardens are meant to be. All the pictures were taken in Métis, in Québec, last summer.

The Black and White Approach

Plant associations (that is: which plant to put next to which) are always difficult. They are complex because you have to take into account colour as well as time, since colours change with each season when flowers bloom and fade. And you also have to take into account shape, which is more subtle and more permanent. Like many aspects of gardening, plant associations are also a question of taste and consequently the results of your efforts will be judged differently depending on the experience and taste of the viewer.
We all have different ways of deciding which plants we will grow together, but one approach I find very useful is what I call the Black and White approach.

Bonsai on a millstone at the Jardins de Métis