Garden Design 101
In the Garden with Andrew
Andrew Bunting. Photo courtesy of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
I recently ran into Swarthmore resident Ginny Scott at a Swarthmore Horticultural Society open house at my garden. She asked, “What general tips can you share for garden design, especially for the small gardens typical of this area?” It’s a great question.
Her query made me think about my own evolution as a garden designer. I never attended any garden design classes, but perhaps something like Garden Design 101 would have been helpful. My approach, like that of many gardeners, was organic and developmental. I gleaned a lot from the gardens I visited early in my life, like Charles Cresson’s Hedgleigh Spring here in Swarthmore and Wave Hill in the Bronx.
I was also fortunate, early in my career, to spend a year immersed in gardening in England. I lived and worked at the National Trust’s Tintinhull House which, at the time, was managed by famed garden writer and designer Penelope Hobhouse. I have always felt that the best garden designs are influenced by observation. I take what I have gleaned and compile borrowed ideas into my own designs.
That being said, there are some elements I always consider when designing a garden. I will spread out my tips over several articles.
Juxtaposition of bold banana with clipped yew. Photo: Andrew Bunting
First and foremost, do what you like. Pick colors and plants that please you. If you like it, then nothing else matters — unless of course you are hired to create a garden for a client.
Entire books have been written on garden color theory, such as Nori and Sandra Pope’s “Colour by Design” and Penelope Hobhouse’s “Color in Your Garden.” A color wheel is a great tool for picking your own color schemes. You can design with complementary colors —next to each other on the color wheel — or you can explore the contrasting colors that are color wheel opposites.
I have heard comments over the years like, “You should never combine orange and pink, or bronze and magenta.” These colors occur together in native and natural plantings, however. In fact, strongly contrasting colors can make for provocative combinations.
As you design your garden, your own use of color will develop. Early in my career I played it safe and used mainly pastels, but today I love vibrant oranges, reds, and purples. Inside my house, my library is fire engine red, my kitchen is pumpkin orange, and my living room is mustard yellow! I don’t think there is a color I don’t enjoy. For me, different colors trigger different emotions.
Another design consideration is the foliage or leaves of the plant. Texturally, plants fall into two basic categories. Bold foliage plants have large broad leaves. These include many of the hostas, such as ‘Sum and Substance’ or Hosta sieboldiana ‘Elegans’. Many of the ferns and ornamental grasses — and my favorite, the thread-leaf bluestar, Amsonia hubrichtii — have fine foliage. Juxtaposing bold and fine foliage creates an attractive display. In my woodland garden, for example, the shade-loving ornamental grass Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’ combined with Hosta ‘Great Expectations’ offers both a pleasing color combination and a strong textural contrast.
Ginny also asked about designing for winter interest. I often plant for the spring and summer and forget about the winter. But, in recent years, I have been more careful to select a percentage of my plantings with winter in mind.
There are many coniferous evergreens, with both small and large varieties of pines, spruces, junipers, and firs to consider. In my front yard, I have three Eastern red cedars, Juniperus virginiana ‘Emerald Sentinel’, that provide great winter interest. Broadleaved evergreens should be considered as well. I have boxwoods, clipped into perfect spheres, that repeat throughout the backyard. I also have two Altaclere hollies, Ilex x altaclerensis, which are upright with a pyramidal habit and shiny leaves. And scattered throughout the garden are many other broadleaved evergreen shrubs, including Mahonia japonica, Daphniphyllum macropodum, rhododendrons, and fall- and spring-flowering camellias.
The fine foliage of Amsonia hubrichtii. Photo: Andrew Bunting
To accent your evergreens, include plants with interesting bark, like the paperbark maple (Acer griseum). Or choose elements with beautiful stems, like the red-twigged dogwoods. My favorite is Cornus sericea ‘Cardinal’.
Many plants coveted for their fruit tend not to last throughout the entire winter. Winterberry hollies, however, have exceptional fruit displays from mid-September to mid-March. Copious tiny, shiny red fruits cover the stems of the deciduous hollies Ilex verticillata ‘Winter Red’ and ‘Maryland Beauty’. ‘Winter Gold’ has salmon orange berries. All hollies are dioecious, which means there are female and male plants. For all of these female clones to fruit well, you need to plant one male plant in the general vicinity. ‘Southern Gentleman’ is the best.
Happy gardening!
Andrew Bunting
Send your gardening questions to editor@swarthmorean.com.
Andrew Bunting is vice president of public horticulture at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and vice president of the Swarthmore Horticultural Society.
