Unity - Part 5 - Texture

Everything in the garden has a texture. We experience texture through our senses of touch and sight. While it is possible to create a garden that is about the sense of touch, in this article I will focus on texture as a visual experience.

When thinking about how to unify a garden through texture, don't focus too much on the details. Look at broad areas of textures, such as clipped hedges, mown grass and the foliage of trees and shrubs.

It may help to think like you are creating a collage out of pieces of fabric, textured paper and sandpaper. The contrast of velvet against sandpaper is similar to the contrast of mown lawn against a graveled surface.

In design, the subject of texture is about harmony and contrast. Contrast can be used to stimulate, but this article is about how to unify a garden through the use of texture. A garden with too much contrast lacks unity. A garden without contrast will be perfectly harmonious and perfectly boring.

Think of texture as a pattern that you weave throughout your garden. In a parterre, texture isn't very important because the geometric pattern is the dominant element. You don't want a lot of textures competing with the geometric pattern, you just want a simple background that the design will be displayed against. The patterns of informal gardens are built up by playing texture against texture.

Most informal gardens are composed out of three layers of foliage. The topmost layer is composed of trees, the middle layer is composed of shrubs and understory trees. The bottom layer is composed of ground cover, herbaceous plants, bulbs and low shrubs.

Many gardeners focus on the the bottom layer with it's herbaceous flowers, but it is the upper layers which are most important. This layer dominates the lower layers, both by casting shade and just because of the size of the plants. The topmost layer is usually composed of trees. The exception to this are gardens surrounded by tall buildings. In gardens surrounded by tall buildings, it is probably best to repeat the textures of the surrounding buildings within the garden. For example, if the surrounding buildings are brick, the path or terrace could be brick. If the surrounding buildings are stucco, you might have a wall fountain with a stucco background, this wall fountain could be against a freestanding wall that is backed by shrubs.

A common mistake is to have a garden full of plants with leaves of a similar size and shape. While a garden like this will be harmonious, all of the plants will blend together into an amorphous mass. Many flower borders suffer from this problem and the usual advice is to add plants such as yuccas to give the border structure. While this will work, if you create interesting contrast of textures among the upper layers, the bottom layer can be very unstructured. I love herbaceous flowers, but I think of them as frosting. If the upper layers are mainly composed of small-leaved plants, then a few bold leaved plants displayed against the mass of small leaves will provide all of the textural contrast that your garden will really need, the rest of your garden can be harmonious. Garden books often give the impression that every perennial of rounded shape needs to be near a sword-leaved perennial or the garden will be boring. Actually, the garden will be most restful if the herbaceous plants are grouped in masses of similar leaves. In nature most herbaceous plants grow in colonies, not as isolated individuals..

When thinking of leaves, don't just think of size, but of shape. Plants with leaves of complex shapes often look best against bold, simple leaves, such as those of magnolias and rhododendrons. They also look good against conifers, this is because the texture of a conifer is very different from that of a broad-leaved tree, so there is total contrast. This is also true of bold, simple leaves, so you could have a tree with indented leaves against a tree with bold, simple leaves, against a background of conifers.

The middle layer can be a mass of billowing foliage or a clipped hedge, it can also be a fence or wall with specimen shrubs displayed against it. If the fence or wall has an attractive texture, let it be a texture that unifies the garden. If the fence or wall is unattractive, it can be covered with vines, the overlapping leaves of ivy creates a wonderful texture. If the herbaceous planting is very complex, then the texture of the middle layer should be simple. This is why clipped hedges are such an effective background for perennial borders. If you want lavish perennial borders, then a simple middle layer with some contrast in the top layer might be the best way to go.

The bottom layer offers the most opportunities for creating a rich pattern out of textures. This is because the plants that make up this layer are smaller than the plants of the upper layer, so you can fit more of them into a garden. Of course, the plants of all three layers are rooted in the bottom layer, except for epiphytes and plants in hanging baskets and tall urns.

A richly textured bottom layer will slow down the visitor, it will also direct their eyes downward. You can orchestrate how someone experiences your garden by having a richly textured lower layer that the visitor picks their way through, and then an open space with a simple texture, such as lawn or gravel. This simple texture will cause the viewer to look up and focus on the upper layers.

It is always difficult to reconcile the collectors urge with the desire to create a garden that is a unified work of art, but if you look at your plant's foliage as textures to be played against each other. You can have a diverse collection of plants and a unified garden.