S M A L L B U I L D I N G S , S M A L L G A R D E N S
Gardeners are always looking for new places for plants; consequently we are also looking for just the right place for new beds so they will fit in with existing ones so our overall garden feels unified. In this lecture on my new book SMALL BUILDINGS, SMALL GARDEN (Gibbs Smith Publishing, 2007), I look closely at how gardeners can use small buildings and built structures such as gazeboes and arbors, pergolas and bridges, fences and decks to help find just the right place for new gardens. These structures are hugely helpful in easing the design process by helping you see how to develop new gardens in relation to existing or new gardens and in relation to existing or new structures. In doing so, they help you find just the right places for plants. In fact, they anchor your thinking about where new gardens belong and then provide anchors for those new gardens when they’re planted. New beds can go along one or both sides of a fence; a small, enclosed herb garden can go off the side of a garden shed; beds of fragrant plants can surround a gazebo. Gardens, after all, are for people. Built structures in our gardens are magnets for family, guests and visitors; people are drawn to these structures and once standing near or in them they can appreciate the gardens we have planted in relation to them. We sit in gazeboes, linger in arbors, walk under pergolas or over bridges, wander through gates set in fencing, have lunch in a summerhouse or work from a garden shed. To plant gardens in relation to these structures is to enliven the experience. Cozy, manageable gardens snuggle up to small built structures, creating appealing places for people. Furthermore, when you have a context for new gardens, when you begin to see that built structures in your garden provide anchors, centers and starting places for good garden design, you gain confidence as you design your own gardens.
ABOVE: In the Haywards’ garden.