When deliberate such arrangements make bold design statements, but without care can also introduce disruptive elements that divide up garden space that do not call for such organisation. One mistake too often seen is a designer lining up bold upright grasses to form barriers in their landscapes. Alternatively single specimens of bold grasses can stand out within their settings making striking contrasts with any broad leaved plants nearby. When grasses are planted in masses or used as the dominant theme in a mixed planting scheme, their characteristic shapes introduce zones of harmony. Used with sensitivity they can be used to weave together mixed perennial planting schemes into evocative perennial meadows, but often just a few plants in a scheme will be enough to develop the appropriate emotional response.Ĭontrasts in planting design are fundamental, but need balancing with areas of harmony. As a rule this is true, but it can also be rule to break when exploiting their other qualities of distinctive forms, textures and foliage colours.ĭesigning with grasses requires an ability to balance these somewhat conflicting characteristics and being aware that every single grass into your designs must be placedįrom a position of total obscurity in the 1980s to their heyday as the most trendy plants in the 1990s grasses are now finding their rightful place in our planting designs. This suggest that to use grasses in a formal arrangement is going against their true character and will lead to problems. Most of us associate grasses with the countryside and therefore their presence in our planting schemes triggers a sense of informality. Their presence within your planting schemes will never go unnoticed and invariably leads to powerful associations and significant contrasts. The distinctive characteristics that set grasses apart from the other plants that we grow in our gardens results in them having a powerful influence wherever they are used and this brings with it both advantages and dangers. Through their inclusion amidst an evolving planting pallet of perennials, contemporary gardens took on a naturalistic feel, far removed from the stiff block plantings of traditional herbaceous borders grasses introduced an informal air with strong associations with wild nature. The introduction of ornamental grasses into planting plans was one of the most significant changes to occur within garden design in the past twenty years.
Garden Ideas: Designing with ornamental grasses
0 kommentar(er)
