When designing a garden, it is also worth answering the question of how many people will stay in it permanently and how many guests should it fit.If we are often visited by friends and family, the garden should have an enlarged seating area, wider paths, and a more extensive lawn area than in intimate gardens, intended only for household members.Moreover, in such a situation, several garden interiors, separated by groups of plants.
The division of garden functions also depends on the age of the owners and the lifestyle they lead.This is what determines the design of the pitch, court, place for a bonfire or grill, swimming pool or pond, as well as quiet corners where you can sit and laze comfortably.If the users are also children, it is necessary to allocate a part of the garden under the play corner.In such places you should not plant plants that are dangerous for children, such as poisonous ones - yews, thuja, sabin and Chinese junipers.
The most beneficial are pines and junipers, as they emit large amounts of phytoncides together with essential oils and ionize the air negatively.For people who rest best in a hammock or on a deckchair, the most important will be the colors, because then the garden landscape is not monotonous.The setting of conifers can be varied with plants with colorful leaves and flowering specimens.
Which garden style should you choose?
A garden looks good when its composition is clear, simple and not overloaded with too many plants and variety of species.And at the same time, it cannot be monotonous and boring. Ideally, the style of the garden should complement and extend the style of the interior of the house.
Location of the garden
A garden in a city usually has a small area and therefore should be arranged with particular simplicity, often with the use of miniature plants, e.g. the white spruce variety Picea glauca 'Laurin', 'Echinifirmis', Japanese larch Larix kaempferi 'Blue Dwarf' , mountain pine Pinus mugo 'Winter Gold', Canadian pine tree Tsuga canadensis 'Yedeloh'; columnar, e.g. common juniper Juniperus communis 'Meyer', Lawson's cypress Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Golden Wonder'. Large plants, e.g. silver fir, norway spruce with a target height of up to 40 m, planted in a small garden, dominate it, reducing it visually.
In city gardens, it is worth considering species resistant to air pollution, i.e. junipers, pines, larches, ginkgoes, and also drought-tolerant - pines, junipers or Picea pungens blue spruce.Fir does not like such conditions, with the exception of Abies concolor, which is quite tolerant. Gardens outside the city generally have a larger area, so you can choose taller, more sprawling plants and plant them in larger groups.
The height of the plants (the height in adulthood is taken into account) must be adjusted to the size of the garden.In large gardens you can plant black pine, common pine, white pine, spruce, Douglas fir, while in small gardens you need to change the scale - conifers must be lower, e.g. Scots pine, but the 'Watererii' variety growing only up to 3-4 m, fir, but e.g. Korean, the maximum height of which is 10-15 m When planting young plants, you need to know what they will look like when they mature.
Shaping space
The spatial nature of a garden is determined by groups of plants and their location.Plants for the garden can be chosen from a huge number of species and varieties, from Abies fir, which can reach 80 m in height, through 50 cm dwarfs, such as the white spruce 'Alberta Globe', to creeping, ground cover, reaching 10 cm in height, such as common juniper 'Wiltonii'.They can be planted singly, in the form of solitaire, e.g. grafted spruces of unusual shapes, as cover plants instead of a lawn, as hedges or garden groups, especially in large gardens and parks.
In the 19th century landscape gardens, the area of the future garden was specially shaped, creating gentle hills. Such a differentiation of levels makes the garden landscape more attractive. In smaller areas, a similar effect can be achieved by varying the height of the plants and the use of increased beds.
If the composition is to be viewed from all sides, the highest species should be in the middle, followed by the medium ones, and on the outskirts - the lowest. When the plants are viewed from one side, the tallest plants are planted behind, while the medium and low ones are planted in front of them. It is also important to vary the height of the plants planted next to each other, also of the same species, forming a group.
Composition rules
Various techniques are used to alter the perception of perspective. The path lines and the rebate, running in the direction of view, optically lengthen. On the other hand, the lines that run across the assumption optically widen it.The impression of depth is obtained by narrowing the straight garden paths (the further, the narrower).A similar effect of depth can be obtained by filling the garden with large empty planes. The space can also be shaped by the color of plants.
Dark plants planted at the back of the garden optically lengthen it, and a bright spot in the central part shortens the perspective. The use of mirrors in the garden, as in the closed space of rooms, optically increases the surface by multiplying the image. The change of perspective is also achieved by varying the height of the plants.Evenly trimmed hedge at the back of the bedding optically shortens the garden.
The same hedge, against which a tall or spreading shrub is planted, breaks the even body of the hedge without shortening the garden. On the other hand, placing a passage in the hedge, even if it leads to nowhere, gives the illusion of extending the garden arrangement.
By using two of the same groups of plants - one planted closer and the other farther away from the observer - you can achieve the impression of movement. The same groups, planted at an equal distance from the viewer, give the impression of a static arrangement.In the garden, attention-grabbing accents are necessary because they bring order, preventing the eyes from wandering aimlessly. It may be a habit or a color that distinguishes the plant from the background.Contrasting combinations also look interesting, e.g. regular cut forms combined with plants with delicate lace needles, e.g. larch.
Color has a great influence on well-being, so take it into account when choosing the plants you want to plant in a specific location.The colors must be selected in such a way as to adjust the created mood to the personality of the owner, introducing e.g. strong, even aggressive, or subtle and modest colors.
Bright shades of yellow and orange have a stimulating effect, so they are suitable for gardens intended for physical activity.Delicate colors, e.g. blue with the addition of pink or white, soothe.According to the Chinese rules on the use of colors, all warm colors (red, orange, yellow) have a stimulating effect and are therefore associated with the Yang principle (masculine, positive, active, symbolizing fire and warmth). Cold colors (blue, indigo, purple) soothe and calm down, they combine with the yin principle (female, negative, passive, symbolizing water and cold). Green is a neutral color, i.e. neither yang nor yin.
Which conifers to choose?
Native species: common juniper, Sabinian juniper, rock juniper, norway spruce, scots pine, limba, mountain pine, mud pine, European larch, Polish larch, and silver fir do not cause major maintenance problems. In the case of introduced species, those that acclimatized well here come from temperate climatic zones, for example, the 18th century white pine Pinus strobus was brought from North America; eastern biota Platycladus orientalis (syn. Biota orientalis) - until recently known as the eastern thuja - came from China and has been cultivated in Poland since the end of the 18th century; Thuja occidentalis, planted here since the 17th century, came from North America, similarly to the prickly spruce Picea pungens, which was first planted in Poland in 1895.
With deciduous plants
To liven up the composition of conifers only, you can plant shrubs and trees with flowering or colorful leaves in their vicinity. The flowers and green of the delicate leaves of the 'Abbotswood' (white flowers), 'Red Ace' (red) and 'Golgfinger' (yellow) varieties are a very good company for conifers.Compositions that slightly change during the vegetation period are conifers with shrubs with colorful leaves, e.g. Japanese tavula 'Goldflame' (orange leaves in spring, later yellow-green), 'Golden Princes' (yellow leaves) and' Litle Princes '(green leaves).
Classic combinations are conifers with barberry with red and yellow leaves and with cotoneaster.This type of planting should be supplemented by planting, for example, climbing and shrub roses.This allows you to hide the stiff, thorny stems of roses in the leafless period, and to bring out their beauty when they bloom. Conifers work well with climbers - common ivy, clematis, e.g. alpine Clematis alpina, large-flaked Clematis macropetala, for which columnar varieties can be a living support.
When planting deciduous plants together with conifers, remember that the former ones usually grow faster, so it is better to choose low deciduous plants so that they do not dominate the smaller conifers. In order for the selected species and varieties to grow well next to each other, they should have similar requirements as to the type and structure of the soil, the amount of nutrients, air temperature, humidity and lighting.
