Oh yes gardens have personality. I think they can impose their personality on to the gardener and vice versa.

well, like pets - I think they morph into the personality of their keeper. So yes, it would be good to consider making something that fits the personality of the owner, so that it continues to develop in the same direction rather than falling apart as the adaptation goes along.

Well, I know plants have personalities. I tend to anthropomorphize my plants a bit. But then again, I tend to compare my family and friends to plants as well.

I think that gardens should have personalities; a combination of the personality of the gardener who loves it,the designer who designed it (unless they are one and the same) and a little bit of je ne sais quoi, a thing unto itself. I've had gardens that I thought would be cottage-y but turned out to be quite controlled when all was said and done. Also I have gardens that I thought were only two-colored, but somehow became splashes of many colors. Completely without my knowing.

Maybe the je ne sais quoi is the subconcious of the gardener. Or maybe the plants themselves impose upon us their own will and we acquiesce. Or both.

What a ramble
Patty

Don't the japanese in some circles have ideas about places having souls, or resident spirits? Isn't that part of the design, to call for the spirit of the place? The environment is alive, vital, full of personality if one looks for it. I think a good garden is a marriage of the gardener/landscaper's personality and the local spirit, which includes soil, microclimate, lay of the land, water, the plant and animal community, the history of land use, the neighbors, etc. It's so funny because yesterday my dad drove by a house which he saw as "out in the woods" and figured I would just love it. When I looked at the house I saw something carved out of a trash woodlot on the edge of a gully, overgrown with a tangled mob of invasive vines and boxelders. It made me claustrophobic. So what one perceives as a garden "personality" depends on many cultural and social reference points too. Some folks are prim and tidy and some gardens are too. I wonder if gardens match the personalities of their owners. Most of my ecclectic friends have ecclectic yards, a hodge podge of what they have time and energy to put together, much like their homes. A few friends have homes that show true craftmanship but is that personality? It takes a certain skill and income level to bring forth your "personality." I mean my personality is a log beach house on the shore of Lake Michigan, but I'll never have the money to get that, I can just about afford a tract home in a ubiquitous low end suburb. Even so, it's inevitable that this tree hugger will start to planting trees wherever I live, so that part of my personality is prevalent enough to always influence my "garden." I've almost always found space for tomatoes too. Is that personality? Same with clothes, I think some people have more skill with sewing or time and money to shop so their "personality" is shown more in their dress. Others of us have to compromise and go for function since that's what we need and can afford. So personality often creeps out in the smallest of ways in a garden. Sometimes it's an odd mix, the "Welcome Sign" on the door of the house with the scary dog and overgrown yard and the grumpy guy scowling at you from the driveway.

In a culture of 'backyards' and 'frontyards' isn't it typical that the front shows the public face or conventional face, if you like, and the back is where the more personal touches are exhibited? This would be one explanation for the ubiquitous foundation planting. Perhaps, in general, we like to put on an anonymous front.

The second part of the girls question was intriquing too. Tommy Church said that "unless a designer knows who you are what you like and what you are like he cannot design a personal garden" or words to that effect. How well do you need to know someone before you can personalise their garden space or if you are designing for yourself how does that question pan out?

ink, I don't suppose you've ever had a wedding dress made, but that was the ultimate experience for me in having someone design something so personal that I doubted she could do it. I could not even have begun to design a dress, let alone one for one of the most important days of my life. Yet, the dress maker (of Maggie Flood in Massachusetts) intuited my style, my preferences, ME , in a few meetings and was able to make me the dress of my dreams. Seventeen years later, I look at that dress and I would love to wear it again ... not dated at all and still evocative of me at that time in my life.

I feel a good designer (and I am just a plain old lay-person) of a landscape, a garden, a house, a room, a dress, and so forth, should be able to to somehow capture the essence of the person(s) for whom they are designing.

Patty

Ink,
You have dragged me into this conversation with your last question..."How well do you need to know someone before you can personalize their garden space....?"

Should point out that I am retired before launching into several thoughts. We designers do not get enough credit for our ability to evaluate a potential customer during the initial consultation. And, our assessment of that client sometimes has to be made while their dog is barking, the kids are screaming, the husband is in a bad mood, the house to be designed around is butt ugly, etc. coupled with trying to assess land problems, potential drainage problems, allergies, plus a zillion other details which we must plug into our mental calculator. All this in a short space of time. It is one thing to design a 'mow-and-blow' landscape for a busy client only interested in house resale and 'moving up'. Personal space is another story.

When we design personal gardens...yes, the customer and designer need to relate to and feel comfortable with each other. And when it clicks it is the beginning, many times, of lifelong friendships.

I had the odd situation of knowing about most of my clients before I met them as they were newsworthy in one way or another. I learned a valuable lesson from them. If you are not comfortable with yourself you will find it difficult to make decisions and take direction from others. Hopefully a few will understand what I am trying to say.

Finding a designer/landscape architect these days is difficult. They are very busy. Many who post here, willing to do their homework, are finding that they can design their own personal gardens. They are enjoying the learning process and even their mistakes! Sometimes just an hour's consultation with a pro is all that is needed to start them on their way.

The wedding gown example made me laugh right out loud. I have made more of them than I care to think about, and I LOATHE bridal work... not the actual design, fitting, workmanship; but all the "handholding", polite listening to the lore of great Aunt Tillie who "loved to sew" and did this for free... , the countless rescheduled appointments, and hung over "brides" (one puked into the bathroom sink while I held up her dress!). I digress.

I don't believe pets morph into the personalities of their owners... I think quite the opposite is true, actually. I find that I learn from my pets! maybe they're simply mirroring who I am, but I don't think it's quite that simple. More digression.

I know, when I meet a customer for a fitting, within a few carefully selected questions how they want to "look" to the world. I know what questions to ask, I know how to demonstrate with pins the concepts I want/NEED to convey. I know how to refine those questions to get the answers I HAVE TO HAVE to do the work that will please them, and bring them back to my workroom. I DON'T have to learn about their personal likes/dislikes, I don't have to become personally involved with them, at all. My "favorite" customers are those with whom I feel a certain kinship, but it's not necessary to feel that for me to guarantee a successful result. Not at all!

It's only necessary for me to "relate" with respect to certain questions I ask. And I have a catalogue of "questions" that I run through with every customer. I'm a "reporter"; I am tasked with gathering information, and the best informations is gleaned from replies that are not necessarily related to the task at hand! How they answer them is rather like how an optician clicks through the various lenses that refine the glasses that (s)he will prescribe.

It's easier when you share a commone aesthetic, but it's NOT necessary, if you are a "good reporter".

Do gardens have personality? I think some do......or maybe I should expand that and say that all do, but many, maybe even most have a personality or character that is so non-descript as to appear to have none. I think that gardeners' gardens tend to have more personality than the traditionally landscaped 'yard' - that's because these gardens tend to be works of passion rather than convention and it's pretty hard to keep personality out of them.

Do professionally designed gardens necessarily have personality? That depends :-) It depends on the designer, it depends on the client, and as noted above, it depends even more on the relationship between them. I do believe that most of my garden designs reflect a measure of my personality just by virtue of my input and how I select and combine the various elements. The ones that have an even greater measure of their owner's personality in them are those in which the client was intimately involved in the design process. And as any designer knows, that can vary widely from situation to situation. It can be likened to interior design - a designer may be called in and asked to "do" the interior, but without heavy client involvement, it typically turns out attractive but somewhat sterile. It is the client selecting or providing significant input into the major furniture pieces, artwork and accessories that turns it into their home. I think it is very much the same with gardens.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit 20, yes 20 private gardens of all sizes shapes and locations. There were rooftops, courtyards, small yards, big yards there was even a large public garden bringing the count to 21. At the end of the marathon, I was saturated and brain dead. What gardens did I remember? The ones with distinct personality--the over designed modern garden (matched the interior design), the rambling shade garden, the lovingly tended courtyard and the public garden with the greatest sense of humor I have ever seen outside of Lotusland. Who was responsible for the 'personality' of these gardens? In each and every case, it was the maker. Did the gardens reflect their owners--in the case of the two I spoke to, most definately. Did the public garden--absolutlely because it has a vision of its own that encourages imaginative solutions.

Sorry for the ramble, but I've been at the drawing board all day trying to reflect the needs and wants of a young family--in fact I'm trying to create a garden that will reflect their personalities!

Rose gardens do....