What would nature do?

16 years ago

A case can certainly be made for a well-layed out, highly geometric garden. The incredible garden mazes of England come easily to mind...as do the complex ornamental gardens around the world.

Such linearity may have it's place, indeed. But I think the very fluid, organic nature of natural spaces is often overlooked. In our quest for linearity and the familiar, we get 90 degree corners and straight lines. I think the real beauty of say a natural meadow, is that there are NO straight lines and 90 degree angles.

A meadow has a luxurious fluidity to it that defies replication...at least replication in our own 'straight-line' world.

I think a worthy endeavor for a garden designer, then, would be to study the synergy implicit in a pristine meadow and note the organic, fluid nature of it's boundaries. A meadow is comprised, of course, of little "micro-niches"...these micro-niches blend with one another in a synergistic fashion, where one area gradually becomes another area.

I think, then, the key in thinking about trying to recapture the beauty of nature in our own designs is to focus on "flow". If, on some forest walk, you come upon a mid-forest meadow, you will notice that it didn't come lurching out at you, but rather gave clues to it's presence in a hundred inperceptible ways, before you even arrived at its foot. Meadows are transitional niches...often coming from ponds that have dried up, but have not yet been wholly encroached upon by the surrounding forest. one species of tree gives way to another species, one plant to another...but THERE IS NO DEFINITE BOUNDARY.

That is the key.

Nature is transitional. There are no rigid boundaries, just overlapping niches giving way to other niches. I think these transitions add to the softness of form of a natural area, as opposed to the rigid boundaries often seen in traditional gardens.

Niche transitions are what nature is all about. These transitional areas are the embodiement of gracious fluidity. It would do us well, to study this fluidity of natural transition when planning and designing our gardens.

While designing your garden, think in the back of your mind: "What would nature do?"

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (10)

larry_gene
16 years ago
(The above was also posted on the GardenStew forum, although it may have been posted here first)

Nice philosophy, but nature is not going to do what I want to do on a 50x100-foot city lot. My garden has a mixture of analog curves and rigid geometry--the geometrical part is in my nature.
botann
16 years ago
When it comes to gardens I have found out there are two types of people. I call them straight tree people and crooked tree people.
Straight tree people like straight trees, straight lines, and matched pairs. Anything other than that is not chosen, or if it exists in their garden, it's considered an aberration and is usually removed.
Crooked tree people like both crooked and straight trees. Same with lines. A much more tolerant attitude.
The trouble with formality in a garden is that the eye always notices the 'bad' one in a line or pair. Plants aren't stamped out like factory parts. The attempt to make them appear so becomes a futile constant maintenance battle.

When it comes to lawns I have always thought the shape should be as if it were water. The lawn should have fluidity and it's shape should be decided before the shape of the flower beds. If the flower beds are cut out of the lawn they usually look like they were cut out and the flow is lost.

Here's a picture of part of my garden showing a 'flowing' lawn.
{{gwi:1081359}}
Related Professionals
Brunswick Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Martinsburg Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Yuba City Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Salem Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Little Rock Landscape Contractors · Philadelphia Landscape Contractors · Toledo Landscape Contractors · Santa Rosa Landscape Contractors · Yuba City Landscape Contractors · Idaho Falls Landscape Contractors · Hot Springs Architects & Building Designers · Owensboro Architects & Building Designers · Canton Architects & Building Designers · Hudson Architects & Building Designers · Victoria Architects & Building Designers
PRO
George Three LLC
16 years ago
plenty of examples of straight lines in nature BTW.

{{gwi:1081360}}
Embothrium
16 years ago
Such rocks are noticeable for their abnormality.

The architecture in place determines the style of the landscaping. Formal garden in front of house with formal facade, informal around buildings not with geometrically symmetric features.

Wavy lawns or beds also do not match small areas with geometric outlines. When the overall shape of the planting site is rectangular that pretty much predetermines that beds and lawns contained within be rectilinear also, if the whole is to appear unified.

You also don't want a lot of curves in a smaller area as it produces a silly squiggly appearance. There should be enough room for sweeps of grass or grass should be left out of the plan.
larry_gene
16 years ago
Columnar basalt is found world-wide and is not the most common form of basalt, but it is not abnormal.

Many geometries commonly occur when minerals crystallize, or rocks weather or cool in a certain manner under pressure.

If fine, large crystals were not so valuable, they would be used in landscaping.
Embothrium
16 years ago
Not the shape usually seen in the natural landscape, making it abnormal. If there were columnar rocks and landforms all over everywhere, as are non-columnar ones, a scene such as the one shown above might not have even come to the notice of the photographer.
PRO
George Three LLC
16 years ago
the photographer took a picture of that natural landscape because it is beautiful. and the big part of its natural beauty is that columnar basalt has lots of straight lines.

so, looking to nature for garden inspiration... its just one example of straight line forms to use.
Embothrium
16 years ago
And while the individual pieces are rectilinear the manner in which they are arranged is not. It's like drifts of columnar flowers in an informal mixed border, the border itself not being squarish at all.
PRO
George Three LLC
16 years ago
i think you are just being coy above, oh jeez. i'll play along.

same natural formation from above:

hexagonal borders! you could draw inspiration from that and alternate low growing ground covers with hard edges. that would be cool.

but moving away that one example, why can't you draw inspiration from this? a great design trick is to bring in references of different scales. long horizontal lines, like a pruned boxwood hedge can bring a sense of distance to a garden.

or say, scale this view down into a garden setting. although the hills have a gentle roll to them in this photo, its just as common for a distant mountain ridge to appear perfectly straight to the eye.

here are lots of nice rectangles and triangles, cracked ice is a classic garden motif.

you can reference it literally

or just informally, with... straight lines in borders.

more straightness in nature:

etc etc...
larry_gene
16 years ago
Thanks for posting an image from Crystal Cave of the Giants (Mexico). There was an article in National Geographic a year or so ago, many pictures. Of course those should be left in place, using them in yardscapes would find passersby chipping away at them.

A more analog rock yet with a repeating pattern would be pahoehoe--avoid straight lines altogether!