Garden walls and floors [antikvár]

1VI.Good garden design is essentially simple and fit for its purpose. Great gardens inevitably display these qualities but in addition they relate to the house they adjoin, and the settling in which they are placed.In broad terms, a garden is a delicate balance bet\veen an initial framework that defines and divides the space, and the subsequent features, ornaments and planting that bring it alive.The bones or 'hard landscape' of a garden not only offer shelter and division in the form of walls, fences and screens of different kinds, but also provide the floor and other paved surfaces.While most of these are indeed 'hard', we should not forget the potential of plants to form hedges, areas of ground cover and of course lawns.Any project, inside or outside the home, inevitably involves financial outlay, but in terms of gardens, it will be the paving and walling that take the lion's share of a budget, quite possibly up to three quarters of the total cost.Over the past few years, gardening and garden products have become big business, and you only have to observe the enormous array of paving, walling and fencing available at any garden centre, nursery or builders' yard to see how easily over-complication, which is the antithesis of good design, can become a problem.We are seduced by what catches our eye, and it is little wonder that so many gardens end up as an unrelated mass of materials and ideas, rather than as well thought-out, simpler designs.The problem is largely an historical one. Once whole areas were built and laid out in vernacular style, using only local materials, producing a feeling of harmony. Only recently have modern transportation systems allowed intrinsically heavy materials to be moved around easily. Fine stone or hand-made brick from one area can end up in a garden in quite a different locality, and although it looks superb in its own setting, it may appear decidedly uncomfortable in its new surroundings.Many of today's materials are much more durable than traditional ones, as well as being cost-effective and good to look at, which allmeans that the dividing line between a restrained, sensible choice, and the introduction of too many varied elements, is all too narrow.However, such a wide range of available materials can be a positive asset. You can mix and match materials, but to do so effectively you must understand their characteristics, the way they relate to each other and particularly their relation to the adjoining house.In some gardens the choices will be obvious. No one, I hope, would think of laying blue and red pre-cast concrete paving slabs outside a fine old stone cottage. The logical choice here would be a similar stone, a matching gravel or perhaps a mellow brick, depending on what is used locally. All these materials are of a kind, and as they belong to the same generic and visual family, they look and feel comfortable together.Problems arise when there is no strongly defined local indentity - in the heart of a town where building styles from different eras may sit side by side. Yet even here there will be guidelines.Above: Simplicity is l/ie key to good design Willi its strong Japanese overtones, this garden has impeccably styled floor, walls and decking.Opposite: Walls provide boundaries that are both visually and physically strong, while a mix of local nuiterials ensures character. An archway gives a gUmpse of what lies beyond.Above: In this excellent garden composition stability and continnityare combined in both the hard and soft landscape malerials, and in the superb use of perspective.