You have all seen topiary, of course: birds, animals and other exotic shapes. But there is more you can do on a smaller, easier scale which will lend a distinctive look to your garden. I saw a low privet hedge some months ago which had been shaped into a frame of diamonds and squares; very simple, very neat, and extremely effective. At Kew Gardens, near London, I saw a pieris which had been stripped of growth along each branch, leaving a globe of leaves at the end; an enchanting candelabra of pink, red and green tips. I love this idea and you will probably have seen many larger coniferous trees and shrubs shaped in this manner, often providing a beautiful backdrop for a garden.
This sort of attention doesn’t really take long and should be looked upon as a delight rather than a chore. I feel that way about weeding - my non-gardening friends groan with disbelief when I say this but a) it is something which enhances my garden, b) I’m out there working on my favourite pastime, and c) the exercise is enhancing my figure (I hope) and health (I’m sure).
There are many other ways of bringing different shapes into your garden. I pruned a hugely overgrown and lumpy-looking Cotoneaster divaricatus this year into a cloud shape, rather like the sort of dreamy, drifting trees one sees in Chinese paintings. Its main trunk stands more or less upright, while the other reaches far to the right. Not only does it now look more like a tree, elegant and attractive, it provides shade for my pieris and meconopsis while floating gently above them. I intend to train one of my forsythias into a fountain of gold, and will turn a fuchsia into an umbrella shape. This doesn’t all happen in one season, of course, but one of the joys of gardening is the planning and anticipation before the savouring.
When buying a small plant, such as an azalea, fuchsia, myrtle, box… something with several main stems, try plaiting the three strongest while training them as a standard. This is not only a very pretty shape, but, by rising above other plants, it creates more room down below.
Espalier not only fruit, but flowering trees and shrubs; by using walls and fences, you will manage to cram more plants into your garden and, as I have said before, layering branches horizontally encourages any plant to produce more flowers or fruit.
If you have the space, create an archway of trees or vines. Rosemary Verey, that great English gardener, orchestrated a glorious tunnel of laburnum trees in her garden – this is often called the golden chain tree, and you can imagine the clusters of cascading blooms.
A chessboard of paving stones and moss or ground cover, creates a delightful pattern and try surrounding trees with a bed of succulents at their feet – another easy and pleasing effect.
If you have a thick hedge across the garden, forcing you to walk to the side path, cut a large moongate in the centre to draw the eye to the rear of the hedge. If it is there to hide the compost heap, wheelbarrows and other paraphernalia, set a straight vine-covered fence or another smaller, blooming hedge about five feet back from the moongate to suggest another ‘room’. You could also provide a porthole in a large hedge if there is a lovely vista on the other side.
Look around your garden with an appraising eye to see where you could make a difference with a new shape. My problem, of course, is that I see too many…
Miscellaneous Tips
- In their excellent book, Daffodils for American Gardens, Brent and Becky Heath suggest ½ cup of Epsom salts per 10 sq. ft. in the autumn or early spring as a top dressing for your daffodil bulbs. It is thought that the intensity of their color will be increased, particularly the red and pink range.
- Each year a daffodil is in the ground, it more or less doubles in number – 1 to 2, 2 to 4 and so on up to about 64. The growth slows down between 16 and 64, but as long as the growing cluster of bulbs receives sunlight, air, water and nutrients, the plant will continue to bloom.
Practice random kindness and commit senseless acts of beauty.
