This is the fourth article in a series about the basic principles that should be used when designing a landscape or garden. The first installment, an overview of the five principles, can be found here. To find out more about the principle of Unity and how it applies to landscape design, click here. The third installment in the series, the principle of Balance, can be found here.
The next principle of landscape design that I would like to discuss is Proportion. By proportion I mean how the area, volume or height of one element in your garden (for example a planting of boxwood) relates to the area, volume or height of another element in your garden (for example a nearby urn on a pedestal). For some reason, it is much easier to recognize and articulate why two elements are out of proportion to each other than it is to do the same for two elements that are in proportion to each other.
BIG house with TINY shrubs
One glaring example of out of proportion landscape design can unfortunately be found in many neighborhoods – the ‘McMansion’ that was being built so ubiquitously just a few years ago. In many cases, after the builder had ‘finished’ the house, it was time to think about the landscaping. As so often happens at this point in a spec house, the budget is tight so the builder buys whatever cheap shrubs he can find at the local big box nursery center. So the big, huge house (that is out of scale to the rest of the houses in the neighborhood) has mini-shrubs and trees planted around it.
Yikes!
Another common example of out of proportion landscape design can be found when people build stone walls or columns and then put tiny little lights on top of them. I understand it can be difficult to look at a lighting fixture in a book, read the dimensions and then figure out if it is the right size for the space you have in mind. My advice to avoid mistakes of proportion is to get a piece of graph paper and sketch out a quick scale drawing. In no time you would have been able to see this light is way too small for this column. The extra five minutes will save you money and will make your design look much better.
Out of Proportion Elements Mean The Urn Is No Longer The Focus
Back to the initial example of the urn and the boxwood. Imagine you are designing a focal point in your garden to display a big, beautiful urn you just purchased. The urn is about 40″ wide by 26″ tall, which may not sound like much but believe me that’s a good-sized urn. You want to make sure all the other elements surrounding the urn are the correct size and scale – you don’t want to make the urn look too small or too huge. You want visitors to your garden to immediately be able to appreciate the statement the urn makes. In this picture the shrubs are so tall they dwarf the urn. The pedestal is too big for the urn, typically you want the edges of the urn to over hang the pedestal. And finally, the planting in the urn is too small. Once again, it makes the urn look tiny. The urn is not the focus of this garden mainly because all the elements do not work in harmony with each other to highlight the urn.
Proper Proportions Make The Urn The Star
Now this picture shows the same urn but all the other design elements around it are in the correct proportion. Their size and scale have been choosen specifically to help showcase the urn. The shrubs are about the same height as the pedestal and even the plants used in the urn are about the same height as the urn itself. The plantings are lush and full which also helps to show off the scale of the urn. All the other elements all there to accentuate the beauty and size of the urn. The urn is the focal point of this garden, not an afterthought that was placed there ‘just because I had it’.
When designing your garden remember a piece of graph paper can be your best tool. Take a few minutes to make a sketch with all the elements in the proper scale and you’ll be able to avoid many costly and unsightly mistakes.
