Pattern 1: Scale
No element in garden design is more elusive to grasp than scale, yet nothing more greatly influences how you feel when in the garden. You know correct scale when you feel it — the trick is figuring out how to create outdoor spaces in harmonious proportion to the home they surround. Gardeners are usually so busy looking down at the ground, figuring out how to orchestrate layers of plants from large trees down to groundcovers, that we forget to look up to see how the scale of the garden relates to the house and the larger environment.
A Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia) plays the role of focal point in autumn. Its height lends scale to the pitched roof while anchoring year-round the mixed shrubbery border.
Copyright ©2007 Timber Press, Inc. Text excerpts from A Pattern Garden copyright © Valerie Easton. Photographs copyright © Jacqueline Koch, except photos on Bridges, Gates, and Shelters pages copyright © Allan Mandell; and photo on Water page copyright © Richard Hartlage. All rights reserved. Posted with permission of the publisher.