The huge decorative mirror in the corner of this garden makes an interesting wall full of character and interest.
A garden wall made from the hedgerow of European beech with its burgundy foliage is colorful and functional.$RETURN$$RETURN$
Every garden needs great walls! That’s the horticultural inspiration I took away from a two-week jaunt through English and Scottish gardens I recently made. It’s not a new lesson for me but one of which it is good to be reminded.
Every student of garden design has probably been taught to approach creating a garden much like an interior designer does a room inside a home. You pay attention to the floor, walls, and ceiling, which all impact the overall feel and look of the design.
In garden design these elements are the “bones” of your garden, the non-living elements around which you add living plants. Another way to look at it is as the backdrop or canvas upon which you paint or build your garden.
If you’ve ever been to England and Scotland, you see very quickly that they are blessed with fabulous walls around which to build their gardens. Of course you can’t go wrong with buildings and ruin walls that are at least 800+ years old. Almost any planting up against such historical walls looks great!
But built walls don’t have to be old to provide a great backdrop for a garden. I’ve visited a few gardens in the United States that had purposely built “ruin walls” to provide a stunning backdrop to their gardens. The brick wall of the side of my home has provided wonderful color and vertical structure to my garden. I have purposely chosen orange- and coral-colored plants to harmonize with the terra cotta color of my home’s brick. Whether wood, brick, plaster or stone, you’ll find building walls to serve as an excellent wall to your garden.
Other outstanding garden walls I saw on my trip were not made of inert materials but of plants themselves. Fabulous hedgerow walls of European beech, hawthorn, yew, arborvitae, Leyland cypress, and espalier apple trees made great garden backgrounds. The color and or texture of these hedgerows provided stunning surroundings for their gardens. I especially liked the burgundy-colored walls of the European beech hedgerows which proved to be a great backdrop color for many gardens. Hedgerows are nice and provide a solid canvas as a wall but with so many plants of one species planted together, they are prone to insect and disease attacks. Planting a mixture of plants that blend complimentary evergreens and deciduous trees and shrubs is one of my favorite walls to use for a garden because of the variety and interest it can provide. Choose a color theme for your varied planted wall, and it will be stunning and hard to beat.
Fences, whether wood, stone, wrought iron or a variety of other materials, work well for a garden wall. I’m especially fond of materials that can be painted a color that you would like to use in the garden. I’ve painted my wood paneled fence that runs across the back of my driveway a rusty-orange color that not only complements my home’s brick but accentuates the orange- and coral-colored plants in the small garden I’ve created in front of it. Wrought iron, split-rail, or other see-through fences allow plants that creep or cascade over and through the structure to add interest and character to the garden’s backdrop.
Think outside the box when you select a wall for your garden. I’ve seen a variety of interesting elements used to create a fantastic garden backdrop — everything from windows to mirrors, bookcases, pallets, and crates. One of the coolest gardens I’ve seen used a huge decorative mirror as a wall that added so much interest and at the same time made the small garden seem bigger.
So survey your garden. What are its walls? Can you enhance them to make your garden more stunning?
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