“The more one gardens, the more one learns;
And the more one learns, the more one realizes how little one knows”. (Vita Sackville-West)
Modern garden design is inundated with new ideas, from a myriad of websites and a miscellany of info links to HGTV and innumerable blogposts. Concepts are collected on web boards and Pins, wikis and scrapbooks as new plant hybrids are developed for rapid release to market and materials and finishes are introduced anew almost daily, testing the limits of memory. Trends abound; a fleeting reputation for landscape design ‘stars’ can be built upon publicity driven outdoor efforts without real substance from landscapes that lack the calm geometry and creative gravitas necessary to pass the test of time. Starting out, a student of landscape design can waste a great deal of time collecting trends and images to emulate, while basic and timeless ideas are ready at hand and can be found by those willing to dig deeper.
Landscape design is a detailed and confusing profession without all of this unnecessary chatter and prattle. It demands an understanding of the elements of weather and hydraulics, electricity and built materials. Lighting, irrigation, soils and grading are components of study, as are concrete, Corten, fiberglass, fabric, timber and time, and of course the plethora of plants with obscure Latin names. Throw in the psychology of balancing a budget for outdoor construction as part of decision making made in a modern marriage - needless to say - it is a difficult job to do well. Oh, and the workers often don't speak English, did I mention that part? And so, we try to simplify and look for garden 'trends' and shortcut methods. Where then are the seminal ideas?
A thoughtful designer will look to landscapes that have endured and that embody what some call ‘genius loci’ or spirit of place. This spirit may be naturally present or, when one is confident and bold, can be created and underpinned with a strong vision and a careful consideration. The latest trend, this years 'idea', oft-invented by some anecdotal writer with time on their hands - won't hold a lot of weight. What works, what holds true, are timeless ideas that take years of consideration, months of mistakes and quiet moments of reading and understanding to comprehend and implement. The few that have planned gardens and built landscapes professionally for decades may have come to incorporate wisdom gained from three unusual women that created successful, durable and beautiful gardens in the past.
These three powerful women became arguably the most influential early landscape designers of our last century, overcoming significant obstacles to forge a path that we still follow today. One worked tirelessly against prejudice, the other with an increasing disability and the third in the throes of almost continuous scandal - while creating an influential body of work. Each was personally driven by their chosen profession to shape the spaces and contours of our thinking. All planned large and complex projects, two wrote books that define fundamental ideas in planting design and one was instrumental in organizing landscape architecture into a cohesive profession. These three women formed a solid core for landscape design and architecture in the early twentieth century - and their names were Farrand, Jekyll and Sackville-West. Looking at their writings and works, I have distilled just a few of their complex thoughts here.
Beatrix Cadwalader Farrand (1872 – 1959) was a landscape architect that designed over 100 gardens during her career, including portions of the campuses of Yale and Princeton, as well as working a commission for The White House under President Woodrow Wilson. Her most notable project was Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC.
“Should it not be remembered that in setting a garden, we are painting a picture?” Beatrix Farrand
Build to endure with native planting. Studying the works of Gertrude Jekyll, Beatrix Farrand studied widely in the use of native plants, visiting gardens in England and The United States to gauge botanical success and build a pallet for her own works.
Simplicity means success. With designs that were noted for their utility and pragmatism, Farrand designed for all year interest and bloom throughout the seasons. She was an early adapter of the concept of using plant size and texture to give the illusion of space, using upright and structured hardy plants to offer vertical scale and climbing vines to soften the spaces between buildings and to add architectural character.
Don’t let others stereotype your skill. She set out to learn the craft, set her work up in a methodical manner and would not take no for an answer. Farrand set a bar high at a young age, studying at The Columbia School of Mines, so as to learn the largely “male” crafts of engineering, rendering, grading and scale elevation drawing. Her desire to learn the many facets of engineering made her a unique talent at the turn of the century. She was a founding member of The American Society of Landscape Architects and the first and only woman member at the time.
"The simple lines and quiet color of this ivy-draped bridge in Westmoreland are what make it satisfying to the eye and an added charm to the stream; it is made from the stone of the country, and the native plants grow about it as familiarly as though it were a boulder playfully deposited there by nature in the ice age”. Beatrix Farrand
Gertrude Jekyll (1843 - 1932) was a prolific writer, creating hundreds of gardens and was noted as a seminal influence on the Arts & Crafts Movement, largely through her close association with Sir Edwin Lutyens. Known as the preeminent English garden designer of the early twentieth century, Jekyll’s works can be found primarily in the UK, but also in Europe and The United States. Her most notable garden was at her own home of Munstead Wood, In Surrey, England.
“There is a lovable quality about the actual tools. One feels so kindly to the thing that enables the hand to obey the brain. Moreover, one feels a good deal of respect for it; without it the brain and the hand would be helpless”. Gertrude Jekyll
Carefully use color and texture. Celebrated for her thoughtful approach to color, Jekyll’s writing articulates the use and combination of colors into ‘warm’ and ‘cool’ tones. Texture and leaf pattern are studied and considered for all seasons with an understanding of how a plant bed can change over the course of the year. Notably, she spoke of the use of specifying shrubs and perennials of an ‘invisible green’ to frame and bring color more noticeably into the foreground.
Study plants to know how to use them. Never one to place perennials in isolation, Jekyll centers her plant layouts in large drifts of perennial color. She was a tireless plant aficionado, researching and studying plant material in great detail so as to measure color, texture and durability and know how best to use them. No fan of plant labels, she wrote of her distaste in seeing any type of plant marker in a garden.
Don’t let disability stifle you. A watercolorist and talented painter until her eyesight began to fail her, Jekyll drew inspiration from the Impressionists and the moody paintings of JMW Turner. Even with diminishing vision, Jekyll persevered in her writing and creation of gardens.
“In garden arrangement, as in all other kinds of decorative work, one has not only to acquire a knowledge of what to do, but also to gain some wisdom in perceiving what it is well to let alone”. Gertrude Jekyll
Victoria Mary (Vita) Sackville-West (1892 – 1962) was a renowned novelist, poet and garden designer, known best for her garden at Sissinghurst, as well as for a number of controversial love affairs.
“It isn't that I don't like sweet disorder, but it has to be judiciously arranged”. Vita Sackville-West
Consider chaos within an order. She once said that her garden beds were “profusion, even extravagance and exuberance, within confines of the utmost linear severity”…Sackville-West exemplified this in her own life as a self-taught and ferocious designer. “I don’t say that you ever carry it out to your satisfaction, but for one brief moment of illumination you have apprehended the unity of what you meant. That is one of the few moments in life worth living.” She was never one to ‘get stuck’ with an idea and would just as easily rip out large sections of finished work as let her perennials reseed and self-sow to great abandon.
Consider the monochrome. The ‘White Garden’ at Sissinghurst is perhaps the best known example of the successful execution of a monochromatic style. Strong in concept and strident in execution, she carefully selected plants such as Roses, Tetrapanax, Cistus, Narcissus and Lamium.
Don’t let other’s concerns affect your work. Plagued by (oft-true) sexual rumor and scandal during a time marked by the most patrician standards, Sackville-West had numerous affairs, but never let gossip or innuendo carry over into her passion for gardens and design.
“Gardening is a luxury occupation: an ornament, not a necessity, of life... fortunate gardener, who may preoccupy himself solely with beauty in these difficult and ugly days! He is one of the few people left in this distressful world to carry on the tradition of elegance and charm. A useless member of society, considered in terms of economics, he must not be denied his rightful place. He deserves to share it, however humbly, with the painter and poet”. Vita Sackville-West
(Image: Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent)
