Gothic garden: planning visual weight.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert. Really, I'm not an expert in gardening at all. No seriously, but I do like plants, and things of that nature ( pun intended ;) ) These  are just little tid bits I've learned about and tips I've picked up from here and there. I said all that to say this: Take all advice with a grain of salt.

Visual weight is something I learned about in my last art class (obviously I'm not getting a degree in art, or I would have already had the topic covered but whatever) Visual weight is a way the artist can control the viewers eye movement. Imagine a big bright red circle in the middle of a white paper and a small purple dot in the lower right hand corner, then the Big bright red circle would have more visual weight. It's what your eyes where drawn to first, right? right! Playing with visual weight has a lot to do with gardening too. Because I know that I'll probably have a small garden, I need to have that basic understanding of visual weight.

Now I'm going to classify some plant into different categories (don't worry , no scientific words. I know that they change waaaay to often)Let's say category 1 is foot level plants, the second is eye-level plants, and the third category is above eye-level plants.

Category 1 (below eye-level) :  grasses, flowers

Category 2 (eye-level) :  shrubs

Category 3 (above eye-level): Trees 

Ivy, and climbing plants can go into all three categories depending on how they're planted, positioned and pruned. Rock can be in either of the first two categories, or even both, depending on the size.  I think Large rocks are very pretty next to sweeping plants.

Sweeping plants, like black mando grass, are plants that are low and "sweep" over the ground.  (category 1)  You can have as much or as little as you want (It's not like i'm going to call the gardening police) but  try to have a tall feature or a focal point to concentrate on. Other wise it just looks like you're growing overly large grass and waiting for a Wilde ekans to appear.

Now gardening decor can also be placed into those three categories, and the positions of the items are interchangeable. It all depends on how you want your garden to look. These are just a few examples, and not at all mandatory

Category 1 (below eye-level) : gargoyles/ lawn decor, stepping stones, stone boarders,raised plant beds

Category 2 (eye-level) :  bench/seating, fountains (if you want them)

Category 3 (above eye-level): ladders, gates, any type of hanging lights, or arches

Now remember how I was talking about the big bright red circle earlier? Having a variety of colors is just as important as having a variety in height. Colors such as red yellows, oranges, whites, and purple (think light purples like lavender) are a great way to cut through large chunks of green. Now, what do I mean by this? Well, are the majority of your plants are rich greens, and deep purples, right? ( I'm assuming they are because this section is for Gothic gardening, and those are generally the type of plants people think of when the word Gothic is placed in front of garden.  Gothic gardens aren't always filled with dusky black plants and twisting vines that spring from the depths of the earth, as I have stated in a previous post,but again it was an assumption.)  "Cutting through" is just a way to divide up the visual weight so that one section of the garden doesn't look unplanned. 

Now plant texture is... well a lot to cover. In short, you're better off doing some research on the type of plants you want to grow, and the conditions they need to survive, but I'll talk about that in a later post.

That's all for this post.

-Mavis

Super handy, and interesting thriftings...

I found some Super Handy and Interesting Thriftings ! I found some... S.H.*T? Okay, I need a better name for this segment of my blog. I'm open to suggestions. Maybe "Nifty thriftings" sounds better?

Anyway, I went to the thrift store the other day for some summer clothes and treated myself to a little something. Here it is! A teapot and cup set. I saw these on Modcloth, plasticland, Amazon and ebay, but was low on cash. Thankfully this set only cost me $8. Can you believe that? $8?! a set like this is at the VERY LEAST worth $30 (which might not seem like much to some, I'm still paying for college so every penny saved is worth it.) First off the design is hand painted, It's microwave and dishwasher safe and has small holes in the spout to strain the loose leaves.

how cute is this?

bloggers block?

Yes, I have a tendency to drop off the face of the earth without warning, and yes it is painful.

I've been thinking about writers block. It's not a foreign concept to me at all. It's like a giant  pink and black striped wall made of bricks .... oh yeah, and only I can see it. What do i mean by this? well. I know i should keep up with this and with that and there's always a strange series of things that keep me from writing.



On one hand I could be lazy. I could
Just as easily write down any, and everything
I want to. If i just wanted to.

On the other hand, I could be

 weighed down with work/school

or have gotten sick

or maybe have just been too tired to write.

But when these two scenarios combine it's like that pink and black wall is right in my face saying "hey, you haven't written anything in a while., uuuh maybe you should uhh get on that." but it's also like "Writing is cool, but daydreaming?That's where it's at. Let's do that instead" 

Once again i get distracted by myself or life and just don't end up writing anything. I know i could be writing but i'm lacking in motivation and inspiration.

1. I said all that to say this: Think up ways to beat writers block, and actually writing them down, is in fact beating writers block. (Should i say overcoming writers block? hmm word choice...)

2.Which brings me to my next point.: why do write? I'll be completely  honest. This blog is basically for me. It really doesn't matter if anyone reads it. Don't get me wrong, personal problems aren't going to be posted, because well.. they're personal.

3. what's fun about writing? I'm a fan of word choice. If you haven't notices the plethora of asides in my posts dedicated to saying  "should i write this or that?". I love words. The connotation verses the denotation of words are  amazing. Here's and example:

Say you're at a funeral and you walk up to someone whose loved one just died. To offer your condolences to you say 

A) I'm sorry    or    B) Forgive me

4. Inspiration! Yup! I'm sure we all knew this was coming. I LOVE fairy tales. Not just thee Disney ones, I mean all most of them. I'm also really into knitting and crafts. Whatever you decide to write about will end up reflecting part of you so think about what inspires you. You can make a list of things you like and go from there.

5. writing challenges. You could partake in writing challenges with a specific theme. It's a great way to get ideas (I think i should probably finish the one I started....)

6. Relax. Not every post, story, written work you write is going to be a master piece. Brahm Stoker wrote Dracula and....and...and... um...  (haha that was a joke. He wrote the jewel of seven stars, the snakes pass and many other books, but none of them were as well received as Dracula. Some critics have even gone on to say that Dracula was the only "good" book he ever wrote. I don't agree with this, since the Snakes pass was one of my favorites by him.) The point is, not everyone is going to like everything you have to say/write. That's totally okay. It's not the end of the world.(Although, i'm not sure what comforting advice i could give you if it were. Hmmm, maybe something like "It's the end of the world, sure, but you didn't cause it.")

I guess that's all that was on my mind, so I'll stop now.