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