There are those people who believe that genuinely meaningful gardening involves more than the habitual Saturday-morning run to the farmer’s market to purchase one of whatever every plant seller is realising that weekend. Andrea Cochran and Topher Delaney, two California landscape architects, embody the doctrine of designing with meaning and purpose.
In their own designs you will find nary a Stella de Oro daylily or carpeting rose. What you will find is more of a feeling, an adventure, one which thoughtfully and intentionally uses shapes, textures, hardscape materials, light and, yes, plants, to attain a specific and lasting effect.
Does all of this sound too lofty to attain, too evasive to discover next weekend’s home improvement TV lineup? Maybe you love your Stellas too much to consider parting together. Never fear. Throughout the thoughtful debut of specific shapes in your garden, you can begin to add that fresh and meaningful dimension you need but did not previously know how to attain.
Let’s start with the world.
Clinton & Associates, PC Landscape Architects
Spheres at Nature
Notice how these alliums (Allium sppandcvs, zones 3 to 9) are a focal point, standing outside with structural sophistication as stars of the garden boundary.
Jay Sifford Garden Design
The world, along with its two-dimensional counterpart, the circle, is the planet’s most fundamental form. It symbolizes completeness, with no beginning or end. No point on the world is closer or farther from the center, suggesting equality and approval. Its curves are feminine and graceful. There is security and protection.
The world is an archetypal form representing planets, stars and, ultimately, the universe. It has primal meaning, spanning cultures along with the ages. Thus, introducing this shape in your garden will most surely add a layer of meaning.
Blasen Landscape Architecture
European anglers are encouraging the world in their traditional garden spaces for several hundred decades. Notice the way the average boxwood (Buxus cvs, zones 5 to 9) takes on new meaning and purpose when pruned into a sphere.
If you are not a boxwood enthusiast, consider the Japanese false cypress ‘Curly Tops’ (Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Curly Tops’, zones 4 to 8), ‘Mr. Bowling Ball’ arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Bobozam’, zones 3 to 7), the stunt globe blue spruce (Picea pungens ‘Globosa’, zones 2 to 8) or the ‘Dragon Prince’ Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica ‘Dragon Prince’, zones 5 to 9).
Jay Sifford Garden Design
Spheres as Garden Accessories
In this stunning, contemporary front lawn, three granite bottoms sit atop a carpet of crushed granite. Bluestone planks pull on the eye across the sidewalk, focusing on the eye on the bottoms.
Groups of three are pleasing to the eye since they are not as rigid and formal compared to a matching pair. Aristotle wrote about collections of three, stating that things grouped this way are more memorable. In this garden the 3 spheres are balanced with a sculptural triptych of Alaskan cedars (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis, zones 5 to 2).
Derviss Design
The air of profound simplicity in this space is undeniable. Within this component of the garden, plants would hinder the potent feeling it elicits. Notice two things: the way the colours of the spheres complement the Cor-Ten steel wall andmuch more significant, the impact of the negative space left by the spheres beneath the gravel floor.
Wagner Hodgson
In this “American Gothic”–esque landscape, the right use of spheres adds measurement. Notice the way the more prominent spheres at the center courtyard participate the eye so that the less-noticeable spheres at the door become an significant part the overall composition. They otherwise might have gone unnoticed.
In a contemporary garden, spheres are viewed as most deep when put in an area uncluttered by an array of foliage. For maximum impact, easier is better.
Jay Sifford Garden Design
Spheres shed their contemporary vibe and take on the illusion of updated farm equipment here. Notice the way the Rigid steel complements the crushed granite garden floor, the orange-toned flagstone and the espaliered Bloodgood Japanese maple (Acer palmatum var. Atopurpureum ‘Bloodgood’, zones 5 to 8) in this updated farmhouse courtyard garden.
Matarozzi Pelsinger Builders
Notice how this group of 3 spheres adds context along with also a third dimension to this particular landscape. The curved shapes complement the form of the seats in addition to the wooden beam from the background. All of this makes for an extremely intriguing and inviting space.
David Harber
Armillary Sundial
Armillary sundials are a splendid means of bringing bottoms into the traditional and contemporary gardens. Their simple beauty and connect to yesteryear add instant interest and a focal point that pulls the garden up to another level.
Le jardinet
Gazing balls as well as other spheres are often available at garden stores as accessories. This piece adds a bit of childlike mystery to the garden. Don’t you feel as though you’ve stumbled upon a treasure that you want to keep to yourself?
However you use spheres in your garden, they are certain to make a positive feeling, from the philosophical to the whimsical.