tracy rich - LJN Blog Posts - Landscape Juice Network2024-03-29T10:49:25Zhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/tracy+richWhy this Garden Works - Lan Su Chinese Gardenhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/lan-su-chinese-garden2016-12-13T09:39:34.000Z2016-12-13T09:39:34.000ZLandscape Juicehttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/LandscapeJuice<div><p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>Lan Su Chinese Garden, USA</b></font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">In this second design article on 'Why this Garden Works' we'll look at a traditional Chinese garden. Unfortunately not in China but, nonetheless, authentically built by Chinese artisans in Portland, Oregon.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">Lan Su (<a href="http://www.lansugarden.org/">www.lansugarden.org</a>) is a great example of urban garden design. Its whole purpose is to help people relax and to inspire creativity by connecting with nature, even in the centre of town. Although it is modelled after a 16</font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">th</font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"> century city garden, Lan Su's design tips are just as relevant today.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>Boundaries and Views</b></font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">Like some of the earliest Middle Eastern gardens, the classical Chinese garden is enclosed by walls. High, whitewashed walls hide the city streets with additional walls and screens dividing up the space within. This doesn't sound too different from a prison but the garden manages to feel more like a secluded oasis.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314739126?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314739126?profile=original" width="750" class="align-full" /></a></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>Design Tips:</b></font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>1. Feature your boundaries. </b></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">Painting boundary walls bright white goes against the strategy of densely planting up garden boundaries and painting them dark to try to make the garden look bigger. The idea behind the white walls is that they act like the paper in a landscape painting – the garden scene is artfully arranged in front. Warning: your planting design has to be pretty awesome to pull this off.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>2. Add transparency to your divides. </b></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">Openings in Lan Su's walls help to avoid the claustrophobic feeling of a totally enclosed space. You can always see out and through. Walls have decorative windows and circular moon gates. Screens are rarely solid. Trees are pruned to lift their canopies so that you can peek between the trunks. Creating these multiple vertical layers makes a small space look bigger and more tempting to explore.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>3. Draw the eye away from bad views. </b></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">Most urban gardens have views that you want to hide: overlooking properties, power lines, a neighbour's shed. Even if you can't totally screen views outside the garden you can encourage people to look within the garden. A good distraction is amazing paving, or indeed, anything low down and interesting. My eye is instantly drawn to the ground plane in the Lan Su garden where I find it really hard to stop looking at those beautiful pebble paths.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>Layout</b></font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">The Lan Su garden is centred around a large pond, circled by buildings and courtyards. Hardscaping and planting are highly symbolic. There are meanings behind almost every rock and tree - very different to most western gardens.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314744514?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314744514?profile=original" width="750" class="align-full" /></a></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>Design Tips:</b></font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>1. Question the lawn. </b></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">There is no lawn in a traditional Chinese garden. The centre of the garden is usually a large pond rather than the typical western lawn. But it serves the same purpose. Gardens can feel more relaxing if you balance flat, open spaces with enclosed spaces such as structures and planting. The open space can be lawn, water, paving or even sand. In some small Chinese gardens the pond was replaced by an area of white sand, which looked like water in the moonlight. In time this became the Japanese zen garden.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>2. Include space to rest. </b></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">We often design for activity in the garden: trampolines to bounce on, terraces for entertaining, vegetable gardens to tend. We can neglect areas designed for peaceful stillness. The Lan Su garden contains dedicated areas for really connecting with nature: a space for contemplating plum blossoms, one for listening to rain fall on large leaves, another for feeling the wind through the bamboo. It would be hard to convince most of our clients to dedicate areas in the garden for such esoteric pursuits but it's always worth asking them when or where they feel most peaceful and happy in the garden. Even if they can't answer this question, try to design in as many seating areas as possible to encourage clients to simply sit down and rest.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>3. Don't show everything at once. </b></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">As well as helping people to relax, the traditional Chinese garden also aims to inspire creativity. To do this the garden has to be interesting and tantalising. It's hard for a garden to be interesting when you can see all of it at once. It was impossible for me to take a photo of the entire Lan Su garden even through it is a relatively small space. Paths are curved or zig-zagged. There's always something screened or just out of sight, tempting you to explore further. This labyrinthian design is very different from the long views of many European gardens – a sculpture at the end of a straight path or double-herbaceous borders.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>Planting Design</b></font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">Plants have been very carefully selected in the Lan Su Garden to fit into small spaces and to reflect the four seasons. I've been to the garden twice now - in January and in June. The garden looked just as fully-planted in the winter as in the summer.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314743100?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314743100?profile=original" width="750" class="align-full" /></a></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>Design Tips:</b></font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>1. Design with your nose.</b></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"> Looking through the plant list for the garden I'm struck by the high proportion of plants chosen for their scent - especially their winter and night-time fragrance. Winter gardens can often focus on the look of the plant: red stems, peeling bark, evergreens. But small, urban gardens are perfect places for scented plants.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>2. Try new plants. </b></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">There are quite a number of lovely plants on Lan Su's list that are unfamiliar to me. I know that Portland's climate is very similar climate to much of the UK so I'm going to search out these plants. It's easy to get into the habit of just planting whatever you can easily find at your favourite nursery, assuming nothing else will grow locally. Better to try out at least one new plant each time you design a planting scheme – some might fail but others could be a spectacular success.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif"><b>3. Shrubs are back. </b></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">How many perennials can you see in these photos? Not so many, yet there is year-round interest from trees, shrubs and grasses. These are not your stereotypical 'heavy' shrub borders with clashing conifers and dark rhododendrons. There there are a large number of evergreens but only a few conifers with the exception of pines. The borders have a light feel and are restful to the eye. The main colour is mid-green with subtle pops of colour here and there. There is a lot more focus on leaf shape and plant height. A few high-canopy trees, a mix of shrubs (some large but mostly small), and a lot of lower ground cover – especially swathes of evergreen grasses.</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><font color="#000000"><font face="ArialMT, serif">The Lan Su Garden is very different to gardens many of us are used to and has pushed my own ideas about garden design. It's one of the few gardens I've genuinely enjoyed wandering around in the winter. As the festive season draws near, I hope that you will be able to find your own little space to be creative, connect with nature and, most of all, rest. Merry Christmas!</font></font></p>
<p class="western"><strong>Articles in the Why this Garden Works series:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/Tuinen-Mien-Ruys">Tuinen Mien Ruys</a></li>
<li><a href="http://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/lan-su-chinese-garden" target="_self">Lan Su Chinese Garden</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="western"><strong>About the author</strong></p>
<p class="western"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314809486?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="80" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314809486?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="80" class="align-left" /></a></strong></p>
<p class="western"><strong>Tracy Rich is a landscape designer </strong>based in Stirling, Scotland.</p>
<p class="western">Tracy provides a full range of garden design services for private residences and community spaces.</p>
<p class="western"><a href="http://servedbyadbutler.com/redirect_alink.spark?ALID=7706&ID=168428">www.tracyrichdesign.com</a> <img src="http://servedbyadbutler.com/adserve/;type=alink;ALID=7706;ID=168428" border="0" width="1" height="1" /></p>
</div>Why this Garden Works - Tuinen Mien Ruyshttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/Tuinen-Mien-Ruys2016-11-19T09:20:51.000Z2016-11-19T09:20:51.000ZLandscape Juicehttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/LandscapeJuice<div><p class="western">Mien Ruys' own garden in the Netherlands is the ideal place to start a new series on design articles on 'Why this Garden Works'. Each article is presented by landscape designer, Tracy Rich, who will examine a single garden and provide design tips based on that garden's layout, materials and planting.</p>
<p class="western">You will have an opportunity in the comments section to agree or otherwise!</p>
<p class="western"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Tuinen Mien Ruys, The Netherlands</b></span></p>
<p class="western">From the 1920s to the 1990s the Dutch landscape architect, Mien Ruys, created small, experimental gardens with radical new designs. She wanted to test what works and what doesn't, often with a commercial purpose in mind. For instance, she created many plant combination packages that customers could then buy in her father's nursery.</p>
<p class="western"><a href="http://www.tuinenmienruys.nl/en/" target="_blank">Tuinen Mien Ruys</a> now contains 30 experimental gardens open to the public. All are fascinating but here are three that offer some great design tips.</p>
<p class="western"><b>The Yellow Garden</b></p>
<p class="western">The Yellow Garden is one of the most famous of the experimental gardens. I was instinctively drawn to the circular lawn, bathed in light and surrounded by yellow plants. When I visited with a design group we all felt instantly happy in that space. But why does it work? </p>
<p class="western"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314810082?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314810082?profile=original" width="750" class="align-full" /></a></p>
<p class="western"><img /><b>Design Tips:</b></p>
<p class="western"><b>1. Circular lawns still work.</b> Circular lawns are now quite a common design feature but this is the best I've seen so far. It is surrounded by planting except for two opposite entrances. There are clear views out of the circle and the tree acts as a strong focal point, drawing your eye. The garden balances a sense of enclosure with open-ness. Would you feel claustrophobic if you were completely surrounded with just one way in? Would it also work so well if there were four entrances with an urn or fountain at the centre, as is often seen in traditional design? Or a combination of interlocking circles, which is also quite often seen in modern design? To me, this simple yet strong version is much more effective.</p>
<p class="western"><b>2. Subtle changes make all the difference.</b> The lawn is deliberately concave but only very slightly. There is a 100mm height difference, which reinforces the sense of enclosure and privacy. Why bother? Most of us wouldn't. But it seems to work when you're standing there, surrounded by the thick band of yellow bricks. Mien Ruys called it her 'magic circle'.</p>
<p class="western"><b>3. Don't be afraid of yellow.</b> Many clients tell designers they'd like any colour in their garden except yellow. But think how different this garden would be using a different colour palette. Yellow is the colour of sunshine and seems to be the perfect choice for this open, circular space.</p>
<p class="western"><b>The Sunken Garden</b></p>
<p class="western">Mien Ruys was the first designer to use railway sleepers in the garden after she'd seen some lying about while looking for a retaining wall solution. She excitedly ordered a truck load of sleepers and started experimenting with them. The Sunken Garden was created in 1960 but still feels fresh and zen-like.</p>
<p class="western"><b><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314809808?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314809808?profile=original" width="750" class="align-full" /></a></b></p>
<p class="western"><img /><b>Design Tips:</b></p>
<p class="western"><b>1. Use cheap materials artistically.</b> This garden uses three relatively inexpensive hardscaping materials, which all work well together. Why? Partly because they are all complementary rectangular shapes and partly because they are used in clever combinations. Cheap concrete pavers are used throughout Tuinen Mien Ruys. However, their use is thoughtful and here they are combined with small setts, which give a more expensive 'artisan' feel. Would the garden work so well if the central terrace was made up of large pavers rather than small setts? Or if the whole path was made entirely of pavers rather than combined with the setts in a stylish mosaic? Adding a touch of craftsmanship to materials can make them seem more expensive than they really are.</p>
<p class="western"><b>2. Be generous with layout.</b> Often in a small garden our natural inclination is to minimise the hardscaping and make paths and terraces as small as possible to fit in more planting. The Sunken Garden does the opposite. The timber sleepers are set on their wide edge, taking up more space than if turned the other way. Steps are wide and shallow. The central terrace is relatively large. All these things work to give a feeling of open space and luxury rather than meanness. No meanness in the planting either. There is enough left-over space to plant bold blocks of single varieties.</p>
<p class="western"><b>3. Use terracing carefully.</b> The Sunken Garden was created artificially by excavating 150mm of soil and piling it up on the outside. Just this 300mm height difference is very effective, which made me realise that an even greater height difference may be too overpowering. I thought of all the gardens I'd seen where massive terracing has been added to gardens on a slope to create flat areas. It's hard to do this without the garden looking like a walled fortification. I'm now trying to rethink my own designs to come up with ways of balancing natural slopes with lower walls. And also recognising that small height differences can make gardens much more interesting.</p>
<p class="western"><b>The Clipped Garden</b></p>
<p class="western">This garden was created in the year Mien Ruys died (1999) by one of her design colleagues. The experiment here was to create a garden without flowers. This shouldn't work, should it? But, perhaps strangely, this was the favourite garden of many of the designers on our visit.</p>
<p class="western"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314810141?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314810141?profile=original" width="750" class="align-full" /></a></p>
<p class="western"><img /><b>Design Tips:</b></p>
<p class="western"><b>1. Balance textures.</b> The overall garden is very regimented, with small square pavers, clipped yew pillars and a long rectangular pool. In contrast to these formal straight edges, the garden is softened by the large body of water together with light, fluffy Miscanthus grass. There is movement courtesy of some simple (and also severe-looking) water sculptures. Flowers do appear after all but are limited to a strip of dainty <i>Erigeron karvinskianthus</i> daisies under the grasses.</p>
<p class="western"><b>2. Think in 3D.</b> Without CAD software or a talent for elevation drawings it is easier for designers to focus on the horizontal plane. We spend a lot of time creating a nice, patterned layout that can be appreciated like a painting on a wall but sometimes neglect the vertical plane. It can be tricky to convince shade-fearing clients to add height through tall trees, planting or sculpture. But the Clipped Garden wouldn't work without strong vertical elements. The low, flat paving and pond are balanced by the tall grasses and monumental yews. How do you think this garden would look in the winter? Great or boring?</p>
<p class="western"><b>3. Don't overcomplicate things.</b> I think that he secret to this and most other successful gardens is elegant simplicity. Straightforward elements but designed to, as MaryBerry would say, 'sheer perfection'. Nothing more and nothing less. For me, the overall lesson of Tuinen Mien Ruys is: think about how little you can put in a garden and not how much.</p>
<p class="western"><strong>Articles in the Why this Garden Works series:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/Tuinen-Mien-Ruys" style="font-size: 1.17em;">Tuinen Mien Ruys</a></li>
<li><a href="http://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/lan-su-chinese-garden" target="_self" style="font-size: 1.17em;">Lan Su Chinese Garden</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="western"><strong>About the author</strong></p>
<p class="western"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314809486?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="120" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314809486?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="120" class="align-left" /></a></strong></p>
<p class="western"><strong>Tracy Rich is a landscape designer </strong>based in Stirling, Scotland. Tracy provides a full range of garden design services for private residences and community spaces.</p>
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