Perpetual Optimism

THE STARTING POINT FOR A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THE THEME OF GARDEN DESIGN
The need to create gardens – to carve out, from nature, places of order and retreat – is as old as time. Whether the garden provides food, a place to relax or a place to impose “order” on the wilderness beyond, it is somewhere where we all act out a drama of perpetual optimism. Our plans are often thwarted by nature´s unpredictability.

The art of gardening is a unique combination of design and visual skills, science and nature. In designing an outdoor space we integrate natural materials and plants with constructions of concrete, tile, wood, metal or brick – arbours, terraces, pathways, fences. We perform a delicate balancing of scale and proportion. We manipulate light and shade…we play with the senses – smell, touch, taste and sound as well as our sight.

Gardens are dynamic places that somehow refuse our attempts to impose our plans on them. The garden is a focus of dreams…as well as a source of heartache – above all it is a unique expression of our relationship with the natural world.

Garden design is a process not a blueprint. There is always a beginning and a middle in the process of designing and making a garden…but no end! A garden is never finished.