Research Garden DesignBrowse photos, get design ideas & see the hottest plants
Photo By : Philippe Perdereau
How many works does it take to make a garden ? Sounds like a good subject for a thesis - in horticulture or philosophy . Among painters , a common creative exercise is to squeeze out a discreet number of colors and from them fuse everything they ask : a less - is - more strategy . This is not , however , tantamount to a fighter having one hand tied behind his back . Many artists contend that a “ limited palette ” is the true way of life to realise colour and achieve a harmonious picture . Witness the mood - setting smell of Rembrandt , Picasso in his Blue Period and , Van Gogh ’s sunflower .
It ’s meet then that a garden designed for an artist in Belgium tests this same mettle , this metre using plants as the medium . The result , design by landscape architect Piet Blanckaert , is a texture masterpiece , using only a handful of ornamental forage , shrubs , and trees ( eight types of industrial plant in all ) , and arranged in a manner that is at once inviting and geometric , lush yet orderly . Though Blanckaert asserts he did n’t ab initio think in terms of issue and parts but of the whole ( as he redact it , he had only “ descent and grass ” in mind ) , in a light - bulb moment , as he say , “ I knew exactly what I want to do and that I would only influence with this , this , and this . ” Although he open his business firm in City of Bridges 30 age ago and has designed gardens throughout Europe and in Israel ( and soon plan to work out with clients in the U.S. ) , he readily admits , “ I had never designed a garden like this before , using such a restricted flora list . ”
For the customer , sculptor Jan Calmeyn , whose own work blends the natural with the abstract , the garden create a proper and passive scope for sculpture , one that prove them off without disquiet . Blanckaert also want to take on off the farmland vernacular of the surrounding countryside , situated near Antwerp , and to exemplify what is salient about Belgian garden design — architectural hedging , symmetry , nuances of colour , a sort of polished rusticity and a timeless though very modern artistic . In Blanckaert ’s opinion , Belgian garden figure is a culling and distillment of the good that other countries — England , Holland , France — have to offer . “ One could say we Belgians are the same way of life about food — and we are known for our delicious culinary art . We enjoy all the lovely product of the countries besiege us . ”
The first step at the Calmeyn garden was to grave the demesne . This made it potential to hide a nearby route and row of store , but it also raise the layering that is an integral part of the design . Creating a gentle , continuous class , the far bound near the road is a full 9 feet higher than the garden ’s level at the house . For this to be almost inconspicuous on a heap less than 2 estate in size is quite a effort . Part of the phantasy is achieved with a series of levels that work their way up the Benny Hill , transecting a cardinal axis of rotation , using alternating typewriter ribbon of trees , hedging , decorative grasses , water features , and airstrip of lawn . To enhance the signified of enclosure , Blanckaert planted a staggered row of yews ( Taxus baccata‘Fastigiata ’ ) , each about 12 feet tall , at the highest sharpness , its deep - green foliage create a backdrop for the rest of the garden .
built-in to the design are two neat allées of white - barked birches ( Betula utilisvar.jacquemontii ) move parallel to the slope , whose Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree canopy appear stack when look from the low point . For the other layers , Blanckaert order narrow-minded , low , living walls of hornbeam ( genus Carpinus betulus ) and linear mass planting ofMiscanthus sinensis‘Gracillimus’,M.xgiganteus , Pennisetum alopecuroidesandP. alopecuroides‘Hameln ’ , the feathery texture of the grasses counterpoint with the rigid hedge and neat muster of trees — like conventionalize versions of pastureland , cropland , woodlet , and hedge . An 50 - shaped cluster of willows ( Salix alba)—grown in Belgium for basketful - weaving for hundred — with dark , textural bark and silver - backed leaves a reverse of the lightly - barked , dark - leaved birches , was existing and result in place by Blanckaert as an homage to the demesne ’s former identity as a farm .
Near the house and at the base of the independent axis , a simple , flat coat - level rectangular pool about 13 feet by 20 foot does reduplicate duty as garden ornament and swimming pool ( the client likes to take daily dips ) , and is guard by a bronze sculpture by Calmeyn . far up and lean the width of the garden , a squiffy - weather condition water feature mimics the drain ditches seen crisscrossing the low - lie rural landscape of Belgium — a “ modern ditch , ” as Blanckaert prognosticate it . The ditch , like the rest of the design , easily could be withdraw for living carving , and in fact the garden ’s “ scheme , ” as Calmeyn call it , has inspired the artist to change his grave style from fluid lines to blocks and more supine forms .
Though the garden is dominated by green in spring and summertime , by no means is it monotonous . Blanckaert is keenly aware of color , especially in a garden with a forgetful plant list , and made selections based on interesting bark , leaf colouration , and even seed heads . Nor is the garden atmospheric static , constantly changing its aspect as the season advance , from bright - green springiness growth to the golden tones of fall with the locoweed at their peak . As Calmeyn puts it : “ There is always something to see — the colors , the visible radiation , the movement , the bird . Even with no blossom , you ca n’t consider how colorful it is . Now in spring the locoweed are very unseasoned , fresh , and fleeceable , with beautiful light on them every morning . Even when it rain , it is worthwhile . ” It ’s no curiosity that he and his wife have adopted a ritual of saunter through the garden every day .
And Blanckaert kept wintertime in mind as well , when the birch tree bark is luminously ashen beneath a tracery of black twigs , and the locoweed are left unmown to be dusted with snow or line with Robert Lee Frost . Even when the weed are sheared back in late winter or early spring , the geometrical arrangement of clumps of stubble dots the garden like environmental art . This is all part of long - term thinking , which Blanckaert lists as another key element of Belgian landscape design : “ A garden is have in mind to be beautiful now , more beautiful five year from now , and more beautiful still in 20 to 30 years . ”
Even with the yearly Mary Jane shearing and the tightly clipped hedges , Blanckaert say the garden is very low maintenance . Twice a year the hedgerow are pruned , and every four to five year the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree are neatened and shape . And the garden call for no auxiliary water , thanks to Blanckaert ’s flora choice and Belgium ’s sizable rainfall .
Blanckaert regularly regress to visit all the landscapes he has designed , feeling that it ’s significant to keep tick on a garden as it grows : “ When you make a garden , it ’s not 100 pct correct at first , and every situation is different and can be difficult to auspicate . If you plant a tree or shrub , it might postulate to be moved later . It takes a lot of sentence to observe up , but it ’s worth it . ” In his own garden , Blanckaert admit he has repositioned some plant 10 times to get them in just the correct spot . His reaction after a late visit to the Calmeyn garden , now 10 year old : “ I did n’t need to change a thing . ”
