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Revamping The Rectangle!

© Jane Hollis

Rectangular gardens are often seen by their owners as being problem sites - too boring and angular. However, there are many ways you can turn a rectangular garden into an interesting and flowing design. The average rectangular garden is often planned in such a way as to exaggerate the rectangularity of the site, with narrow, straight borders around the boundaries of the site, as in Figure 1.

A classical way to divide a rectangular site is to create a main vista with a cross axis, shown in Figures 2 and 3. Once the planting in the bed matures, you will not be able to see the entire garden in one glance, so creating an atmosphere of mystery, tempting you further into the garden to explore. To give some purpose to the main vista, you could place a feature at the far end, perhaps a sculpture, a fountain or a large pot. The cross axis also need to lead somewhere - a bench or an arbour, perhaps. The middle lawn could be angular, as in Figure 2 or curved as in Figure 3.

Figure 4 shows a different approach, but with a similar outcome. Staggered hedges (or trellis) cut into the garden from opposite boundaries, softened by planting. Again, the whole garden is not revealed in one glance and the line of the hedges draws the eye away from the boundaries and into the middle of the garden.

Figure 5 utilises takes the rectangular shape of the garden and turns it round at 45 degrees, which again deflects from the rigid garden boundaries.

Another device to use when dividing space in a rectangular garden is to take a shape and repeat it down the garden, overlapping and staggering them, as shown in Figure 6. The example shown utilises squares, but it could be done with circles, hexagons, octagons, etc. The keen plantsperson is often keen to cram a wide variety of plants into a small garden and the lawn area becomes less important. Figure 7 shows an informal arrangement of borders and island beds which helps fit a large number of plants into a small garden. The beds do not have to be square as in this example, they could be curved which would increase the informal feel. It is important, however, to be bold with the size and shape of beds in such a design, as small, wiggly island beds would give the garden a bitty feel.