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Focal Points?

© Emily Levitt

I went to a presentation of photographs from wonderful French and English gardens this week, and as usual, came away both inspired and overwhelmed. My garden will never be Sissinghurst.

One series of pictures from Vita Sackville-West's elaborate installation featured three different, expansive garden views. The same small statue was the focal point in each composition, showcasing three totally different plant groupings. A very neat trick.

Many gardens do not have either the challenge or the luxury of large open space to use in establishing focal points. Most of us rely on the occasional urn or bench here, the blooming clematis there, to help us acheive a sense of balance in our green areas. And, sometimes we get lucky when Mother Nature sends us an unexpected show from a plant we hadn't counted on using in the first place.

For many years, my 'focal point' was a large wooden playset, with a red plastic slide and brightly colored flags. I needed to see it from the sink in my kitchen, and the garden developed around it. I tried to ignore the primary colors of the swings, with varying degrees of success.

Once we said a fond farewell to the playthings, I realized that there was a void in my view. The absence of small children made me feel lonely; the blank in the landscape emphasized a hollow in my horizon.

Now, I was free to move the emphasis in my garden to a new location. I drew plans for a small perennial garden and started to dig it in. Then one afternoon, as I was working away in the new location, a storm ran me into the house. I stood in the kitchen, watching the rain, and realized that I couldn't see anything I'd been working on. I still wanted to see a 'high note' from my favorite spot in the house.

I wanted my old focal area back!

And so, I have it. My concession to change in my favorite view lies in the ornaments I place there, and in the plants themselves. Annuals and perennials move through the long growing year, providing compliments to a birdbath, a bench, or a big old fern.

Focal points change with the seasons in most gardens, with one feature or another establishing prominence as blooms present theselves. and fade away. In my own garden, however, focal points have drifted somewhat differently, as have my own ideas regarding the center of my personal gardening universe.

The copyright of the article Focal Points? in Gardening in Southern U.S. is owned by Emily Levitt. Permission to republish Focal Points? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.