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Bare Bones - Part I - What Are The Bones?

© Marge Talt

Since most of our gardens in the northern hemisphere are still winter bare, it's a good time to take a critical look at the 'bones'. Like a body's skeleton, the bones of a garden give it shape and form. They may be hidden by masses of foliage during summer, but they're there. In winter, we can see just what kind of bones we have.

These 'bones' include the hardscape in the garden - paths, walls, fences, driveways, patios, decks - and both evergreen and large deciduous plants.

Evergreens provide both form and substance. Deciduous plants, such as trees and large shrubs, provide interest in bark color and texture as well as the vertical impact of a tree trunk and the horizontal line of branches.

Good 'bones' in the garden give us a backdrop to set off our plantings as well as providing us with guidelines for getting around in the garden, both physically and visually. They guide the sweep of the eye and focus our views of the garden from inside the house as well as from points in the garden proper.

So, take a hard look at your garden. In fact, it's a good idea to take some photographs so that you can study them in the comfort of your easy chair. Oddly enough, black and white photographs are actually better for this job than color. There is something about the monochromatic that focuses our attention better.

In winter, you can clearly see what 'bones' your garden has. As an example, note how the clipped evergreen hedge stands out in this photograph of the Master's Garden. The two strongest elements are the steeple and the clipped hedge, and you can see that this strong, solid, horizontal element in the scene draws your eye to it. Any mass of evergreens will have this same effect, especially if they are fairly uniform in size. While bare trunks and branches, in mass, give a diffused, airy feeling; evergreens provide a feeling of substance. They may disappear during summer, but they really come into their own during winter, defining areas of the garden with as much authority as a high masonry wall.

Although sheared hedges require a lot of maintenance, they provide a backdrop for other plantings that is hard to beat. Even in an informal woodland garden, a small section of sheared evergreen hedge can provide the counterpoint often needed to give the garden form that would be otherwise lacking.

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