
If you’ve been looking out at a garden that gives you very little to hold your interest, it’s likely it could do with a serious injection of ‘structure’.
It’s probably fair to say that garden designers are a tad obsessed with structure in the garden because it is the key to a great garden; it is the framework upon which the fleeting or seasonal elements of a garden hang on, the skeleton or ‘bones’ of a garden, if you will; the thing that holds everything together, strongly and in place. As such, structure in a garden can be made up of many things, both hard and soft landscaping elements (including, confusingly, ‘garden structures’, like buildings and pergolas!). For the most part the defining quality of any structural element in a garden is one of permanence or persistence – they are the things that are there throughout the year; they might change through the year (like a deciduous tree) or not (like a patio or pathway) but they will be a constant, so regardless of season, they still bring something to the garden.
So, where do you start with structure in your own garden?
Well, if you’re designing a garden from scratch good bones or structure starts with the shapes you use for the different elements of your garden (patios, pathways, lawns, ponds, beds and borders, etc.) and how you lay them out in relation to each other and to your home. Regardless of the season this layout is the constant foundation of the garden, it underpins everything. And whilst you can make this layout interesting in and of itself with the application of different materials and textures, when you start to think in 3D the magic really begins to happen.
Elements such as trees, walls, pergolas, gazebos, arches, hedges, obelisks, sculpture, shrubs, etc., that operate on the vertical plane, offer up a gold mine of infinite structural possibilities, that when integrated effectively with the structural foundation of your garden layout can ensure that every season in a well structured garden is a season of interest. Take our main image as an example, this was taken in October at Scampston Hall in Yorkshire, and you can see that there's still plenty of interest going on to hold the eye even without any flowers to speak of, and you also know that even later in the year and well into winter the structural elements will still continue to work well.
Whether starting from scratch or adding extra layers of structure to an already existing garden when deciding which structural elements to include in your design simplicity is often the key. Consider the function, size and scale, materials, colour, style and positioning of each element; too many elements or materials, style and colour for instance, can result in visual overload whilst misjudging the size and scale of an element can lead to confusion and disproportion.
If you’re working with an existing garden most people tend to have a lawn, patio, pathway, borders and a shed or greenhouse. These are all structural elements – hopefully organised well already – so you wouldn’t want to overload it with too many more structural things but you might be amazed at the difference one or two small well placed specimen trees and some low level evergreen hedging could make!
Don’t forget the more seasonal elements of your garden in relation to the structure too. Your structure should support the whole, not take it over! It should offer a dependable backdrop to the high impact stars of the growing season. Those seasonal showstoppers will take centre stage when cued but when their star has faded it will be the good bones; the strong structural elements of a garden that will carry the mantle of interest through the whole year.