A number of our gardens seem to be compartmentalized, mimicking our own lives. We wake up, go to work, go to lunch, drive home from work, pick up your children, prepare dinner, and watch TV and head to bed, just to repeat the process the following moment. The backyard spaces where we surround ourselves are the same. We have our front lawns our side lawns, our backyards, our children’s play areas and our vegetable beds. We have convinced ourselves that this is the way it has to be.
Imagine if our backyard spaces flowed together seamlessly, creating one homogenous space? Are you really saying to yourself that this could never happen? Let’s see how it’s done. Let’s learn the art of mastering garden transitions.
Quayle & Company Design/Build
1. Reimagine your hardscape and bed lines. Serpentine lines both invoke the imagination and have a relaxing effect upon the mind. In art concept this shape is referred to as the lineup of attractiveness. It infuses a composition with vitality, instead of direct lines, which signify departure or inanimate objects.
This bluestone walkway appears to be endless, disappearing round the bend. Do not you wonder what lies past?
Andrew Renn
Maybe your hardscape is firmly established and not readily changed. No worries. Redesigning your bed lines to create additional graceful curves will present your space that stream and intrigue you have been missing, allowing to get a pleasing transition from space to space.
James R. Salomon Photography
2. Repeat key elements. The use of a key element repeated throughout a backyard gives it calm continuity. This technique is especially effective when the key element crosses over a pathway to the parallel bed, moving the eye back and forth throughout the space.
Notice how this shady mixed edge carries the eye throughout the space. Though this garden depends heavily upon hostas for attention, it’s the large-leafed hostas (Hosta cvs, USDA zones 3 to 8) that punctuate the distance from side to side and move the eye down the pathway.
The reproduction of this large-leafed hostas permits for its peaceful transition into pockets of distinct plants.
Jay Sifford Garden Design
3. Interject a component to induce transition. Boulders can be utilized to give interest and contrast. This provides the designer a pure opportunity to start something new. In this photograph a boulder was cut to the metal edging across the pathway to supply unexpected attention and a natural transition stage between a moss garden and a mass planting of autumn ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora, zones 5 to 9).
Le jardinet
4. Become reacquainted with color flow. Think back to middle school science course. Do you recall learning about Roy G. Biv? This initialism was an easy way to recall natural color stream, the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. The exact same color flow can create a peaceful and natural transition in the backyard.
Notice the vibrant yet tranquil progression of color in this prairie-style backyard. Red flows effortlessly into orange, which in turn flows into yellowish. Wouldn’t the introduction of a pink or violet flower be an undesirable intrusion?
Become reacquainted with Roy G. Biv. Your backyard will be a better place because of it.
ModernBackyard
5. Mix up your materials. Maybe you have an present patio, or are thinking about adding one but are unsure how to make it feel as a normal part of your backyard.
Have a cue from this backyard. The gravel covering the road leading to the patio is exactly the same shade as the bluestone patio. Bands of bluestone have been placed inside the pathway, producing continuity and a calm transition.
Additionally, by simply putting out the pathway in a yatsuhasi, or Japanese zigzag, pattern, the designer has created a special and striking distance.
D-CRAIN Design and Construction
6. Create different levels. Terracing a distance could result in both plausible and striking transitions. The added third dimension allows for more diversity in themes and activities within a restricted space.
You’ll start to see a surprising variety of substrates in this lawn, from the gray concrete pads into the tan gravel into the turf. What keeps all this from becoming overpowering? The answer lies in the varying peaks, masterfully woven together with rings of Cor-Ten steel which mimic the color of the house siding.
Jay Sifford Garden Design
7. Add a gate. Bold transitions are needed to make striking statements in some instances. Gates can be aesthetically useful when a backyard is too predictable and has to be injected with attention, or if two clearly different garden spaces adjoin.
In case why pay for an ordinary, mundane gate when, with just a little more effort, you can add something sudden and unique? Scouring antique shops, import stores and architectural salvage warehouses can give a treasure trove of possibilities.
More: Read thousands of inspiring gates