Design

I think that you can look at a good design and see what the purpose of a garden is and this is one of the questions that a good designer asks at the beginning of the interview with the home owner - "How are you going to use the yard? What activities do you want to provide for?" I think that you could look at each of the four gardens we saw last night and see what they were designed for. When I returned to one of the properties after the tour last night, a group of grandchildren were playing ball on the large lawn in the back yard. Play area was obviously important for this family.

The amount of 'play space, entertaining space, ...' and the style of space are really critical to the design. Several of the gardens incorporated the concept of 'rooms' into the garden. This is where the garden is seen as an extension of the house and actually incorporates design characteristics of the house into the garden.

I would have said in the past and particularly after the tour that a formal or somewhat formal garden works best on a large property and we saw some somewhat formal gardens Tuesday night but after the tour I watched a short gardening design program where they put quite a formal garden in a small property. So my perspective has changed.

Regardless of preconceived notions or garden preferences, I think we can learn something from every garden we visit.