{"id":6157,"date":"2018-04-22T12:39:43","date_gmt":"2018-04-22T12:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siteandinsight.com\/?p=6157"},"modified":"2018-04-22T12:39:43","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T12:39:43","slug":"as-the-garden-turns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/as-the-garden-turns\/","title":{"rendered":"As the Garden Turns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does your garden turn its face to the world or does it veil it off?\u00a0 The difference says a lot, about you and the style of your garden — and about the spirit of the times.<\/p>\n

Recently I\u00a0spoke to several groups about how to get the most out of garden visits.\u00a0\u00a0Learning to Look: the Art of Garden Observation<\/strong>\u00a0considers what it\u00a0takes\u00a0to really see<\/em> a garden.\u00a0A\u00a0handout\u00a0for the talk\u00a0asks some key\u00a0questions, starting with the garden’s context.\u00a0 How does\u00a0it relate to the world around it? Is it open to\u00a0its surroundings or closed off?<\/p>\n

Topography can make an enormous difference. Properties\u00a0with panoramic views rarely\u00a0shut them out, particularly when they look out on a\u00a0rural landscape.<\/p>\n

\"St

Sitting\u00a0atop the hillside, residents of this house in Quebec’s Eastern Townships have a spectacular view across the countryside.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

If the view is unattractive, however, the garden owner may want to block it out. Ugly walls, telephone poles, rooftops lined with satellite dishes: all interfere with a world view that excludes these urban elements.<\/p>\n

Some gardens deliberately close themselves off from their surroundings, attractive or not, creating a private universe\u00a0that holds the outside world at bay.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Other

From inside this densely planted garden, you’d never know that other houses\u00a0are located close by.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sometimes views are hidden, by accident or design.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Only

Only the tiniest piece of the view here at The Fells, New Hampshire, is open.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cutting the view of the surroundings turns the\u00a0view in on itself. At Great Dixter, one of England’s finest gardens, the view\u00a0of the surrounding fields is blocked by a line of cars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Surely

Behind the cars is a\u00a0quiet pastoral scene where sheep\u00a0graze in\u00a0green fields.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The effect of this is to turn the view and the viewer back towards the garden itself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Hard

It’s hard to complain about having to look at a view like this.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The garden at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s house in Lennox, Massachusetts, exists in a bubble, disconnected from\u00a0everything around it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Tucked

Tucked behind those tall trees at the end of the walkway is what could be a view of the surrounding landscape.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By hiding the view, the house and the people who live there take centre stage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

The house dominates the view from every part of the garden.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contrast this inward-looking attitude\u00a0with Sunnylands, the\u00a0historic California estate of Walter and Leonore Annenberg. At Sunnylands, everything is directed outwards, across open lawns towards the towering, snow-capped San Jacinto mountains.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"It

It would be impossible to hide the view of the mountains. And who would want to?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The difference in orientation reflects a difference in the spirit of the place and the spirit of the times. The names of the houses do the same. Following English and Italian models,\u00a0The Mount stands above, expressing\u00a0in its architecture Wharton’s ideas about order, scale and harmony. Sitting low to the ground and with glass walls that connect indoor and outdoor spaces, Sunnylands becomes\u00a0an element of the landscape, one feature among many.<\/p>\n

An openness to the surroundings characterizes many American gardens. Neighbourhood streets are lined with houses that may be divided, one from another, by hedges or low flower beds, as are these houses in Hanover, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Several

Several years ago, I was part of a small group from Montreal fortunate enough to visit several private gardens in New Hampshire and Vermont.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

A different sense of\u00a0neighbourliness\u00a0can be found in British properties. This small town garden lies as close to its neighbour as the American garden does but separating the two English gardens is a tall\u00a0stone wall.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

An artist and a photographer live here. Both are gardeners.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

At Glen Villa, as in many larger properties, the view is open to the world in some spots and closed in others. For privacy, the view of our house from the lake is screened by trees planted many years ago by previous owners.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A

A few years ago we removed two pines that were dying and, as a result, opened up the view onto the lake. But enough trees remain to provide privacy.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

From inside the house and from most places in the garden, the view is open.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Lupin

Lupin blooms wild on the bank of Lake Massawippi.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Historically, gardens were closed off from the outside world, for protection from animals or marauders. A change occurred in the 18th century in England, indicating a change in the way people related to their surroundings. Joseph Addison, writing in The Spectator in 1712, asked<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy may not a whole Estate be thrown into a kind of garden by frequent Plantations, that may turn as much to the Profit, as the Pleasure of the Owner? … If the Natural Embroidery of the Meadows were helpt and improved by some small Additions of Art … a Man might make a pretty Landskip of his own Possessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

That’s what I’m aiming to do at Glen Villa, not to turn the landscape to profit but to turn it to art. I’ve written here about The Avenue<\/a>, the all\u00e9e of crabapple trees we planted last fall.\u00a0 Public roads on two sides of The Avenue make the \u00ab\u00a0pretty Landskip\u00a0\u00bb visible to anyone passing by.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"crabapples

The snow has now melted, leaving the ground bare and very muddy.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last week I made a short video\u00a0about The Avenue that is now being shown on Garden Design’s Instagram page. As I write,\u00a0almost 12,000\u00a0people have watched the 1 minute video<\/a>. I hope you’ll join them, and join me as a subscriber to the magazine. It is\u00a0an ad-free bundle of information,\u00a0presented along with beautiful photographs.<\/p>\n

I hope, too, that you’ll think about how your garden turns, to the world or away from it. Does it send the message you want it to send?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does your garden turn its face to the world or does it veil it off?\u00a0 The difference says a lot, about you and the style of your garden — and about the spirit of the times. Recently I\u00a0spoke to several groups about how to get the most out of garden visits.\u00a0\u00a0Learning to Look: the Art…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,24,38,346],"tags":[749,489,555,37,200,780,781,31,750,782,495,783,784,785],"class_list":["post-6157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-design","category-glen-villa","category-quotations","tag-crabapple-allee","tag-edith-wharton","tag-garden-design-magazine","tag-glen-villa","tag-great-dixter","tag-joseph-addison","tag-open-and-closed-views","tag-sunnylands","tag-the-avenue","tag-the-fells","tag-the-mount","tag-the-spectator","tag-video","tag-walter-and-leonore-annenberg","category-34","category-24","category-38","category-346","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}