thinkinGardens

'If this is going to be a written doc for garden visitors to read before, then visit, then I think it should get their juices flowing.'- Chris Young, deputy editor, The Garden

Points to consider when visiting a garden.

 It is worth considering who the garden was designed for: it could be a contemporary garden, designed for the pleasure and needs of the owner; it may be historic and designed for the different needs and preoccupations of another time; or it may have been designed predominantly for contemporary visitors. You might like to think about how those considerations impinge on the design and then on your own interest and pleasure.

 Every garden has constraints upon it, of location, size, available help, its surroundings, neighbours and topography. Good design will hopefully manage to make virtues of some of these, or at least minimise their effects. A gardener can choose to struggle against the climate, the prevailing wind and the nature of the soil. Such a struggle can feel self defeating if, for example, the plants just really don't want to be there - or a struggle against the odds could perhaps become a triumph. And just because this garden can grow certain plants you may still wonder if those are the best plants for the situation and ambiance of the place.

 You might wish a garden to have a sense of unity, some coherence. No garden is without influences but hopefully the garden designer will have digested these well and made them their own so that they don't feel 'stuck' on. It may be a garden's strength that it is wholeheartedly of its own time or despite its influences it may be the product of a unique imagination and creativity.

 Gardens use sculpture, objects, words and buildings to add meaning, focus and sometimes to show off. You might like to consider their placing and style and how they add to or detract from the overall work.

Sculpture at Lady Farm, Somerset © John Wright

If the garden is saying something, offering something to the mind and imagination as well as the senses, that can be easily accessible or you may need background information, especially if it is an historic garden or in a country which is foreign to you. It is worth thinking about whether that depth adds or detracts from your pleasure if you don't understand the references. Does it still work aesthetically? Discover all you can and then find whether that improves the scene. Try some adjectives: - risk taking, banal, complacent, incomprehensible, exciting, disturbing?-  to help you focus on just what you feel about it.

Little Sparta © Charles Hawes

Pattern is an under acknowledged human pleasure - gardens can and do offer this satisfaction, and sometimes seem to deliberately avoid it. The consequence either way, and your responses to pattern or its abscence are worth becoming aware of. Is there symmetry, asymmetry, balance?

Gardens exist in and change in time. You might wonder if you are there at the best time - the right season, the right century? Is the weather and light helping or detracting form the agrden - was it made well for its climate?

Plants are the most important part of a garden for many people. They can work well, becoming the essential aspect of a design, they may enhance the design – or they may destroy the effectiveness of the design. They are also mostly seasonal, and lead us to think about whether we are seeing the garden at its best, or whether the garden could still work well without the flowers, colour or forms that they offer. Plants are often the most ephemeral part of a garden, both seasonally and through changes of owners, so they may work well and in sympathy with the original design, they may better it, or they may be sad relics of another fashion we wish had never been.

The Grondra, Monmouthshire © Charles Hawes

A garden is more than a series of set pieces; it is a journey. Ideally you might think you would ideally find your way easily, and find the paths comfortable to walk - though I'm not convinced gardens were always walked and you might wonder whether you would have enjoyed it more on horseback or in a carriage. And then – it may be intentional to use a path to slow you down, interrupt your conversation, distract your attention. Does this work well?

And finally, sometimes the acid test of the quality of a garden is the second visit. Worth it if you can do it.

Anne Wareham, Veddw House garden, garden writer, designer.

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