By Jeff Floyd
Certified horticulturist and arborist
Any landscape design is a study of how the mind makes sense of various shapes, colors and lines. The human eye doesn’t easily welcome abrupt visual changes. The more the designer understands this, the more harmonious and pleasing their design will be.
There are three key properties the eye focuses on in a landscape. These are texture, form and color. For the eye to move comfortably from one point to another, there must be a measured change in these elements. If all change at once, too much variation is created and the landscape will appear as a mess rather than a well-thought-out landscape.
However, variety is desirable because it adds interest to the landscape. Therefore, designers have cleverly learned to adjust one element at a time, say form, while maintaining texture and color. In this way, they can gradually increase the assortment of plants without losing order.
Let’s say we decide to plant a row of yaupon foundation shrubs from one corner of the home to the entry. We might choose “stokes” dwarf yaupons for the first two or three shrubs starting from the corner. This shrub has an average maximum height of two and a half feet. For the next choice in that same row we might plant a couple of “nana” yaupon hollies which can grow up to four feet tall. Finally, we might plant closest to the door a “Pride of Houston” yaupon.
Pride-of-Houston grows to about fifteen feet tall which is perfect for heralding the front door of a home at the end of a row of hedges. Additionally, it would be a great choice for introducing another design element in the fall as it virtually guarantees to delight viewers with an abundance of small red drupe berries.
In our next installment, we’ll be looking at how hardscape features in the landscape can add to its overall appeal.
