Imagine This

Years ago I was part of a crew planting a landscape for a local church.  The designer was very old-school about proper placement of landscape materials.  He once remarked to me that if the best looking day of a landscape was the day it went in, the designer deserved a ticket and a heavy fine for not having educated his client about the difference between theatre, and landscape.

But here I was planting trees very close to the foundation of the church.  Once the trees were planted, he went to each tree with shovel, and tilted them ever so slightly away from the building.  When I protested that the trees were crooked, he said, “Imagine what this will look like in twenty years.  It will seem that the trees were here first, and the church emerged from this grove, pushing the trees ever so slightly outward.  The house of God, nature, history-do you get this?”  I did.

I make it a point to try to imagine how I can make the landscape appear as though it came first, and the house, the walls, terraces, and driveway, came later.

Designing the landscape such that you drive through it, makes the landscape appear as if it came first, and therefore the more important element.  This sits the drive down on the ground, visually. It makes the transition from the street to your home an experience.  Imagine this.