CONSIDER ADDING A FOCAL POINT TO YOUR GARDEN
by
Three Dogs in a Garden
(IC: blogger)
What is a focal point? How can you use a focal point to make your garden that little bit nicer? This post introduces you to creating a garden focal point.
The senses are bombarded with information in a garden.
There are visual cues like color...
and shape. There is also scent, sound and the tactile cues of provided by texture.
When on top of all that information, a gardener mixes in a some garden gnomes, a few birdhouses, and/or a statue or two, a mild disquiet can start to creep in to the mind of the observer. When assaulted with too much information, what the mind wants most is an escape route.
I don't know about you, but when it comes to garden clutter, I really have to retrain myself. I love watering cans, birdhouses, fairies, mushrooms...gosh, what don't I like...well, maybe I can give plastic looking garden gnomes a miss, but you get my point; I love all manner of garden ornaments.
This finally brings me around to the subject of today's post: focal point.
Fixing your line of sight on a garden focal point is like finding a stepping stone in the center of a stream you are trying to cross. It's a place to rest, to catch your breath, adjust your balance and then move on.
Take a look at this garden scene. The bench is not only a literal place to rest, it is an object for the eye to rest on as well.
Lose the bench through the magic of Photoshop, and your eye starts darting all over the place. It is like a sentence without a period. The visual information provided by the mixed planting suddenly seems vaguely overwhelming.
Now, I know what you might be thinking. This is all well and good, but I don't have acres of garden to work with in creating a focal point. Fair enough! I don't have vast acreage either.
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Published April 30th, 2014 11:45 AM
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3 comments
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Douglas Hunt on May 01, 2014Love how you used Photoshop to make the point about the importance of focal points. Seeing (or not seeing) is believing! (And Mr. Folmer's garden looks like a gem.)
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Chris aka monkey on May 01, 2014i love your posts even if i don't always comment xx
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