Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 25, 1990 TAG: 9003310091
SECTION: TODAY'S HOME PAGE: TH8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: David Meador
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Like a room in your house, the outdoor space is then filled with the items that will make that space practical and pleasing - a patio, pool, sitting area, flower or vegetable garden, perhaps.
Barlow calls his company Garden Arts because his passion is designing gardens - spaces that for him become works of art, the imagination of the artist expressed through the lovely variety of nature. "A garden is a microcosm of nature," he said. "It encapsulates the best of nature's creations."
To create a flower garden, Barlow uses what he calls "the genius of the site," the characteristics of a yard that make that spot unique. Tracing lines through the air with his finger as he stands at the site, Barlow creates a mental picture of the garden's layout, imagining the shape of things to come. He also imagines that passersby look at him with suspicion as he waves his arms about in search of a design.
It is the lines of a garden that connect and unify the different parts, he said. "Creating the lines is like creating a piece of sculpture. Pleasing curves or intersecting lines draw attention to the area, and if they are strong enough, could carry the design alone, just like the lines of sculpture need no embellishment."
Lines can be created by using walkways and borders that lead the eye in one direction or another.
Barlow receives some of the inspiration for his work from the formal gardens ubiquitous to England. "Gardening is a passion there, but whereas the English emphasize horticultural variety in their gardens, Americans seem to concentrate on design," he said. Barlow said that the English have an abstract, uninhibited style to their gardens that he finds appealing.
Of course, much of the fun of gardening comes from selecting the plants to go in it. There's where the other elements of good garden design come into play - form, color, texture, repetition, balance, emphasis and variety. "A good design must integrate all these elements," he said. With hundreds of species of plants to choose from, the possibilities are endless.
Today's gardeners are choosing perennials as a mainstay because they come up year after year. Also, gardeners want color throughout the year, not just in spring and summer, said Barlow. Ornamental cabbages and a variety of ornamental grasses, like Japanese blood grass or blue fescue, maintain their color all year. Zebra grass, with its yellow and green stripes, is another striking choice.
Besides its aesthetic appeal, a good garden is good exercise. `It is the No. 1 outdoor activity," said Barlow. And statistics he cites from Money magazine state that landscaping is a good investment, too, raising the property value more than the cost of the landscaping.
One pitfall homeowners should avoid when planning a garden is to start the whole process by choosing the plants before they have a design, said Barlow. "Don't insist on having tulips," for example, before you know how they might fit into the overall schematic.
Barlow gets his lust for horticulture naturally. Both his mother and grandmother are horticulturists, and a distant cousin was none other than than the father of American landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York's Central Park and the gardens at Biltmore in Asheville, N.C.
\ An example of outstanding landscape design and the use of color, forms and textures to create a "sense of place" will be the new Virginia Western Community Arboretum on Colonial Avenue in Roanoke adjacent to Virginia Western Community College.
An arboretum is like an "outdoor museum for plants," said Lee Hipp, head of Virginia Western Community College's horticulture department and a prime mover in development of the arboretum. "Our primary goal is to educate, but the arboretum will also be a good place just to sit, and enjoy the more than 5000 plants that will fill the senses."
Although the arboretum can be enjoyed simply for its beauty, it will have practical value for students of horticulture and for homeowners interested in gardening or landscaping. It will embody the best in design, and its 500 varieties of plants will introduce the homeowner to horticultural possibilities unknown to most.
A walking tour will introduce visitors to the plants. "I think the amateur gardener will see several species with which he or she is not familiar," said Hipp. Information about specific plants will be available at the information center, including where the plant may be purchased. "If homeowners see a plant in a magazine, they will be able to come to the arboretum to get a first-hand look."
The focal point of the arboretum's design will be a large ellipse in the center that will be encircled by flowering trees. A rock garden with gently arching stone walls will sit at the north end of the ellipse; a 15-foot gazebo will tie the two together.
Conifers below the rock garden will form a tunnel effect, said Hipp, creating strong lines and focusing attention on the rock garden.
Perennials planted in flowing beds alongside the ellipse will produce a rainbow effect, as the hues of the plants change from yellow to orange to red to purple to blue.
And annuals planted at the farthest end of the arboretum will provide color throughout the year, he said. "We are going to try to keep plants there that have color all year long," pointing out a desirable quality of any landscape design. "The effect will be like a kaleidoscope, changing from season to season, but always interesting and colorful."
The arboretum will also increase awareness about the environment, said Hipp. Instead of using commercial fertilizer, the site was prepared with a compost of decaying leaves, and only organic techniques will be used to maintain it.
Construction of the 2-acre arboretum has begun and is expected to be completed by the end of this year, said Hipp. But because the arboretum is privately funded, meeting that completion date depends upon the interest and generosity of members of the community.
The cost of the arboretum will $150,000; about $64,000 has been raised so far. Contributions may be made by writing to the Arboretum Fund, P.O. Box 14045, Roanoke, Va. 24038. Checks should be made payable to the VWCC Educational Foundation.
\ Landscaping tips in brief:
Look at your lot objectively. Make a list of its assets and liabilities. Note sun angles, shade, the direction of winter winds and summer breezes, views, privacy and the location of the lot line. A survey plat will shows lot lines,locations of all structures and any easements.
Draw a plan, noting existing landscaping. Draw new plantings to scale (their height at maturity) using a tracing paper overlay.
Arrange plants of different sizes, shapes, textures and colors for a harmonious balance; remember the seasonal qualities of plants to provide year-round interest.
Tie everything together by the repetition of a few plants.
Stretch your budget by doing some landscaping one year and some the next or by purchasing young nursery stock. Do not sacrifice quality for quantity. Focus ona portion of the yard, designed for a specific purpose, such as a sitting area.
by CNB