RHS Level 2 2111 Garden Styles Flashcards
Garden features, plant selection and planning
Describe features of a formal garden design.
Usually based on mathematically arranged geometric shapes forming horizontal elements, e.g knot gardens.
Vertical elements typically include cones, pyramids, spheres.
Symmetry is common.
Demands a tidy, well manicured look.
Often used straight lines.
Often uses strong focal points like fountains or statues.
Common to use fewer but prominent plants.
Often has a high proportion of hard landscaping and or over manicured lawns.
Classical sculpture, ornaments, furniture and fixtures.
Indicates a dominance over nature.
Describe features of an informal garden.
An absence of obviously manmade structures band materials.
Natural materials used like wood and stone.
Asymmetry is common.
Suited to low maintenance gardening.
Often uses relaxed curves.
Grouped or mixed plantings
Can include wildlife ponds and wildflower meadows.
In sympathy with the landscape
Emphasis is on the plants, pruning and clipping is relaxed.
Describe the main characteristics of a knot garden.
Consist of an area divided up into formal flower beds.
Usually symmetrical and size is related to the house.
Edged with clipped dwarf shrubs like box, lavender or rosemary.
Gaps in-between can be filled with gravel, flowering plants or herbs.
Hedging planted in intricate patterns to be viewed from above ground level.
Describe the main characteristics of a landscape garden.
Sympathetic to the surrounding natural environment..
Swathes of grass, small groups of trees, blending in and on scale with surrounding landscape.
Lack of symmetry.
Selected architecture used as focal points along with serpentine lakes (naturalistic ponds,lakes stretched along a valley).
Architecture included temples, follies, grottos, palladian bridges, Chinese bridges, pagodas.
Ha ha’s used to separate off the house.
Describe the main characteristics of a cottage garden.
Traditional style originating in peasant gardens.
Focus on plants.
Annuals and easy perennials used, mixture of lifecycles.
Flowers, vegetables and fruit in abundance.
Natural materials such as wood, brick, local stone.
Gravel paths with brick edging.
Picket fences.
Relaxed, asymmetric, informal.
Name some horizontal elements.
Paths
Steps
Patio
Decking.
What are the benefits and limitations of using pre prepared paving for horizontal elements?
Can provide planting pockets.
Paving can be textured.
Wide range of styles available to allow cohesion.
Issues with cracking. Uneven pavers make trip hazards. Weeds can grow in-between. Can become slippery. Lots of preparation needed. Usually not sustainable.
What are the benefits and limitations of using brick paving for horizontal elements?
Can integrate design with surrounding walls.
Suited to stretcher bond paths and herringbone pattern.
Require deeper excavation.
Often only sides are fired to withstand the elements so there is a risk of flaking.
What are the benefits and limitations of stone flag paving for horizontal elements?
Natural material
Expensive
Variable in thickness.
What are the benefits and limitations of using concrete for horizontal elements?
Level surface.
Cheap
Can be mixed on site.
Different colours and textures can be used.
Environmentally unfriendly.
Impermeable to water
Ugly in appearance
Subject to cracking.
What are the benefits and limitations of using gravel for horizontal elements?
Cheap and easy to install. It can be decorative. Can blend well with other materials.. Drainage and planting pockets easy to create. Difficult shapes can be dealt with.
Gravel can move and become a nuisance on lawns
Noisy
Weeds can establish
Only moderately sustainable
What are the benefits and limitations of using wood for horizontal elements?
Sleepers, log sections, decking material, bark chipping.
Possibly sustainable and recyclable. Warm and attractive Natural material Versatile, easily bespoke. Relatively quick to install.
Can be slippery and give splinters.
Prone to rots and woodworm etc…
Chemical treatment may have been used
Rats can make home under decking
List a range of vertical elements with TWO examples of natural and man-made materials used in their manufacture.
Walls: limestone, slate
Brick, concrete blocks
Fences: Timber, Hazel hurdles
Plastic, metal
Screens: Bamboo, willow
Plastic, metal
Pergolas: Timber
Brick, metal
Furniture: Timber, marble
Plastic, metal
Statuary: Wicker, marble
Plastic, glass fibre
Describe the suitability of materials used in vertical elements.
Wood - looks good, natural, cohesion/unity.
Rotting, treating. Is it sustainable? Imported, species…
Marble - looks good, hard-wearing.
Heavy, expensive, imported
Limestone - long lasting, unity/cohesion
Where is it from? Sustainability?
Wicker - light, moveable, grow your own, natural.
Rotting, untidy?
Willow - natural, sustainable, compostable
Rotting, needs maintenance.
Plastic - cheap, light, easy to install
Oil based, unsustainable, short lived, fades…
Metal - interesting design, can be recycled, strong
Needs maintenance, rusting, can be heavy.
Brick - easy to build with, recycled, clay origins
Can look ugly, needs some expertise.
What is a rock garden?
An arrangement of plants around carefully positioned rocks, usually on a slope.
