Fantasy garden for March

[Herb]

Another imaginary garden:

[George Nesfield]

Hi Herb,
Brilliant ,wait for the warm weather and then you will be able to do it for real
George.

[Herb]

I was curious whether a wall rather than with a wood fence would be more in keeping with this style of "Zen' garden (if I may call it that). So I tried the same layout with wall.

I don't know what colour might be most suitable for the wall. I do know that when a Zen garden was being built locally, some of the experts involved experts had different - and strongly felt - opinions about what would be the best colour for a wall round part of it.....

[Jon Cooke]

Hi,

I like the garden you've created. Below is a link to a company in the UK who supply an alternative to the wooden panels you had in your first fantasy garden. These panels although not cheap do add a Japanese garden feel though. For those in the UK who have visited RHS Wisley, these are the panels used in their Japanese garden.

http://www.sunnyaspects.co.uk/sunnyStandard.php

Did you use a garden design package to create your fantasy garden and if so which one ? It looks good. I'm designing a small garden at the moment (about 50ft long by 35 ft wide) and so any good software recommendations would be appreciated.

Regards

Jon

[George Nesfield]

Hi Herb,
I prefer it with the stone wall.
George

[Herb]

George - I agree. I wonder if it's partly because the fence looks too new? We have a cedar fence round part of our garden that's about 10 years old & that's aged to a much greyer colour & perhaps that might look better. If I can find a similar fence to photograph I'll have a go at inserting that in the picture (can't do it with our own fence because it's got apple trees growing next to it so there's no unobstructed view of it).

Jon - the panels you've given the link to are most innovative. I'm going to try inserting one of them in the picture & - if I succeed - I'll post it here. I incline to think that they would function best for a function like screening the side of a patio rather than as a fence round an entire garden, but of course I haven't tried them yet.

I don't use a garden design programme - just Photoshop Elements 1.0 & lots of cut-and-pastes from my collection of garden photos with Photoshop adjustments of things like colour and size & perspective.

Herb

[Jon Cooke]

Hi Herb,

Thanks for the response. Deep down I think I suspected it wasn't a garden design program as generally the output from them is fairly poor and your garden picture looked pretty good.

I'd do something similar if I had the patience to fiddle around in Photoshop, but alas.....

You are right too about the panels. They are much better as a screen rather than a fence or boundary. They need light to shine through them for maximum effect. I bet they take some cleaning too. Imagine the green algae in winter that will discolour the panels. If my greenhouse is anything to go by it won't be a small task cleaning them.

Its back to good old paper and pencil for my design.

Regards

Jon

[Herb]

Jon,

If you persist for a while with Photoshop it soon gets a lot quicker & easier. Also you don't need the most powerful version of it - the Photoshop Elements series are very nearly as powerful, in some ways more convenient, and cost far less, especially versions 1 and 2.. Here's a link to a few more - all done with Photoshop Elements version 1

http://www.netsnapshot.com/pcw/b?KEY=8&ACCOUNT=5431

[Jon Cooke]

Hi Herb,

I've just had a look. Great pictures. I'm not sure that I've got the patience for that level of detail.

I'm about to post a few pictures of the before stage of my garden so if you fancy a challenge....

I'll do it in a different thread as its a bit off topic. Basically I was digging around in my garden tidying up and getting ready for the transformation into a Japanese garden when I discovered an underground pond. Quite a large one as it happens.

Regards

Jon

[Herb]

Jon -

I look forward to giving it a try.

Herb