Featured Garden: LP's Pictorial Garden

Today I am going to post about the garden of a closeby neighbour, named LP. LP has a lovely, cosy garden. Just like the pretty owner herself, the garden always make passer-bys turn their heads. It's hard not to take another peep to admire the garden.

After reading about pictorial gardening, I conclude that LP is a pictorial gardener. Why so?

The pictorial gardener is primarily interested in the outline of the tree, the density or solidity of its foliage, its blending faculty, either as a group or in company with other trees, and its color value in relation to other darker or lighter shaded trees.

As pictorial gardeners we broaden our garden horizon. As producers of flowers, the edge of our flower beds or the lot boundary plantation represent all too often the limit of our garden horizon. As painters of garden pictures we extend our vision and include on our canvas that part of the picture already painted by nature. This is especially so in the open country where a distant hillside, a lake or river view, may be made visionally part of our garden picture even though these areas be far beyond
the boundaries described by our deed.

LP's garden comes with a huge collection of foliage in various colours and patterns. The lush greens are dotted with spots of pink, red & purple colours from the few flowering plants she grows. She makes a beautiful vista of her garden by creatively arranged her lush plants in clay pots that comes in various heights and beautifuly displayed with a visual perspective effect in mind. Taller plants form a background for the smaller, dainty ones. River rocks are placed on the foreground to create an attractive border. Viewing her garden, one would know that the owner has put a lot of thoughts into the composition of this beautiful paradise, just like how an artist would plan before painting his brush on a canvas.

In the foreground, there are Goose Foot & Snow Queen (Aglaonema) plant with interesting leaves and a few varieties of folige plants (do help me to figure out their names). I think the flowering plant is an Impatiens.

Placed in the 2 bigger pots are water plants, featuring the purple blooming Hyacinth & Pegaga in one pot and the 2nd pot containing Money Plant (Devil's Ivy) and Water Lettuce.

The tall Polycias with its round, variegated leaves together with the Goose Foot plant are strategically placed as background for the water features. At the same time they help to block passer-bys from viewing into the living room, thus, providing privacy to the home owner.

A close-up view of the pot containing the Hyacinth bloom & Pegaga. Also seen is the Snow Queen (Aglaonema) plant on the left and the blooming pink Impatien.

On this nook, LP placed many foliages of various leaf sizes and colours. I like that plant with the fiery red leaves. It brightens up the whole section. The tall plants are cut into topiary, providing shades for the smaller plants placed in hanging pots. The tall plants together with the small creeping plants provide shades to LP's dog cage. This is also a creative way to decorate the dog cage.

An overview of this section of LP's cosy garden.

Due to limitation of space, plants that require shades are placed under this wooden bench. I love these collection of plants that come in different shapes & patterns with different shades of green on their leaves. Adorable clay snails and turtles are used as decoration.

Besides her garden furniture, a piece of glass is placed on top of a pot to form a small table for a pot of Begonia with velvety leaves and a heart-shaped foliage plant. They are joined by the 3 wooden giraffes of different height. A wind chime is hung on her Cane Plant, adding soothing effect on a windy day to this charming corner.

LP's garden is an inspiration to me. Everytime I drove past her house, I would slow down to get a good view on how the garden is doing. I wish my garden would one day be as picturesque as hers!