Informal Balance in a Thoughtfully Designed Miniature Garden
Have you ever seen a miniature garden and immediately you wanted to capture the memory by taking a picture? There was something about this breathtaking garden that made you study every detail and savor the pleasure it brought. Mentally you started planning your shopping list. Your next trip to the greenhouse or journey to an online shop had you looking for plants and accessories to recreate this fantastic mini garden. Why? The design was well planned. When building this fairy garden, the designer put much thought into the elements and principles of design. Consequently using visual balance, in the design, played a part in producing a garden that captured the hearts of gardeners.
From container gardens to grand backyard landscapes, balance is one of the principles to consider when planning a miniature fairy garden. Visual balance, whether symmetrical or asymmetrical, allows us to appreciate the details of the garden. The placement of plants, attention to form, use of color, and organization of space are key balancing elements to a successful garden.
Let's begin by planning an asymetrical or informal fairy garden. It is time to dig out my college lecture notes, which state, "Two sides of a vertical axis do not have to be identical in order to balance a garden." If the balance of objects isn't identical on each side, the how is an informal balanced fairy garden created? We can begin by looking at this image of a Barnyard Wicker Planter Garden created by Winter Greenhouse.
In this case, the Red Metal Barn and Silo carry the weight of the design and they are balanced by the height of the tower. In addition, the denseness of the Ageratum 'Hawaii Blue' Floss Flower, the heaviness of the rocks, and the color of the flowers help to informally bring equal weight to the left side of the planter. Notice how the natural pebbles visually lighten up the area in front of the dark barn to create balance within the planter? Lines, color, size, and shape were informally used to create a pleasing balance of elements in the Barnyard Wicker Planter Garden. How else is asymmetrical or informal balance used in the minature garden?
The difference between success and failure in a mini garden space is knowing which principles to use when creating balance. Let's look at the Edens Way Cottage Planter. The neutral but heavy tones of the Water Fountain Shale are balanced by an assortment of plants with bright, green hues. The overall effect is a unified, but asymmetrical balance. Onto looking at the effect of lines in a large scale miniature garden.
Have you considered creating an informal balance when adding fences to the fairy garden? Notice at the base of the hill, leading up to the Underfoot Cottage Fairyhood, is a stone fence with strong horizontal lines. To balance these lines, the vertical pickets of the gate provide an informal element to organize the space and creates a welcoming entrance leading up the steps to the cottage. Understanding balance allows us to determine why a miniature landscape is successful or not. The smallest of gardens can become a work of art when visually the accessories are balanced and they allow visitors the pleasure of enjoying every detail in the miniature garden.
Miniature Gardening offers a variety of accessories, fairies, plants, garden tools & furniture to create enchanting miniature landscapes for containers or your yard. We carry the largest online selection of plants for miniature and fairy gardens and of unique handcrafted miniature hardscape paths and patios. Visit our website: http://miniature-gardening.com