Garden Glass - Urban Chic
I was reminded yesterday of one of the garden fads that has passed on - sadly, I think, because the gardens that were created during its time were truly imaginative and stylish. It was the elemental garden - Air, Fire and Water being the elements used (earth being a bit of a given, in the circumstances) and even a few Wood and Metal gardens were built. The elemental garden was a late nineties derivation of urban chic and it was swiftly superseded by the Feng Shui or Combined Element garden, which used all the elements in 'harmony' to create peace, prosperity and, presumably, plant heaven! Anyway, I thought of this because I was visiting a graphic designer who has clung to his old-style elemental garden, despite being told by all kinds of New Age consultants that it has 'bad Feng Shui' and I have to say it still looks wonderful to me. His is an Air garden and it works with the following ingredients: colour, light, glass, fragrance, sound.
- The colour range is pale to deep blue
- The light is subdued but from multiple sources - wall lamps, floor lamps, blue glass shades, underwater lights in a round blue pool that looks like a shallow mirror and is topped by a white 'cloud' made of ceramic
- Glass is the key feature, and he has wind chimes, glass tables, deep blue glass coasters and wine-glasses, a glass sculpture of an angel ascending etc
- The fragrances are light and citrus-based, nothing heavy or musky. So he has raised flowerbeds that contain: lemon balm (variegated) lemon verbena, narcissus, a white lilac, and in winter snowdrops and chionodoxa as well as miniature iris that are light blue and slightly fragrant
- Sound comes from the wind-chimes which are made of glass and metal and from a underfloor speaker system which plays ambient music.
Element gardens work really well if you have a small space, often already paved or concreted, or a roof garden. They can be cost effective to construct and are spectacular on the eye.
Hacienda style plants
For your hacienda garden, once you've got the hard features like walls and furniture sorted out, there are any number of plants you can aim for. Absolutely classic hacienda style plants include bougainvillaea, jasmine, agapanthus, hydrangeas, begonias, poppies, geraniums, dahlias, primroses, orchids, and magnolia trees. To be authentically Mexican, you've got to have some of the weird blue agave, that peculiar succulent - a member of the lily family - which is the raw material from which the mind-blowing native Mexican tequila is made (okay, all tequila is made from agave, but the brands you drink in Mexico are amazingly powerful and hallucinogenic). The agave plants look downright weird, like naval mines or sputniks. They have strong, sharp spikes like brilliant green swords and you don't want to fall into them in a drunken stupor. Plants that are perennials in Mexico are, of course, only annuals here, or at least need lots of winter protection, so bear in mind that you won't have a lot of winter colour and may want to invest in a tiled wall or mural to add warmth through the darkest and chilliest part of the year. And while all these plants will grow beautifully in terracotta pots, make sure those pots are properly frost proof - they may cost two or three times what their cheaper garden centre cousins do, but the investment is worth it, because if they crack in the frost you lose the pots and the plants they contained.
Mandala paths without sky high prices
Remember that wonderful urban chic path I showed you, of York stone incised into grass, for meditative walking or just impressing the hell out of your friends? Amazing style, but very expensive. Yesterday I was reminded that at this year's Chelsea Flower Show, a much cheaper and equally stylish version of the mandala path (that's what they are called, by the way) was on show. Here's how you make one:
- Buy lots of good quality rope (see picture) preferably from a yacht chandlers as they have the best range of weights and colours.
- Buy some good fine sand - again shop around your local garden centres and builder's merchants until you find something you really like the look of. At the same time get a piece of thick plastic, tarpaulin or mulch cloth, that you can cut with scissors.
- Lay the rope in a spiral on the ground and when you're happy, dig out a hole in your lawn to the right size but three inches deeper. Cut the plastic until it fits the hole and reaches an inch up the sides (you may have to snip into the edges a bit to get it to lay flat) then pour two inches of sand into the hole on top of it. Now coil the rope into the hole and pour sand over the top and brush it into any gaps and crevices. There you go, instant mandala for about a hundredth of the price of the stone version and you can simply lift it and replace with fresh turf whenever you've had enough of it. Try black rope for a really impressive effect, or two colour rope, or cream rope with blue sand - very nautical.
(photograph by Normanack, used under creative commons attribution licence)
Hacienda style ...
This, despite the upsurge in ranch style housing across the home counties, is one of the most difficult garden design styles to pull off successfully in the UK - simply because of our lighting. The hacienda style demands a certain level of saturated light - an absolute drenching of strong sunlight to make deep shadow and to throw dramatic design features into relief. Because the style is based on a distinct contrast between the shady, welcoming interiors and the bright but somewhat glaring exteriors, we often find our own more hazy sunshine doesn’t give the right kind of contrast and the style can seem dull and lukewarm. There are some clever little tricks you can use to fake the hacienda glow though. Where the traditional Mexican style uses white, used a pale yellow on upper walls and ceilings and a deeper ochre or gold colour on low walls and furnishings. This warms the light and gives an effect of sunshine even when the day is overcast, where pure white adds to the snowy chill of a dull day. Make sure your water feature is a deeper shade than turquoise - while that pure clear light blue works well in California and Mexico, it has a chill effect here - deep green, aqua or deep blue are warmer and again suggest a greater contrast between the sun and the shade, causing the eye to believe there is more sunlight around than is really the case. Where you have an area of permanent shade, work with it - paint it pale mauve, lavender or a very soft pale blue which are all the colours of shadows thrown on white walls by the midday sun - in other words, you trick the eye again to think that the colour it sees is related to heat and sun. Typical patio floors may be as simple as large squares of terra-cotta or tiled with intricate mosaics placed in a Mexican design. Again, something reminiscent of Colonial Spain or Aztec is ideal, but go for warm colours, ox-blood not blue, yellow stone rather than grey, a soft sage green rather than the cooler British racing green. Next time, the plants to finish off the optical illusion and make your hacienda into a true paradise.
Urban chic - the creators
So who are the people who create modern styles - who 'invented' urban chic? "From the beginning of my design life, my ambition has been to offer intelligently designed products to as large an audience as possible at a price they can afford."
Terence Conran, the found of Habitat, the creator of the British version of urban chic and the progenitor of everything that made London cool in the sixties. The first Habitat store opened in 1964, and had a deliberate philosophy of allowing people to create an entire look and structure their lifestyle through their household items - in fact you can date the concept of 'lifestyle' to the decade after Habitat was launched. Through his stores, Conran introduced Britain to a range of French cookware, all displayed in a simple environment of white walls and quarry-tiled floors, lamps and vases, tables and cutlery, all designed to be functional and beautiful and to work together.
Mary Quant designed the Conran store uniforms, style on style, you might say! And the name of the store 'Habitat' echoed his ideas - this was furniture and accessories to live with. Since then, Sir Terence, as he is now, has become a guru of style, including his wonderful London restaurants like Bibendum. Recently the Conran Foundation set up the Boilerhouse Project, a gallery and resource for students, designers and the public to stimulate design awareness and discussion, at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Everything we call urban chic in the UK springs from that moment in 1964 when Habitat opened its doors for the first time ...
Urban Chic - the principles
Urban chic is slimmed down, sleek and contemporary. It's ideal for small town gardens, roof gardens, terraces and even small balconies, because the design principles it uses make the best of the tiniest spaces. To design an urban chic garden, begin by listing what you want to DO in it. Lounge around, drink wine, eat breakfast, perform tai chi, read books, work at home ...? Whatever is on your list it needs to be as detailed as possible, and not some unlikely dream (don't say tai chi if your nearest approach to exercise is picking up the popcorn and remote control) because this is what allows you to determine what your garden contains. Let's assume you want to work at home and drink wine in the evenings - sounds like a good menu for a happy life. Begin by deciding what you need to have around you to work - connections for your laptop and wifi? Telephone? Desk? Then visit your local furniture suppliers and garden centres, or shop online to find out what combination of equipment will both look good and do the job. Functionalism is one of the principles of urban chic, and it means every item has to have a job to do, and that job can't just be looking pretty. So your outdoor lights should be good enough for you to work by as well as illuminating your favourite garden features. The reconstituted stone bench you choose should be just right for storing a wine cooler and six glasses underneath, along with a hook for your bottle opener, so that when the day's work is done, you can haul out your pinot or whatever and pour a glass without having to go indoors. Make sure not to clutter the space. Modern materials: concrete, glass and steel, blend well with natural stone and wood, and can be used effectively when creating an urban garden. If you have space, a labyrinth like this gives you a contemplative route to walk, as well as adding a strong visual element to even the smallest lawn.
