We all have those desires of being on holiday abound by the elements that bring such enjoyable rest and relaxation.
It would be easy to draw your mind to your last holiday all, be it in the tropical parts of Australia or on a not so distant tropical island we are blessed to be able to get to form here.
Let me just hover over the style ‘Tropical’. What does this mean to us at Scenic Blue Design?
- Relaxation
- Snoozing
- Cocktails
- Colours
- Sound
- Freshness
The list could go on. Now let me grasp the above and work more so on the emotion they generate and how you can bring such emotion into your lives – ‘our very busy lives’ Ill draw upon say 5 subject elements to show you this.
All too often we find ourselves being invited to clients homes to help them unfix what was done by themselves or others and it not be cohesive or of the emotion they were seeking.
So yes, become absorbed in this emotion but don’t do anything or maybe spend money without a plan. Yes, many may think this is so boring I just want to have it happen.
Why a plan?
- Mistakes on paper are easily resolved
- Work to scale so you are able to know things fit and work
- Ask yourself what you are wanting within this emotion
What is emotion?
- Relaxation / snoozing = slower heart rate, calm, comfortable
- Cocktails = Taste, uplifting, happiness
- Colours = eye catching, mental stimulation, imagination
- Sound = silence, mesmerising
- Freshness = new, rich, alive
Let me now bring 3 elements into the mix that has the ability to capture the above 5 emotions. Sure, there are more but let’s work on these for the time being. Remember you have the garden on plan and to scale. It might just show you say the property, its existing hard features, neighbouring structures, where the sun rises and falls, existing trees plants inside your garden or out etc etc. Some of the above points you will have to work with as they are governed by not being yours, local council conditions or simply weather. That’s OK embrace them in the right way and what may seem initially as a disadvantage could be used to bring an unimaginable positive into your garden. So, three elements:
- Sure, one could quickly go in the stereo typical term ‘Water feature’ or I’ve seen before as its straight off the shelf. Nothing wrong with that but if again you think about such features concentrate on the elements they offer
- Sound and its omitted emotion
- Refection and its omitted emotion
- Movement and its omitted emotion
A bubbling brook meandering in and around a cobble path, a trickle of water running over rock through the mosses or a body of water dropping over a ledge and on and on and on.
- Remember the element of weather or East and West. Very important. Tropical plants stereo typically bring shade, colour, shades, moisture, understory. To walk through a tropical garden is beautiful as you really are now attacking the senses. Sight, sound, and touch causing you to slow down. Some of the plants we are blessed to have just smack you with pleasant attitude. The Dicksonia Antarctica ‘ Soft Tree Fern’ bring a dark brown trunk with heavily contrasting leaves reaching out from the trunk some 1.5 meters. Just imagine walking under one of these. Or its sister as I would call it the Cyathea australis ‘ Rough Tree Fern’. Its name derived from the Greek kyatheion meaning ‘Little Cup’. Have a look at the underside of the fronds to see why. Oh my gosh. How about the very contrasting plants within the Cordyline frusticosa family. From dark burgundy near black of the Negra, to the striking red / pink flushes of the Rubra and then the challenging mix of the Pink Diamond showing off greens, whites and pinks. Their leaves are like small plates and very touchy. Then we can dash over to the Platycerium ‘Stag Horn’. Find a trunk of a tree or a section of fence and attach this beauty.
- Light – I hear you saying light. Yes light. As the sun starts to wane then by applying clever lighting to the garden your garden will take on another emotion and you find yourself being absorbed in the up lighting of a tree, the moving shadows created, the gentle movement of water reflecting the light through its body and the gently lit paths saying ‘Why don’t you wonder down here with a glass of wine.
The story of tropical gardens can go on and on and on. But just absorb the points above and you will certainly be on a far create success road in achieving your tropical garden. Do share your garden photos with us as would love to see what you have created. Yes created. The wonderful subject of Landscape design and Architecture using nature as your canvas
