The Black and White Test
It is autumn and it is that time of year when we take stock of our garden. It is also when we evaluate our plantings, what worked-and what didn’t work so well. September/ October also known as the “great transplantation”, (Garden writer and Garden Mixer co-founder Marianne Willburn coined the term). Fall is the third season of gardening when we can dig up our plants, divide, and move around. The weather becomes more conducive to dig/ re-plant without too much transplant shock. The ground is still warm which enables roots to get acclimated to their new home before a heavy frost.
How can you evaluate if your garden design is interesting with contrast and structure? What makes a garden beautiful is subjective and emotional. How do we know if we have a strong design with lots of shape and texture? Try the black and white photo test. Take a photo of your plant combination and convert the photo to black and white.
I was listening to one of my favorite horticultural podcasts called the Plantastic Podcast with Dr. Jared Barnes who is an associate professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas. His most recent guest was Dr. Noel Kingsbury on Naturalistic Planting Design. It was a very informative and in-depth conversation, which I had to listen to twice. Dr. Kingsbury has written several books with the Dutch landscaper Piet Oudolf. Kingsbury also leads Garden Masterclass with Annie Guilfoyle, which offers online courses and a weekly garden chat Thursday evening on YouTube. Dr. Kingsbury was talking about naturalistic planting design concepts, and he mentioned how you can check your design for contrast and structural strength by using the black and white test.
The test is a classic technique used by landscape designers to evaluate their designs and has become a popular rule of thumb test to strip away the noise of color. When color photography became popular, mid to late 20th century garden designers became overly dependent on flower color which often masked weak structural plant choices. Different shades of green foliage may look distinct in color but in grayscale can become blurred if there isn't enough variation in shape size, form,and texture.
When designing a garden think about shape; architectural trees, shrubs, and perennials. A garden has “good bones” when it holds its form and visual appeal even when the flowers and foliage fade. Consider how plants look in every stage of their life cycle. In the autumn and winter I have learned to leave the grasses standing and seedheads for winter interest. This also provides food and shelter for wildlife.
Kingsbury and Oudolf authored Designing with Plants (2000), which is a great resource for designing a garden bed. They divided perennial plant shapes in six categories; spires, buttons, daisies, globes, umbels, and plumes. They advise, to “aim for a variety of shapes but avoid the temptation to plant one of this and one of that with no sense of connection.” Roy Diblik, plant nurseryman, perennial garden designer, who also worked with Piet Oudolf at the Lurie Garden writes in his book, The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden (2014), “One plant is just a single note, no matter how beautiful on its own, it needs other notes to form a melody. That’s when the real music begins.”
I have begun to take black and white photos of various plant combinations around the garden. I have included my favorite one here.
