Elements of Garden Design by Joe Eck

One thing I have learned from architecture school is the methods of designing: from doing your homework with site analysis, to conceptual development, right on to space planning and detailing. Of course,as a student I was more often daydreaming about the day I'd design with so-called "inspiration" and without need for late, late nights.. or, better yet, there's the day I will just doodle some lines and be loved for it! *cough* Frank Gehry *cough* Over the years, though, I've come to appreciate how a disciplined thought process really help working ideas into viable projects. Think out of the box, you say? I say, it is precisely the rigors of methods that serve as boundaries of the box, and  hence a design framework is necessary even as foundation to less conventional design processes.

Well, this is the problem with me and landscape architecture: mere two years of school has not given me enough foundation on landscape-specific design processes. Hence, I see what I can absorb and learn from books.

In this quest for landscape architecture knowledge, the book I have read is 'Elements of Garden Design' by Joe Eck. Unfortunately, a Wikipedia search yields no page on Joe Eck and hence I would need to research (= browse ) further on him. The book is written in 1995,  but I would say the contents are still interesting and relevant, though more on small-scale landscape design.

The book is divided into two sections: "Theory" and "Practice". The Theory part seems to concern more on the big picture, the main factors to consider when designing a garden. It is further divided into chapters,e.g. 'Intention', 'Site', 'Style', 'Structure', 'Access', 'Scale', 'Mass', 'Symmetry' etc. The Practice part goes into more details, 'Foundation Plantings', 'Lawn and Ground Covers', 'Water in the Garden', 'Sculpture in the Garden', 'Vegetable Gardens', even 'Children in the Garden'!

Here are some quotes from the book:

".. this is a book of rules. Rules are both the life and death of any art. When fresh and new, they strike the interested as revelations, followed slavishly, they yield results that are sterile and formulaic."


"Hard though it might be for a gardener in possession of a new site to hear, the first thing to do when beginning a garden is to do nothing at all. Attend acutely to what is before you... Come to know the site intimately, and perhaps to love it, or parts of it, just as it is. Only then will your site and the garden in your mind conspire together to yield a garden on earth worth the name."


"Of the many delights a garden can offer, one of the most precious occurs when it cannot be taken in all at a glance."


"Nothing that is used for a contrast in a garden ought to ever call so much attention to itself that it distracts from the whole. Elements of contrast must always be used with restraint. They are the spice to the dish, but no one would want to dine on cinnamon."


Honestly, I read this book as much to learn about garden design as to just enjoy its 'old and proper' language =D Oh, since the book is actually a compilation of magazine articles authored over the years, it's an easy read, yet still meaty enough to glean interesting principles and thoughts!