Conifers in landscape design

It is not for nothing that landscape designers value conifers, whether they are trees or shrubs, and are widely used in garden design. The reason for this is the unpretentious nature of evergreens and an attractive appearance throughout the year. Also, an important role is played by the pleasant aroma characteristic of conifers and the ability not only to deodorize, but also to purify the air. Conifers are quite versatile and look spectacular both individually and as part of compositions. Equally successful will be the neighborhood with other trees and shrubs, and with deciduous and herbaceous crops, flowers, lawn coverings, stony landscape elements. Most often, conifers are used for design decoration of flower beds, rock gardens and rockeries, as well as for creating green hedges. The formation of conifers in the bonsai style will also be successful.

Today, gardeners and designers can choose from a fairly extensive list of conifers, each of which includes species and varieties of various colors and sizes. Thanks to this variety, grow evergreens
Plants can be found not only in vast garden areas, but also in small areas, as well as in gardens with difficult terrain and poor soil composition. This article will focus on the basic techniques in landscape design using conifers,
as well as about the peculiarities of caring for them.

The principles of creating a composition with coniferous crops

When deciding to include conifers in the design of a garden plot, it should be borne in mind that undersized and dwarf varieties are most often used in landscape design. Typically, they are
the result of selection, are grown in special nurseries and are quite expensive. To avoid wasting the budget, it is recommended that all design ideas be presented on paper in advance, creating at least an approximate scheme for the placement of certain crops on the site.

Site relief

In the layout of the garden, a fundamental role is given to the size of the site. Another equally important factor affecting the entire composition is the garden relief. Most often, its features themselves dictate the order of placement of functional areas and
flower beds on the site. So, on flat areas, it is advisable to place lawns, flower beds, rocky rockery gardens. A natural slope or shore of a reservoir is suitable for the construction of a rock garden. It should also be borne in mind that even such
unpretentious plants like ephedra have preferences. Therefore, the best option for planting them would be the western or eastern side of the garden plot. The geometric solution of the garden composition requires special attention in order to
the landscape looked balanced and harmonious. All its constituent parts should be folded into combinations determined by the logic of shapes and sizes. Naturally, the largest elements should occupy the central part of the composition, or be located at its beginning. Sharp differences between parts of different heights and combinations of shapes that violate the harmony should be avoided. The general rule is a downward movement from larger decorative elements and tall plants to miniature specimens on the outskirts.

Color spectrum

Matching colors to your garden palette is also a top priority.Evergreens are distinguished by a variety of colors: even within the framework of green alone, there are several dozen shades from very pale, pastel, to rich dark tones. In addition, the color range of conifers is not limited to one color: depending on
the age of the plant and the season of the year, the needles can acquire various colors and shades - brown, reddish, purple, gray-gray, yellow. Given such a variety, there is a high risk of forming too variegated scales on the site, which will disrupt the harmony of the composition. Adherence to simple principles of color matching will help to avoid such a situation:
1) A composition of three elements can include no more than 2 shades;
2) For five compositional elements, there should be from one to three
flowers;
3) It is better to divide multi-piece compositions into separate groups,
united by one shade or another.
As in the case of relief, in the matter of choosing the color scheme, first of all, multi-composition should be avoided, which can lead to a lurid effect of a patchwork quilt.

Varieties of flower beds and design elements

The choice of conifers is also influenced by the purpose for which this or that composition is created in the garden. In those cases when it comes to purely decorative tasks, it is recommended to include evergreen crops in a compact flower garden. These include flower beds, rockeries, rock gardens. These minimalistic options are suitable for beginners.
gardeners and designers as a trial project. For more practical solutions, large forms are suitable - green hedges, lush mixborders. With their help, it is possible to delimit the garden space into separate functional zones, as well as hide the "secret corners" of the garden, protect the recreation area from street dust, noise, and prying eyes. Below
I'll talk a little more about these compositional elements.
1) Rockeries
Rockery is a rocky garden located on a flat area with minimal differences in relief. For its decoration, in addition to stones, dwarf tree forms, undersized shrubs, flowers, gravel and pebbles are used. Rockeries are divided into three types:
- rockery in the English style assigns the main role to shrubs, creeping varieties of conifers, herbaceous plants;
- the Japanese style in the design of rockeries is manifested in the abundance of boulders and small pebbles, only in some places alternating with islets of greenery, represented by moss or dwarf trees;
- the European variety of rockery is most popular in the domestic middle lane and involves the placement of compositional elements around the semantic dominant, represented by an elongated coniferous tree.
2) Alpine slides
At its core, the rock garden does not differ much from the rockery and is characterized by a combination of stones and plant cultures. Only in
Plants still play a dominant role in the design of an alpine slide. Another fundamental difference between the rock garden, as the name suggests, lies in its tiered structure. Unlike rockeries, alpine slides are most often located in areas with uneven relief, where elevation differences are present. The essence of the rocky garden is the most natural imitation of the natural landscape. The main principle of the harmonious construction of an alpine slide is downward movement. At the same time, it is important not to allow more massive elements to cover the miniature details of the composition.
3) flower beds
If the designer has a limited area of ​​land, a logical solution that contributes to savings
space, will create a flower bed. A traditional flower bed has a small size and geometric contours, which allows it to fit into almost any landscape. However, there are also lush flower beds that do not have clear outlines that emphasize the landscape style of the garden.
The most common types of flower beds are:
- a flowerbed of a symmetrical type, the filling of which is carried out from its center, marked by the highest plant element, then medium-sized plants follow, and miniature and creeping forms are located on the edge;
- a compact-type flower bed, often representing a portable container for flowers, which is filled not only with flowers, but also with stone details, which gives it a resemblance to rockery;
- a landscape-style flower bed is designed to create the effect of a forest in miniature, therefore, in addition to coniferous crops, it includes picturesque branches, tree roots and stones covered with moss;
- large flower beds, as a rule, are used to decorate the boundaries of the site, and are filled in descending order, bringing to the fore the creeping varieties of conifers.
4) Mixborders and green hedges
The use of conifers to form hedges is gaining popularity. With their help, as well as with the help of lush and long mixborders, you can divide functional areas in the garden, frame terraces and recreation areas. This method of landscaping the site not only helps to protect the garden space from prying eyes, noise and street dust, but also, thanks to the antibacterial properties of conifers, helps to purify and aromatize the air. Low-growing varieties of conifers and shrubs are suitable for framing small areas.

Selection of conifers

Pick up conifers or shrubs for landscaping
garden plot is not that easy. At first glance, it is enough to bring from the forest
wild young trees and bushes and plant them in the garden, saving yourself, thus
most, from the cost of buying seedlings. Meanwhile, this idea is not so good,
since specimens growing in nature do not respond well to
cultivation, and formative pruning will not give the expected results.

Therefore, it is still more correct to purchase seedlings in nurseries, since in
In this case, they are grown specifically for decorative purposes. Thanks to
to the efforts of breeders, they will differ even in adulthood
compactness and responsiveness to formative pruning. Knowing about the alleged
the height and diameter of the crown is much easier to plan planting on the site. IN
in the case of wild conifers, all preparatory work can
be in vain.

An important factor influencing the choice of conifers is the list
other compositional elements. Size, colors and features of the external
species of deciduous and herbaceous plants largely dictate the characteristics
coniferous component of the composition.
All conifers can be divided into three groups depending on their
sizes: tall, medium in height and dwarf.

1) One of the most famous and ubiquitous conifers
plant is pine. To the merits of this evergreen breed, you can
attribute an unpretentious character and the ability to take root on different software
composition of soils. However, it should be borne in mind that its crown tends
grow widely and requires a lot of space. In this regard, there were
dwarf pine species have been bred, such as mountain creeping
variety. These miniature trees look good in composition
compositions and one by one. To the most popular types of dwarf pines
include the voluminous fluffy branches "Nana" (Nana),
bluish Vatereri with a globular crown (Watereri) and unusual yellow
pine (Panderosa).

2) Spruce is another unpretentious ephedra, ubiquitous in
the middle zone of Russia. Spruce is equally good for garden design.
ordinary, and its many varieties. Most popular for a long time
are used by blue or thorny spruce due to the unusual color of the long and
fluffy needles. Among them there are also favorites, for example, the "Hoopsie" spruce
(Hoopsii), which often grows up to 15 m.Another common species
tall spruce - Serbian spruce, known for its fluffy brown-yellow
needles.

Spruces of medium height are also quite common, for example,
Conica variety of Canadian spruce, Tompa prickly spruce,
highly resistant to frost, weeping appearance of Inversa spruce
(Inversa). Among the spruces there are also dwarf varieties: common spruce "Nidiformis"
(Nidiformis) with a cushion crown, prickly spruce "Bialobok" with
pubescent on the edges of white needles branches or creeping spruce "Lombers" (Lombers).

3) Fir - the owner of dense needles and spectacular cones, successfully crowds out pine trees and
ate in domestic garden plots. However, this picturesque ephedra has
quite a significant drawback that does not allow growing it everywhere -
this is a rather moody character. Fir is sensitive not only to severe frosts,
but also to polluted air, and also needs a certain composition of the soil and
regular soil moisture. In addition, this type of coniferous crops is characterized by
the appearance of numerous young shoots, which are recommended to be cut.

4) Unlike the capricious fir, the other two ephedra are rather unpretentious, not
require special care, take root in the urban environment with its gassed and dusty
air and can withstand strong drops in temperature. We are talking about thuja and cypress trees.
These members of the Cypress family represent a wide range of different species.
crowns and thanks to this they are successfully combined with any elements of garden design.
The main difference between these types of conifers is the needles: in thuja in adulthood
it is scaly, and in cypress it is also acicular. Due to the density of the crown, both
conifers are an excellent option for decorating a hedge or lush
mixborder. Among the tui, the most popular is thuja western, meeting
both dwarf and tall.

5) Juniper is another representative of the Cypress family, distinguished by the species
variety. Among the representatives of this genus are found like real giants
a height of about 10 m, and creeping shrub varieties, combined
a common feature is the scaly-needle-like nature of the needles. Most Popular
and the Cossack juniper, the most unpretentious
and does not require much effort to care for it. It is successfully used both to create
decorative compositions, and for the formation of green hedges. Also sympathy
landscape designers have long received some varieties of Chinese juniper,
characterized by a golden crown color. For the most part, typical colors
juniper needles - green and bluish, sometimes with a silvery tint.

6) Yew is another coniferous species endowed with especially striking decorative qualities.
thanks to its elongated needles, against which the fruits stand out in bright specks.
Especially often yew acts as a basis for hedges, although high
cannot boast of growth rates. The most popular types are yew.
pointed, berry yew and varietal variety medium yew "Hicksii"

Neighborhood of coniferous crops

Ephedra are unpretentious and rather friendly towards others.
plant crops in character. However, there are also unsuccessful neighborhood options for them.
So, some hardwoods, such as birch or bird cherry, will conflict with conifers.
and pull over food when you are nearby. And between the coniferous cultures themselves
serious competition for living space may unfold. For this reason, one should
avoid placing in close proximity to each other species such as spruce and fir with
on one side and pine or thuja on the other. The irreconcilable enemy of other conifers is
larch. But deciduous shrubs, herbaceous and flowering perennials are good
get along with conifers, especially rhododendrons and hydrangeas. Grassy
the lawn is also an example of a safe neighborhood with conifers. As for roses, then
regardless of their shape, these beautiful flowers look equally impressive against the background of green needles.
But in this case, it is necessary to take care of the regular introduction of dressings, since the allotted for
conifers, the site will invariably alkalize, which will have a detrimental effect on the health of the flowers.

Basic requirements for caring for ephedra

For the most part, conifers feel good in shaded areas, therefore
most often they are placed along the western or eastern border of the garden. Another way to shade a little
conifers - place them along the walls of the building, either on the slope of a low hill or on the shore
artificial reservoir. A prerequisite for the successful cultivation of conifers is
preservation of a fairly large space for each specimen, since over time the diameter of their
the crown can greatly increase, as well as the root system.
Resistant to cold and drought, unpretentious, conifers, however, will feel better,
receiving at least minimal care. As a rule, it consists in weeding regularly, loosening the soil and
fertilization. To heal plants and give them shape, an infrequent, but systematic
pruning. Those conifers that are especially fond of shade need artificial shading in the summer,
and thermophilic crops winter better in the presence of shelter.

Examples of ready-made design solutions

For those designers or gardeners who are just beginning to comprehend the science of landscape design
there is a set of standard win-win solutions. The framing does not lose its relevance
winding garden paths and paths, made of conifers of various sizes and shapes. Background
in this case, tall spruces will be successfully created. A hedge, the basis of which is thuja,
shaped like a cone - another classic design option. Add variety to the wall
greenery can be compositions composed of catchy roses, especially if you bring creeping
juniper varieties in the form of a mixborder. Dade the most ordinary and simple flower bed can be filled
different types and shapes of conifers, creating interesting combinations of shades of green and blue. One
in short, conifers are equally good on their own and in company with other plants.