Plant Gardens 101

In 2003, we received a call from John and Jennifer Randall of West Houston. They had decided to build a French-style home just off of Piney Point near Memorial Drive. Jennifer wanted a modern French landscape design that reflected the symmetry, balance, and patterns of Old World estates. French landscapes like this are popular because of their uniquely proportioned partier gardens, formal garden and constructions, and tightly clipped hedges. John also wanted the French landscape design because of his passion for his heritage (he originally came to Houston from Louisiana), as well as the obvious aesthetic benefits of creating a natural complement to the architecture of the new house.

The first thing we designed was a motor court driveway/parking area in the front of the home. While you may not think that a paved element would have anything at all do with landscape design, in reality it is truly apropos to the theme. French homes almost always have paving that extends all the way to the house. In the case of the Randall home, we used interlocking concrete pavers to create a surface that looks much older than it really is. This prevented the property from looking too much like a new construction and better lent itself to the elegance and stateliness characteristic of French landscape designs in general. (more…)

French garden gardens use the same of geometry and symmetry that André Le Nôtre established in the 17th Century. The Lodge at Versailles had originally been a quite retreat used for royal hunts, but Le Nôtre turned it into a palace that became the envy of the European Elite. Based on a pattern of parterres gardens divided by radiating walkways, reflecting pools, and ornate stone coping, the Versailles Gardens reflected an awareness of order and system that brought intricately sculpted individual elements into a complex, interconnected unity visible only from a balcony or palace room. This style was rapidly adopted as the standard landscaping design of all the French aristocracy.

French gardens used in landscapes today are much smaller than their historical predecessors built around 17th Century chateaus. However, the same emphasis on parterres and radiating pathways is used today both on larger estates. Scaled-down or modified versions of this pattern are used throughout local residential neighborhoods. Even though the typical Houston home resides on far less land than even a modest Old World Estate, the topography of the Gulf Coast highly favors a variety of French garden designs. Just like much of France, Houston resides on a very level plane that naturally lends itself to the type of formal bedding used in French parterre gardens and knot gardens. (more…)