DECEMBER 2025

This month I want to look at structure in the garden because it is in the winter that it is most visible and has to do much of the heavy lifting with regards to the garden aesthetics.

What is structure? In this instance we are referring to the permanent/semi-permanent elements within the garden that denote pockets of space, dictate how you move about and experience the garden, and often give a stylistic context to everything else within the garden.

These can be built elements such as pergolas, archways, ponds and bridges or natural - think of avenues/groupings of trees, topiary, boulders, watercourses. When all the herbaceous plants have died back for winter and the deciduous trees have shed their leaves these are the framework left visible.

Some gardens contain little other than structural elements, traditional Chinese and Japanese gardens being notable examples. Chinese gardens place an importance on the garden unravelling piecemeal much as one accumulates knowledge when moving through life. There are no open vistas, no great reveals. The garden is seen through screens, through doorways in sculpted walls or between plants. One is led along paths and at all times there is a harmony between rocks (the masculine yang half) and water (the feminine yin).

Japanese culture, their gardens in particular, takes a lot of influence from China with a deep order and restraint. Traditional Japanese gardens are highly formal and deliberate, much more artistry than horticulture. Acting on the philosophies of the ancient Shinto religion gardens are considered places to connect with the divine and spirits of the natural world. A minimal number of plants are included often those that are revered by the Japanese; cherries, acers, pines and moss, for example. And it is in the Japanese Zen gardens that the structure becomes the whole of the garden, rocks both connected and separated by patterns of raked gravel, no plants included.

In our own winter gardens we start to see now how important it is to divide larger spaces into smaller patches, more human in scale, to create some areas that are covered and sheltered as a contrast to more open parts making for variety as we move through the spaces.

It can be useful to use structural elements as a frame for views beyond the garden or to lead wanderers in a particular direction. Chinese gardens show us how important it can be to create partial views, snippets of areas beyond openings feeding those human instincts of exploration and discovery.

On a practical note carefully placed structural elements are useful in creating shelter either from wind gusts, exposure to cold or excessively bright and hot conditions. Walls and rocks can help to warm their surrounding microclimate by re-radiating heat. Vertical elements can support climbers and weaker stemmed plants, and structural elements at the back or within borders can be a framework and bring a rhythm to any planting scheme.

A garden is an artificial creation composed of natural elements. The first layer of that creation is the structure, and when that framework feels right the rest of the garden should

more easily slot into place.