R2111 Learning outcomes:
Understand how to incorporate key elements into a cohesive garden design
7.1 Describe how elements of hard landscaping should be selected and used to ensure that a design is cohesive.
7.2 Describe how elements of soft landscaping should be selected and used to ensure that a design is cohesive.
7.3 Describe how other materials and items (e.g. Garden furniture) should be selected and used to ensure that a design is cohesive.
Introduction
The dictionary definition of cohesion is ‘The sticking together of particles of the same substance’ or ‘working well together’
In Garden design, cohesion is how similar elements within and outside the garden ‘stick together’ and work well together, looking good as a whole. While the garden principle of ‘unity’ looks at elements inside the garden and how they relate to each other, cohesion also considers how the garden relates to features and landscape outside the garden which will include the house and the local environment.
The key thing to remember here is that nowadays many gardens are enclosed by boundaries which exclude the outside view so often we don’t have to consider whether the inside matches the outside. Whether the house matches the garden is very important for front gardens but not so important for back gardens which are mostly viewed from the house.
The following table outlines ways to achieve cohesion within the garden, between house and garden and between the garden and the surrounding environment.
Both pictures above – Cohesion is provided by using the same natural sandstone material for alpine garden display troughs, walls and steps.
In the 2 pictures above, cohesion is achieved by using natural slate (Tavistock Stone) quarried locally in Devon for walls, house and steps. These materials provide cohesion within the garden space and match the materials used in the surrounding landscape.
