Designing a garden

Gardens are special. If they didn't exist, someone should invent them. Depending on the country you visit, gardens are different. No, of course not the botanic gardens that exist in nearly every capital and university city with some self respect. I am talking about ordinary gardens, made by people who own a small (or not so small) property with sufficient space for a house and ... a garden.

A simple Balkan garden in Sarajevo

Gardens are different from country to country. Look in the Balkans, around Sarajevo for example. Gardens, yes, at least for people not living in an apartment. Even on the extensive balconies, flowers are rare, let alone a garden.

But people living in houses at the outskirts of the city, or deep down inside the country, surrounded by hills, mountains and pine trees, which creates a background of a deep dark color against the sharp blue of the sky, people living there, they do have gardens. Simple gardens, no flowers, just grass and fruit trees. The stems of the trees form an interesting addition to the horizontal lines of the house. The light green leaves on top of the trees contrast with the pines in the background and mirror the forms of the hills.

Back in time, in my own youth, when I grew up in Genk (Belgium, close to Maastricht), a former coal mine city, behind our house was an old tiny house, just the format of a modest Balkan construction, yellowish on the outside and a huge garden, or better gardens. The part closest to the house was covered with fruit trees, and grass. Excellent for shadow on warm summer days and lots of wood for the baking oven next to the house and plenty of space for the chickens, the rabbits, a goat and some pigs.

I like the simplicity of the Balkan gardens. It reminds me that you don't need much to survive, and it definitely has a romantic flavor. When designing gardens, I hope I will remember this important rule: keep it simple and functional in the immediate neighborhood of the house, don't overload.