Using Climbing Vines to Add Vertical Impact to Formal Garden
Formal gardens feature some of the most opulent design work in Houston landscaping. In many respects, they represent some of the most refined softscape elements in our city because they lend sophistication to home architecture. Climbing vines add vertical impact to gardens by organically enhancing the many vertical elements that are typically built as garden focal points. Such elements can be arches, pergolas, or outdoor courtyards. Because the Houston landscape is so flat, it makes a garden stand out more to have such vertical elements.
Consider adding a garden to your yard with an arched trellis in the center covered by climbing vines. You can put benches under this arch so that you can enjoy a custom fountain in the middle of the garden. The overgrowth of vines will put shade over the bench so you can enjoy the scenery in the hot summer months. If you want a touch of luxury, we can even install small fans in the arch’s interior so you can make your own breeze.
If you want something more than an arch, and more shade than sunlight, a pergola can also be used as the center point of a formal garden. Pergolas can be built in all shapes and sizes. They can be built from metal or from wood, and they too can be fitted with interior fans. We then plant vines to overgrow the side and roof of the pergola so it is eventually covered in leaves. Only a small amount of dappled sunlight reaches the interior. It is a perfect place to sit in a chair or take a nap on an outdoor couch.
If you have a courtyard built in the center of your formal garden, the walls can also be covered with climbing vines. This will give your home a superb, and very authentic, Old World touch. We often associate vine covered courtyards with European estates. We also think of such places as very old, if not ancient.
Indeed, many such places are ancient. Masonry has been around for thousands of years. Even if it was not intended on the part of the builders, given enough time, vines find their way up the wall and reclaim the structure for nature. This is a truly beautiful sight even in a remote, abandoned, and truly wild part of the world. In the middle of your formal garden, it can look even more beautiful with carefully selected climbing vines trained to grow at a predictable rate up and over your courtyard walls.
If you want nothing but green to cover the structure in the center of your formal garden, then there are many varieties of ivy we can plant that will thrive on the surface of the structure. You can, however, choose to add a veritable to your vertical element by having us plant any number of climbing vines that bloom in different colors. Examples include honeysuckle, wisteria, climbing roses, and morning glories. Still others include trumpet creepers, moonflowers, and black-eyed Susan vines.
