Light and Shadows
Sunshine and shadow – ‘the processon of light and shade through the days and the seasons’
The play of light and shade in a garden is very important both for technical, horticultural reasons - how your plants grow - and also for their aesthetic beauty; how the foliage and flowers are lit by sun and shade. Some sites immediately suggest a need for shade. Russell Page finds himself compelled to provide shade in a hot site in the Nile Valley.
‘the hot blue sky, cloudless all the year round, offered an easy answer – shade. A garden should be devised through which one would always walk in shade. Shade implied trees. A mango grove became the main focus of the garden and all its parts and details were subjected to the over-riding theme.’ Education of a Gardener Russell Page 1962, Collins, p. 46
He adds later
‘A hot climate is no place for … a sand garden unless its pale surface, otherwise reflecting too much light and heat, be broken by shadows for the greater part of the day.’ p. 103
I remember seeing a very simple layout in a garden of an oblong of mop-top acacias, evenly spaced, to show both daily and seasonally the play of light and shade. This very pared back garden feature gave endless delight as the patterns of light and shade changed minute by minute. Shadows of both round tops and thin stems interwove with each other in a complicated pattern on the lawn.
Shadows on walls are always appealing and change each day and season.
There are many types of shade in a garden and these different types must be managed carefully to achieve the desired result for both growth and appearance. As Donald Wyman says
‘There are all degrees of shade, light shade caused by high branches of an open- growing tree, dense shade caused by a grove of evergreen trees, and intermittent shade caused by a building or trees interrupting continual direct sunlight on a certain garden spot. Shade caused by trees or tall shrubs brings another growing hazard – that of root competition…The deeper the shade, the fewer the plants which can be selected to grow in such situations. Soil in the shade should be very well prepared.’ Wyman’s Gardening Encyclopedia Donald Wyman, Macmillan 1971, p. 1029.
The choice of plants is more limited in shade and certainly attention must be paid to the soil preparation and cultivation of these plants. Most plants do not thrive in deep shade, although some will tolerate it better than others. Some correas, for example, will grow in quite deep shade although they probably will not flower as well.
The Encyclopedia of Garden Design makes the point that colour is perceived very differently in sun or shadow,
‘Light and Shade Responding to colour is a sensory reaction, like smell and taste, and the way in which our eyes read a colour is dependent upon the amount, and intensity, of light that is reflected from that colour. Sunny areas make colour appear bolder and more concentrated while shaded areas reflect more muted hues. That means that flat areas of colour – for example, a painted wall may look quite different depending on their aspect and orientation. Similarly, the hues of flowers and leaves will change depending on the location, the degree of shade cast on them, and the time of day.’ Encyclopedia of Garden Design Ed. Chris Young. Royal Horticultural Society 2009, p. 47.
Russell Page also makes an interesting distinction between looking up into a garden rather than down and over a garden.
‘Since I enjoy plants, I also like working on a site where the ground rises away from the house. Such a situation enables one to see more of one’s plantings, and the play of light and shade seem richer and more interesting when one looks up and through rather than down and over.’ p. 69.
The Encyclopedia of Garden Design makes the following points about modernist garden design,
Asymmetry is key to Modernist designs which are also characterised by free-flowing space and the play of light and shadow. Views through these gardens are complex, as opposed to the more controlled vistas of the classical, formal garden. p. 157. Our front garden is a good example of dappled light making complicated patterns throughout the day. 2019
The shadows from dense clipped hedges are much more sharp, static and deep than those from airy open bushes which move and change their patterns in the wind.
There has recently been a move away from complex mixed border schemes to a more limited planting palette, such as the architectural hedges and monoclutures typical of Jacques Wirtz’s designs or the large drifts of colour evident in the work of Piet Oudolf. Both designers rely on the movement and light-caputuring qualities of grasses, which provide a long season of interest.
The following description of a garden in Arizona demonstrates the effect of sun and shade on a group of indigenous plants and animals.
The Garden of Cliff Douglas, Mesa Arizona
‘In April, the late-evening sun lights up the bright red of the chuparosa (hummingbird) and the brilliant yellows of the brittle bush. Framing this flower show is a saguaro cactus, an ocotillo (buggy whip) and creosote. All of these plants are indigenous. Photo from NL 83 August 2013
In front of the west-facing library window, a mesquite tree provides much-needed shade; under its branches a microclimate shelters understorey plants. The seed pods of the mesquite are a favorite food of our many rock and antelope squirrels, and at night we sometimes turn on the lights under this tree to watch wild javelinas gorging themselves.’ The American Man’s Garden Rosemary Verey Little Brown, 1990 p. 159-163
The title quote is again from Russell Page, p. 147 ‘procession of light and shade through the days and the seasons’ which is the essence of this subject.
Ros and Ben Walcott, Light and Shade in the Garden, GDSG Newletter 83, August 2013 pp.13-14.
The Italians call it chiascuro, the treatment of light and shade, when applied to drawing and painting. The definition of the word includes the contrasting effect of light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something. I consider that the word could also apply to garden design. Light and shade in the garden are both inside and outside phenomena. The garden comes inside with light and shadow shimmering on the ceiling or waving on walls in the breeze. Water movement in the garden ripples with light and this is reflected on inside walls and ceilings (see photo below right). The shadow of a Crimson Rosella perches on your dining room wall and begins to remove the fronds from your tree fern. You do not need to look outside to witness this destruction. It is clear from the shadows on your walls that bring the garden inside. The pattern of Leptospermum ‘Aphrodite’ on the window below is as decorative as any screen (see photo below left). Deliberate patterns of shade can be made in the garden to great effect. A planting of small shrubs in a checkerboard pattern will always be interesting to the eye no matter what time of day. The sun makes a continuously moving pattern of shadows throughout the day. Light glistens on shiny foliage and bounces off paving materials and walls. When there is too much glare for comfort, plantings can save the day. The photo below on the right shows a solution to one problem by Russell Page. He says ‘the stone paved terrace of a house in the forests south of Orleans looked too large and reflected too much light into the main living-room. I removed the central part of the paving and replaced it with diagonal bands of stone which outline square sunk beds planted with dwarf box clipped flat at ground level’ p. 48, Education of a Gardener. This type of solution for too much glare could easily be adapted for use here. On the left Diplolaena angustifolia makes a sharp design on the wall behind.
Landscape architect Steve Martino of Arizona is noted for using native plants for the gardens he designs, palo verde, saguaro, octotillo, agave, cacti, etc. Below in the garden of Cliff Douglas from Mesa, Arizona is a stunning effect of light and shade on walls and water surfaces. Steve has long been a catalyst for using native plants for gardens in Arizona, just as we are doing here in Australia. He designs in the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern United States, one of the world’s most beautiful and sensitive environments. The desert typically gets between 5-7 inches of rain a year with contrasted nine feet of evaporation.. The Sonoran desert is about 120,000 square miles, approximately the size of Italy. About two-thirds of the Sonoran desert is in northern Mexico. Last year they had 33 days over 110 degrees (43 degrees Celsius). Garden plants have to deal with high heat, low rainfall and blazing bright sunlight, conditions that are not unknown in Australia.
