An Interview with Chen Choo, Designer of a Graceful Garden

Learn how one gardener creates a cohesive design for a large and ever-changing collection of plants

Chen Choo is a retired atomic applied scientist with an artist ’s eye and a warmth for collecting plants . He and his married woman , Linda , have created a garden in southern Ontario filled with a enchanting mix of cold - audacious perennials , tree , shrubs , and vines , conflate to showcase prized specimen and to give each plant life the outer space and atmospheric condition it needs to cock its stuff . The Choos ’ garden is never really finish , since assorted new plants keep following them home . We visited in midsummer , when the beds were burst with lush color and texture , to ask Chen about the thought process behind his compelling plant combinations and great garden room .

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Q : A walk through your garden is such an adventure — there ’s something new to see around every corner . Can you excuse your advance to better the blank into smaller garden rooms ?

A : I think of the garden as dwell of a number of “ sanctuaries , ” small , intimate garden room with unseeable and overlapping bound . Most admit a sitting spot , and the boundary of a sanctuary is often define by the view perspective from this seating area area . The view from one elbow room often overlap with that of side by side sanctuary . Within these smaller spaces , I can try out with planting composition and also control growing conditions to meet the penury of specific plants .

For industrial plant nut like my wife and me , open quad needs to be optimized to make elbow room for more planting place . The main deck on the back of our house , the bower by the puddle , and the summerhouse by the water garden provide space for relaxing and for consider the garden . Other sanctuaries were make grow bit by bit over the years as we built Modern paths and beds . Every unresolved quad involve a intent , even if it ’s only as a connecting component between bed . Otherwise it will be just unnecessary care overhead .

Q : Your garden has a huge and divers collectionof plant , but it feels so well organised . What ’s your scheme for giving the garden this feelingof cohesiveness and equalizer ?

A : All gardeners develop their own horse sense of how an idealistic garden looks . I approach garden - making as a composition — like a painting or a verse form — but one that will never terminate . My capricious doodling is far from stark , but it ’s much more fun than trying to adhere to strict principles and a fourth dimension line of credit for completion .

To accommodate a divers plant pallette while maintaining a gloss of harmony , I only aim to keep an overall opinion of raw flowing . My intent include some interruption , pernicious “ imperfections ” such as curving path and surface rocks . Unexpected leaf textures , forms , and color changes enkindle a sense of machination . Ideally , I would like plants to come out naturally settle , in spots wheretheir individual peach can be appreciated as I comeacross them on a garden stroll . conifer anchor the flow and balance the profligacy of perennials . The horizontal curvature of paths and beds is a natural flow component and connote a sense of continuity . My endless aim physical process typically involve studying garden photos in winter , tape a list of hope modification , then editing the beds in outflow .

Q : How do you approach working with colour ?

A : A successful play of colors sum another level of enjoyment to an surface area , but I must admit that my attempt to vocalise specific coloring material schemes are still data-based . I have given certain bottom nicknames , like the ” Burning River , ” which contains hot - coloredplants , the “ Icy River , ” which has a bunch of nerveless colour , and the “ Almost - White Garden , ” which carry ashen and colors that make white look better . The soubriquet cue me of my aim when I ’m add new plant life or shuffling plants around .

A refined color composition is gruelling to achieve given the ephemeral nature of flowering time , bloom succession , and color change that occur because of weather experimental condition . Any corrections or adjustments require to be spread over multiple growing years . However , the issue of most of my colour experiments have been rewarding . The need to constantly accommodate an assortment of new flora create maintaining reasonable color harmony a challenge ; fortunately , I am not obsessed with solid color massing or repeats as long as a color patch is somewhat analogous . In fact , playing with subtle color spreads and the controlled strategical use of contrasting colors often results in a more long-lived expression .

Q : We love the rock garden and the wall - climb treillage behind it . How did you come up with that design ?

A : I dread the weeding postulate in maintaining a rock and roll garden , but I wanted to dabble with some rockery plants that I find charming . make a few rockery areas within large beds solved this problem , and they are pocket-size enough that weeding does not feel fruitless . These may not reckon like distinctive rock gardens , but they give me enough space to enjoy some rockery plants .

When I started to hoard clematis , the cheery , south - facing wall of our home seemed ideal for a simple trellis structure . I sketched a whimsicaldesign to fit the locating — a no - frills layout in which all the ingredient are functional . The vertical line are for climbing , and the horizontal lines are for trellis backing . The various heights of erect members createa gentle curve that softens the rigidness of the framework , while horizontal line of credit hint at a classical border radiation diagram .

Q : What is your strategy for placing hardscaping ingredient ?

A : Casual paths pervade our garden . They allow us to visit all our plants , and they alleviate the management and placement of plant collecting . They also facilitate to unify all the beds . Most of our itinerary are just wide enough for a stroll . Some bed have myopic , narrow , wood - chip - plow trails cutting through them for easier plant visiting and maintenance . Paths make a green shady field more interesting , evoking a sense of blank like a timber trail . Coming across a fern by a trail is more refreshing than seeing it enclosed in a stately seam .

Q : Can you excuse your summons for repose flagstone walkway ?

A : Our other flagstone paths follow a textbook approach , with a thick limestone viewing level and mechanical compaction under nearly set stones . of late I have simplify my advance . I grade without digging into the stable grime layer too much , then lie down a level of professional - grade landscape textile or 6 - cubic centimetre poly with random jam punched . Next comes a couple of inches of gravel or 3/8 - inch pea I. F. Stone . The depth of this drain layer can be aline to accommodate flag of various thicknesses . I backfill with more gravel after all the flagstones are lay .

With this simplified approach , I bear to stir up the tearing down of route each natural spring , but they have remained reasonably static for a number of geezerhood . I suspect the loosely outfit flagstones and tight - drain gravel belittle heaving and are probably pretty self - take down . I would not recommend my simplified approach shot for other gardener at all !

Q : How does your pee feature of speech relate to the garden rooms that surround it ?

A : The summerhouse adjacent to the pee garden is our pet sanctuary . It ’s a place to view plantings across the water and birds bathing in the shallow area . I think of this water garden as an abstractionthat evokes a small street corner of a tropic mountain stream in my birthplace , Borneo . Because my primary interest was the sight of assailable water and the gentle auditory sensation of a stream flow , I have to resist adding too many aquatic works . The summerhouse was specifically design to be an integral part of the pee garden , putting the viewer nigh to the water surface and the stream . We get up the grade on the far side of the pondbefore we ramp up the water garden ; I did not need a falls to appear out of an unreal heap of stones . From the gazebo , glimpsesof other sanctuaries or paths receive viewers toexplore the face beds .

Q : What is your strategy for place trees ?

A : Over sentence , a set of transplanting has been necessary ! While I like the feel of trees hugging each other , as they do in a born timber , calculate growth rates are unreliable , particularly for our climate . So sometimes a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree will outgrow its quad or show disappointing attributes , and it will need to be removed . When possible , I attempt to implant less - hardy tree with minimal southerly photograph to Lord’s Day and wind , forefend wet - feet conditions in winter .

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