Doug Hoerr featured in Veranda article "Why the Bones of Your Garden Matter as Much as What You Plant"

Excerpts from "Why the Bones of Your Garden Matter as Much as What You Plant"

When landscape designers talk about the “bones,” they are speaking about the elements that provide the structure and foundation of your garden that you can then build off of over time. Doug Hoerr, co-founder of landscape architecture firm Hoerr Schaudt, explains that bones don’t necessarily only refer to any one thing like structures or hedges but rather the elements that come together to set the garden’s composition.

Hoerr says, “Anything beyond the threshold of the house can be considered part of the ‘bones,’ and it’s best to consider the bones of a landscape much like we consider architectural elements.” He adds, “A landscape is just a different scale, but the overall composition is about the bones. A pavilion or pergola are considered ‘bones,’ along with a garden shed, pathways, a mature tree, a pool, or a privacy fence.”

There’s a lot of thought that goes into selecting materials, structures, plantings, and everything in between for the bones of your garden. Hoerr recommends homeowners consider how the garden may look during winter or its dormant season, as that gives a better visual representation of how different pathways, urns, or even follies will look and function in the space.

He says, “All of the bones and the forms—globes, weeping form, low horizontal beds—are pieces of the puzzle. When a garden is dormant, it should have a peaceful composition, and this is when the ‘bones’ do their work and create the garden’s skeleton and structure. The home’s architectural grid should be used to guide the garden’s shapes and patterns and to create a relationship between the landscape and the home.”