Using Garden Ruins and Follies in the Landscape

Romancing the Stone for a Design with Instant History

Oct 19, 2009

A garden within a ruined wall is beautiful when roses are left to ramble and plants grow at will. It could be a place with instant history and a quiet room to dream in.

Gardening in a ruin isn't unusual for Great Britain or most European countries. With a tumbling ruined wall, the garden is given instant history. As early as the 17th century, garden designers were using these ruined walls as features – encouraging roses to clamor over them and ivy to cling to the cracks and fissures within the stone. Small pockets in the walls would be filled with plants that have a penchant for growing in a dryish space.

There was a grandeur in the decay and it was garden romanticism at its best. Gardening in a ruin is still practiced today as it was centuries ago. The aesthetic of ruin gardens or follies can easily be put in place in gardens across the sea.

Gardening in an Old Barn Foundation

All over North America, barns have fallen to the ground. It's almost impossible to drive down a country road without seeing at least one. What remains, however, are wonderful stone foundations. These are instant ruins.

Some lucky owners of these old barn foundations, have no structure to build and are ready to design their plantings. They have a ready-made ruin and within this ruin, they could have a walled garden.

Old barns usually have a stone or cement floor. This makes it difficult to garden within the walled spaces unless the gardener is willing to get some heavy equipment to break up the cement and remove it. However, all is not lost. The gardener could make it a medieval walled garden for planting within the space. Consider the rectangular size. A bench and the symmetrical placement of large cement pots can easily turn an old barn foundation into a medieval or renaissance garden.

On the outside, the gardener can make a proper garden. She could have a wide mixed border all the way around the foundation and fill the back of it with roses, ivies and anything that will climb and soften the walls. The gardener could work her way to the front of the border with an assortment of flora and fauna of her choosing. Traditional plants that soften and fill in nicely would work best. The border doesn't have to be straight, but curvy and natural looking. Two flower-filled urns on each side of the entrance would finish it off.

Build a Garden Folly

Not every gardener is blessed with an old barn foundation on her land, but sh could build a folly. There are numerous books on building with stone, so the gardener may want to study the craft before going ahead with a stone-built project. It doesn't have to be a major work of art. Even a dry stone wall on one side of the garden will add history and romance. To get the look of a ruined castle, consider fragments of a wall in varying heights tapering off at one end.

There are also numerous books to study for the design of a garden ruin. The first thing to look at would be books on travel in England. Inspiration could be taken from the Gothic skeletons of Corfe Castle or Glastonbury. These are perfect examples of ruined castles. The gardener could follow the basic shape of these old ruins and incorporate them into her own much smaller design, romancing the stone with all the plants she loves.

Gardeners may also be interested in aging the concrete in their gardens. There are many tried and true methods that include smearing the concrete with yogurt and moss.

The copyright of the article Using Garden Ruins and Follies in the Landscape in Garden Styles is owned by Lorraine Syratt. Permission to republish Using Garden Ruins and Follies in the Landscape in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.