Gardening is like art: there’s an infinite number of ways in which colours and textures can be combined to form a finished product. There are also hundreds of nature’s tools, from plants to trees and shrubs, that can be used to make any vision a reality.
For Ingrid Beattie, owner of It’s About Thyme Nursery, modern gardens are something she’s particularly fond of. This means using bold colours in unusual combinations, using odd numbers, and not being afraid to test out a new species of plants.
Not all of Ingrid’s customers share her desire to create something bold and innovative. Some clients rather symmetrical landscaping designs. “You can tell right away if a person like things to be asymmetrical or symmetrical. Engineers and lawyers: they don’t like uneven numbers, and they don’t like grasses, for some reason…you can pick them out of a crowd,” she says.
Ingrid has a formula she turns to when it comes to landscaping: “first you pick your trees, then you pick your shrubs.” It’s when she’s completed this stage that her customers can really express their personalities by either going wild, with exotic-looking perennials and annuals, or opting for a more classical aesthetic in their yards.
