GARDENING MARCH 2024.qxp_Layout 1 16/02/2024 17:25 Page 1
Patterns make perfect
From fractals to fencing, Elly West is inspired by natural and man-made shapes and designs. This month, she explores how we impose our sense of order on the natural world to create a living canvas using patterns in our gardens
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s someone who enjoys patchworking, I’ve always loved patterns and piecing things together to make something beautiful, looking at shape and colour, repetition and order. Gardens are the three-dimensional equivalent, as we impose our sense of order on the natural world to create a living canvas. Arranging and repeating elements brings form and structure, whether it’s with the plants, a particular colour or form, hard landscaping or a man-made structure. Pattern is one of the most important elements in garden design and is essential to give a garden unity and cohesion. Simple patterns draw the eye, whether it’s a row of three pots containing the same plant, a winding brick pathway, or bold leaves or stems against a dark-coloured fence.
Finding faces Human brains are really good at recognising patterns. Among the many random accounts I follow on Instagram is ‘Things with Faces’ (@things.faces), where people post photos of faces they have seen in a bowl of porridge or a slice of cucumber, and the same is true of spotting patterns. We look for them. Some even say pattern processing is one of the things that separates the evolved human brain from that of other species, and a study at the University of Oregon showed that children as young as three show a preference for the recurring patterns commonly seen in nature. Patterns can create a sense of calm and balance, as we are naturally drawn to order and symmetry. From regimented parterres lined with neatly clipped hedges, to cottage gardens full of wildflowers, look closely and patterns are found everywhere. Many of the naturally occurring patterns seen in the garden are fascinating and highly mathematical. The 20th-century mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot created the term ‘fractal’ to describe a fragmented geometric pattern that is commonly found in nature, a progressively 90 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE | MARCH 2024 | No 232
more complex self-repeating pattern that can be scaled up or down. For example, if you look at a fern, there is the entire frond, then when you look more closely at the branches coming from the main stem of the frond, each is another frond – an almost exact replica of the ‘parent’, but on a smaller scale. A head of broccoli or cauliflower is similar, each head is composed of smaller florets, composed of smaller florets, the smallest being a miniature replica of the whole.
The golden ratio One of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring natural patterns is perhaps that created by the golden ratio, found throughout art, architecture and design. This ratio is closely linked to the Fibonacci spiral: an increasing series of numbers where each is the sum of the two preceding numbers. Patterns based on this equation can be found in snail shells and sea shells, sunflowers and other seed heads, pine cones, sempervivums and other succulents. There is so much we don’t understand about our universe, which often seems chaotic and unpredictable, yet in cases like these is highly organised and bound by the laws of physics and mathematics. Symmetry is often used in garden design, and can bring a sense of formality that is calming and aesthetically pleasing, such as two lollipop bay trees flanking a doorway, or a geometric herb garden with brick pathways laid out in an octagon or hexagon. Formal parterres and knot gardens, which became fashionable in England from the 17th century, saw intricate designs of neatly clipped evergreen hedging creating geometric shapes best viewed from above. We sometimes train trees around lines of symmetry, for example pleached trees to make a screen, with their horizontal branches and a clear stem, or fan-trained and espalier fruit trees against a wall. In nature, we also find plenty of examples of symmetry in leaf and flower forms.