possibly in changes in surface like stone patio to grass lawn.

Also even a small nicely maintained row of flowers planted on the property line creates a boundry in your mind....

Exactly what I was thinking harleysilo.

Any type of border planting between you and the cold, hard world will provide a similar sense. Also, a change in levels will create the same effect, especially if the bordering area is raised or elevated, even slightly.

A change from stone to grass or a row of flowers would not make me feel "safe" in the least, but no doubt I am an extreme case -- these things say "boundary" without conveying "enclosure" to me. A change in level comes closer, with the boundary raised, as gardengal says. If not a barrier, I am thinking layers... each somewhat airy in itself, but together giving a sense of enclosure to the heart of the space.

Does an enclosure need to be proportionate to what is being enclosed; in this case, a person/people?

Create a change in the landform surrounding the area. Not a wall but a slight mounding up that can be planted. Another idea is to create what I like to call a cathedral of trees. An alle encloses visually a path.

A sense of enclosure can increase or decrease with its proportion.

Can you be enclosed and welcoming at the same time?

Can you BE enclosed without APPEARING closed (in a social sense)?

I think you can, if I'm walking by your home for instance, we'll say your front yard specifically, and there exisits and physical barrier like a fence or mounded planting the prevents me from entering, yet allows me to see your house and yard (meaning 3-4 feet tall) and a nice gate or ungated entrance it would appear open to me in a social sense assuming I knew you. I don't think you want it to be open to all, otherwise the purpose has been defeated.

Despite the desire for more breathing room, we're terrified by the prospect of too much empty. (To wit: Help! Yard is a Blank Slate!) I come by it naturally being born with a covering of skin; to that I add another skin of clothing; I have another skin called shelter; complete with openings to enter and exit and to admit air and light, but I immediately cover those openings with all manner of doors and drapery. Perhaps the fourth skin is what my property becomes when I have decided that the "line" established by survey is hard to define and I need something more to make me aware of what is mine.

So, the line becomes a hedge or fence or wall. Over time I might refine that plane with something I find pleasing or necessary for balance and scale. Everything I add, take away, or replace, serves to draw me in a little further despite efforts to think creatively outside the box. Can I experienced a feeling of enclosure in places where nature is left alone? Sure, I can stand in a meadow or prairie, walk in a woods, float on a raft in a tropical lagoon. But these are vacations from my boxed in realm and if I lived in a meadow, prairie, woods, or seaside, ultimately the need to carve out and redefine spaces would become inevitable.

It's something we do to be comfortable in our own skin(s).

Those are interesting points DIB and spunky. Those "skins" as you call them DIB is a nice metaphor for the layers we place on our identity, which of course manifest themselves in our "property" (although in reality the bank usually owns most of it!!) and we like to mark our territory in some fashion, at least the periphery.

On the original topic of enclosure, I don't interpret it to be a property line thing, but just of areas within the property that can be enclosed to create whatever one wishes for, for instance, a grotto (granted usually just available to the very rich - can you say Playboy Mansion??? - or Italian villas, but I digress.) What about an intimate dining space or a meditation area? In these cases there is no "fear" involved, just a matter of the serenity afforded by such a place. We are not trying to protect ourselves from the world, just provide a tranquil environment to enjoy and appreciate the world. There are many, many ways in which to achieve this intimacy without walls, gates or barriers.

For me, and maybe many of you, an overhead covering of some sort seems very comforting and protective. It could be a pergola, or a fabric sail, or even tree branches that arch overhead. A lot of people ignore the overhead plane - so many people never lift their eyes from the pavement ahead of them.

Strange how some things fall into place like that. A lady said to me today that she wanted her garden/yard to be a 'room' and I found myself asking "which room" no doubt influenced by my thoughts about enclosure. Imagine asking an architect to design a house with rooms in it, I know a garden is not a house but we demand different things from different rooms don't we? Is it a room where you display your best china or is it a bathroom or a bedroom, do you see what I mean? The kitchen is probably the most function oriented room and the bedroom, or perhaps bathroom, as well as functional the most enclosed or secret.

I dare you to bring a sample board with porcelain color chips and an American Standard catalog. "The privacy (pronounced with a short "i" in this case) hedge goes here to screen the bedet, ... lots of lavender in this area, the toilet (twa lay?) conveniently located to one side, and of course, all is worked with the irrigation system, ..."

'sounds amusing to me.

My tiny city lot has 5 distinct "rooms" and 2 hallways (garden paths) and I've got plans to create more rooms out there. A couple of them are multi-purpose and a few serve no purpose at all except to give me a place to play with plants and space. Oddly enough, I think these mostly small spaces make my property feel larger than it would if it were a single expanse of lawn.

I personally feel uncomfortable in an exposed location. When puttering in the garden, I don't like the feeling of being in plain view of the neighbors windows, so I'm adding strategically place screening shrubs and trees to give a feeling of privacy. I've also planted a hedge of Inkberry Holly along one side of my patio to add a low "wall" at my back, with the other side open to the view of the main flower borders.

The screening from public view in other areas is intermittent and allows glimpses into the garden from the street. I think it looks, if not welcoming, at least intriguing, from the outside, as if to encourage passersby to try to get a closer look.

I plan on putting in some fences in the future, and possibly a solid gate in the hedge between the driveway and the garden, maybe with a cutout to allow a glimpse inside. Rather than giving the impression that visitors are unwelcome, I believe it will seem like an invitation to step into another world. At least, that's my goal.

I read this and thought social anxiety disorder :), most probably because i am a bit clostraphobic and when you talk of this layer and that it gets more closed and more closed. What is wrong with a welcoming inviting open airy feeling? Not that privacy is not important a nice fence to provide privacy for a backyard retreat for a calming effect from the rest of the world, but dont you always make it inviting so that if others come it is pleasing to them as well...so do we create these things to keep boundaries or to show off our talents? Is it all just for our eyes are is it in hopes that others will notice? I think linrose said it wisely.

This is a thread (and topic) that I have a hard time relating to. I know that I am in a tiny minority on this. However, it has always both puzzled and amused me by the adverse reaction -- a fear, really -- that city folk have to open spaces. My thoughts quickly went to that old Cole Porter song, sung by many but perhaps best by Roy Rogers: "Don't Fence Me In".

**********************

Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above
Don't fence me in
Let me ride in the wide open country I love
Don't fence me in
Let me be by myself in the evening breeze
And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees
Send me off forever, but I ask you please
Don't fence me in

Just turn me loose
Let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the western sky
Let me wander over yonder
'Til I see the mountains rise

I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences
Gaze at the moon until I lose my senses
Can't look at hobbles and I can't stand fences
Don't fence me in

Just turn me loose
Let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the western sky
Let me wander over yonder
'Til I see the mountains rise

I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences
Gaze at the moon until I lose my senses
Can't look at hobbles and I can't stand fences
Don't fence me in, don't fence me in, don't fence me in
Don't fence me, don't fence me, don't fence me in

IronBelly

I want that as well...unfortunately there are other things that I want as well such as to live in a location that attributes such as good schools for my children and a solid job base for my wife and me. Here in Northern Virginia "lots of land under starry skies" will cost you a 90 minute commute or over a million dollars (without a house).

It is a little funny that the trend seems to build a deck that looks a lot like a stage and then plant a bunch of Leyland Cypress trees to block the view of the deck.

- Brent

Maybe it's a regional thing, or what you became accustomed to when you were in your formative years, but I've noticed that acreage that is wide open with an unrestricted view in every direction is considered prime property around here. Could it be something left over from the pioneer days when you didn't want anyone sneaking up on you?

I'd hate living on a site like that and would feel like a bug on a white floor. I want to be surrounded by trees and shrubs. I'm happiest when I'm in a space that's at least partially enclosed. I like a view, but want to be "in" while I'm looking at it.

Different strokes, I guess....

This discussion makes me think of Frank Lloyd Wright and prospect/refuge patterns.

I know that you were only half joking when you said "Could it be something left over from the pioneer days when you didn't want anyone sneaking up on you?" but I think you have a good point. Four years ago we moved from hilly country to flat country, I can almost see to the horizon across flat fields from where I sit and I realise that I have been wrapping myself up in my garden. I feel less safe here although it would be difficult for anyone to sneak up on me. My point being that a feeling of enclosure could come from being surrounded by distant hills.

I like Bing's version best. (Don't Fence Me In). I am with Saypoint on liking privacy in the garden. Don't want everyone seeing me in the usual gardening position of butt-in-the-air. I grew up in and live in the foothills of the Appalachians. I consider the flant lands a nice place to visit, wouldn't want to live there.

I have read that the early settler women on the praire would lose their minds with all the open space and wind when they would be there for long times with no company. But also that when they got use to the vastness would feel like the buildings and sky were falling in on them when the went "back East" to the cities and low cloud celiling.

When we purchased this house, we had to think of enclosure in practical terms, we have a dog, so the back yard, which has a privacy fence on one neighbor's side (south) & 2 split rail fences, W-park & N-neighbor, had to be totally enclosed by short fences on the front, & our neighbors graciously allowed us to place wire fencing along their fence, so the dog could be contained.

I feel 'slightly' exposed, the pedestrian path to the park is one yard over, bordering our neighbors to the north, & we back to a county park on the west, close to the basketball court. It doesn't stop me from wandering in my garden at all hours, in many ungainly positions. Our park has mostly dogwalkers & the bball players don't bother me at all. We also are within sight of the softball field, which hosts girls' softball teams.

The front is different, the 'look' in this neighborhood is lawns that blend into one another, no fences or planted boundaries in the front, just the usual specimen tree in the front. As much as I would like to utilize this planting space, my best spot, E/S exposure, slight slope, I don't want to look out of place...

How many of you have curtains or shades on your windows that you close every evening? Its funny how the sense of 4 walls can give the illusion of privacy.

Privacy or confinment? Many (if not most) people have a perceived need for a sense of privacy. For the most part, I avoid this practice in my landscape. I also have a sense that this is a scholastically taught concept, endlessly regurgitated with nary a thought. I reject that notion.

Why do so many people choose to garden within the confines of what looks to me like a fenced cattle lot? My landscape is not a place to hide but rather an area of open celebration. Why would you want to conceal some of the best that life has to offer?

IronBelly

This may be too much for some of you this early in the day. Then again, morning's can be nice. I'll let you guys come up with how my thoughts might connect to the debate between IB's "Let it all hang out" view and the more enclosed preferences of others above.

I've been thinking about skin (and,yes, enclosure in the landscape; bear with me here.). Skin is a layer--that's true. But the most intriguing and fascinating parts of the skin are the entrances. The way we dress, the expression on our face can be provocative, intriguing, vulnerable. Skin plays a part, too, but it's the eyes, lips, and other interesting parts of human anatomy that signal "Approach if you dare" or "Come hither".

Don't want to entirely focus on the Freudian here, particularly as I feel it's usually overplayed, but I did find myself realizing that what really helps to make enclosure work for me in the landscape is the attention to how one enters, and moves into and through enclosures. An enclosure isn't simply a barrier. It's also a dynamic element in the overall experience of the garden. It's not just defining the edges; it's also getting something right about entering and moving through space.

I've primarily focused on this idea of "entrances" but I guess I'm also trying to suggest that enclosure doesn't work in isolation from any of the other principles of design. I'm also bringing this up because I think one of my greatest weaknesses is successful integration of several principles at once. Does that make sense?

Wellspring

It makes a lot of sense.

For the last ten years, I've been involved with a group that maintains/restores a big early 20th century garden. On occasion it gets quite interesting since the emphasis is supposed to be on what was there, not what we think we'd like to see. One of the current areas of discussion is enclosure.

The garden is built into a hill, and on multiple levels. Originally there were arbors, shrubs and fences that only allowed peeks into other levels. Most of them were removed in the 40s and 50s, so you can now stand at the site of the former greenhouses, the highest point, and see practically the entire layout. This is in fact what most visitors do. The ones that do come down and explore the entire thing, very much move along sightlines. They see something and move in a fairly straight line to get a closer look at it. This isn't at all the way the garden was originally intended to work. It is actually a fairly large problem since the visitors end up using minor stairways that are narrow and steep. They were meant mostly for the use of staff, not visitors. The intended routes through the garden are much safer.

The real conundrum is that if we replace the original shrubbery, we no longer have cart access to the middle level, and that introduces a lot of maintenance issues.

Interesting, Ironbelly. I wonder if it works as you intend.

I find heavily landscaped lots--all of them--to say "don't come in, this is MY territory" on an unspoken level. You need an invitation to enter a landscaped lot.

An empty lot, on the other hand, or maybe even a fenced empty lot, looks like no one is really laying claim to it, and usually becomes a gathering place for kids, dogs, whoever. I don't have the feeling I need permission to cross a average, unkempt lawn (or field of weeds), but if anything is manicured, I do feel I need an invitation/permission. I also feel uncomfortable using the provided entrances--walking through the garden gate--it's tresspassing, no matter how homey or welcoming it appears to be. The gut says something else.

This is why we get nervous any time a neighbor does something at the lot line.

Wellspring: Makes sense to me--and an interesting way of thinking about all this. Skin as protection; as a boundary between self and the world; as a breathing, living organ that grows and changes...

Christopher Alexander's book A Pattern Language does a good job of discussing this topic (not skin, but the transitions between public & private spaces).

I'm also in the group voting "don't fence me in". I love this view from our patio

{{gwi:23807}}

In another thread, Ink mentioned that a large property such as ours provides the opportunity to create rooms, yet I resist rooms because I don't want walls.

I think that enclosures are very much a regional and cultural issue as well. Arab/Moor/Roman/Spanish influences on garden design all revolve around walled, private garden areas, as a response to strong sun, hot winds, and dense urban layouts. All of these are still issues in modern urban areas such as here in California, os privacy and enclosures still make sense both as a cultural connection with the earliest influences on cities here, as well as addressing modern concerns for privacy in small lot situations that are most common in today's cities and suburbs. I would agree with Dan that they don't make as much sense in more widely spaced suburbs in the rest of the country, without the spanish influence and where houses are not set 10 feet apart at the sides.

I personally don't find it limiting at all to wall myself off from my surroundings and create my own private garden within, and also much prefer the look of colonial cities of Mexico with the houses built out to the sidewalk and central private courtyards within to the barren public spaces of lawns and foundation shrub plantings so commonly seen in most suburban American towns, and are so often simply viewing gardens rather than actively used.

Enclosure has so many primal as well as historical connections, that they still make sense for many gardens even today, but certainly not everywhere and always.

At least here in California, it is a common principle that the richest neighborhoods tend to have the most enclosure, so perhaps creating enclosure is also an attempt at seeking status?

Of course you wouldn't want to fence in your place Prairie Love, not with all that wide open space. But do you own it? If not, what is going to happen when the land owner decides to retire and sells it for a housing development that starts right on your property line? You might start to think about enclosure then. Our city lots are 50' by 150'. If you don't have some kind of enclosure, your landscping clashes with your neighbors. Everytime you go out, one of your neighbors thinks it is time to visit. Or the kids think your yard is part of one big playground. I think the whole enclosure open thing boils down to location location location as the real estate folks say.

What a great thread! I loved reading all these responses and I'm so glad to know that I'm not alone in feeling a bit "exposed" when gardening in my very public front yard. I too garden "butt in the air"...laying sideways...just sprawled out in general, whatever works - I'm sure I look quite ungraceful to all my neighbors as they go by.

I struggle between real security, such as not having shrubs hide my windows where a thief could hide, and perceived security, such as the idea mentioned earlier about a heavily landscaped lot saying 'don't come in'.

I'll add one more idea. I find that landscaping that appears mature, or even "old" and isn't flashy - no bright happy colors, just a lot of dark green - to have more of a boundary effect.

There is a difference between being seen and being on stage. In more developed areas openess tends to lead toward the latter. That same openess in a less deveopled area would not create the same feeling. There are dynamics at play here that go beyond how screened an area is. Like with most design things, you can not isolate one thing as the basis for how someone will feel in a site.

As for not being enclosed, I never would have met half the neighborhood if my yard was fenced or enclosed. I live on a corner and everyone passes by and stops to chat if I'm out there. Why are we so afraid of each other?

Don't fence me in either. We have a great view of a horse farm and a valley from our deck, and I don't want to block it. That said, after we built an addition on the house so that there was a wall on one side of the deck, I did find it cozier and more inviting; luckily the wall doesn't block our view. If we had more neighbors (or more obnoxious ones), I'm sure I'd want more privacy. Actually, the lady next door has a new gentleman friend with partial custody of a very nosy three-year-old, so I am plannning some stragetically placed very large plants, so that I can sit by the pond without being bombarded by questions.

Prior to this kid, though, I only had one area that was purposely semi-enclosed. That's my tropical garden, and it needs enclosure to foster the delusion of actually being IN the tropics.

I just want to putter in my garden in peace. It's not a big deal if a neighbor wants to stop and talk, but it breaks me out of the "zone". I'd rather hear the birds and the rustling trees than my neighbor's chit chat.

tibs We own to the split rail fence and quite a long ways back through the woods on the left of the picture. Fortunately, there will never be houses built within that view as it is too close to the river and too low. There could be houses built parallel to ours, but not further back.

But the point I was trying to make, albeit poorly, is in reference to Ink's opening post. He cites reading about the importance of enclosure and the need to protect what is inside from what is to be feared on the outside (although I am not very sure he actually believes this). Additionally, you yourself mentioned the early settlers and the fears that could arise on the wide open prairie. And that after living on the prairie these people felt claustrophobic in cities.

I was trying to say that I am in that category. This is the view I have every day and I cannot stand the closed in feeling of cities. So to address the opening post - to protect what is inside from what is to be feared outside - for me at least there is a far bigger fear of being fenced in.

I do however, understand the feeling of being exposed to neighbors if they are too close. Someone asked about closing the drapes - the only reason we ever close drapes is if the angle of the sun is such that it is shining on some piece of artwork in the house! Otherwise they are open. Another difficulty I would have if I lived in town with neighbors very close.

chartreuse1 " ... sense of enclosure ..."
ironbelly "Don't Fence Me In". & "Privacy or confinment?"
Brent "funny that the trend seems to build a deck that looks a lot like a stage and then plant a bunch of Leyland Cypress trees to block the view of the deck."
laag "There are dynamics at play here that go beyond how screened an area is."

A "sense of enclosure" need not be actual enclosure. I guess the bottom line is, if you want it can you design to achieve it, and if you don't want it can you design to avoid it. Or must you have both?

The subject of this thread was part of what I had on my mind with a suggestion last Nov. (see link below) Since there were no comments, I asume my suggestion was not well recieved.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thanks 'Stuck in the Design Process'! and a small question

I've been lurking on this thread, but I guess I'll jump in...

There have been a lot of different ideas floating around, and all with different implications. Public vs private from a sociability side, safety, keeping animals in or out...

Our old house didn't have any fences, and there were very few fences in the neighborhood. We had a whole block of houses in a row with no fences (until the one got a dog), and we all backed onto protected wetlands. Everyone bought their houses in order to enjoy the view, and no one wanted to block it off with a fence. Kids felt free to wander through the yards as a shortcut, and most of the time, that wasn't a problem. Otoh, if you saw neighbors outside, you *knew* you'd be expected to go chat - and sometimes we didn't want to. But, I certainly knew all of our neighbors!

At our new house, the houses back up to each other, and most of them are fenced. They are deeper yards, however, which helps. (Part of the reason everyone liked the connected yards was to make the small yards feel bigger.) We currently have fences on 2 sides of our yard, but one neighbor has a low perennial bed and a row of huge evergreen trees (Spruce?) along the property line, and has already told us she'd rather not have a fence there. Otoh, she has a fenced-in deck area, so she has a private area within her yard.

I still like the idea of being sociable with my neighbors - but I also like the idea of having a private outside area. Which is part of why the back corner of the yard is going to be the "secret garden" with tall perennials and an arbor around it. (I'm not worried about winter height - I don't tend to hang out in the yard then!) I'm hoping that will be a good mixture of openness and enclosure...

And to add to what Irene's said neighborhoods can change over time. When I moved into my little city (so small it feels like a neighborhood), it was largely open. Chain link fence was the order of the day. This city started in the 30s as summer weekend homes, then people started living there year round, in the 80s and early 90s it was a distressed area, then the artists and musicians moved in and started fixing up. Now builders have discovered it. Suddenly there's a rash of opaque privacy fences going up. Some are just your basic cheapest privacy fences, others (often found with new houses) encloses decks or almost whole yards and have more the look of compounds. They are more sophisticated than the basic stockade privacy fence, but I think even more intimidating. It's made a shocking change very quickly in a once-open neighborhood. Where once your neighbors' gardens were extensions of yours, now you see walls - fences, or tall house walls. At the same time as the high opaque fences are going up, houses are getting taller - 2 and 3 stories as opposed to one. It's a radical and disturbing change for the people who have been living here.

You can achieve a "sense" of being enclosed without actually creating Fort Knox. A low hedge can define a boundary, give you a backdrop for other plantings, and create of feeling of being in a separate space, but you can see over it, and certainly talk to neighbors over it.

A shrub border that has a variety of plant sizes can be arranged so that you don't feel exposed, but you can still see what's going on beyond it.

A decorative fence can create enclosure, keep dogs and kids in, and discourage other critters from coming in, but spaced pickets and a height of 4 ft. or less means you can see your neighbor's head if they want to say "Hey" over the fence.

Even the trunks of trees that are limbed up can create an open "screen".