GARDEN DESIGN: 5 THINGS TO CONSIDER ACCORDING TO BUNNY MELLON

MARCH 16, 2023

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Image Details: Bunny Mellon’s Oyster Harbor Residence

Photo via Architectural Digest.

With the first day of spring soon approaching, it is time to plan, prune and prepare your garden for new growth! When looking for direction with your garden, who better to turn to than the late Bunny Mellon, who was a celebrated American gardener and 20th century tastemaker. Rachel “Bunny” Mellon’s love of gardening began at a young age. She was self-taught and always excited to learn more. Bunny designed a number of significant gardens, but one she is most known for, is the White House Rose Garden, which she was asked to take on during the Kennedy Administration.

There are many books now on Bunny, but one in particular, Garden Secrets of Bunny Mellon by Bryan Huffman, Linda Holden and Thomas Lloyd, let’s us in on her approach to garden design. Packed with her writings and garden photographs, this book is a great starting point for creating not only a beautiful, but a practical garden.

See below for the most notable lessons learned from Garden Secrets of Bunny Mellon and how to pursue beauty outside!

Image Details: Rachel "Bunny" Mellon with a gathering of her topiaries, at a window of her Virginia home, 1965

Photo by Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast Archive via Vogue

1.Spend Every Day in the Garden

In the garden, you will always be learning. Bunny says, “No matter how you start, you will change your ideas with experience. If you are sincerely interested in the subject, experience will carry you along. Sometimes with disappointments, but they too sharpen and further your knowledge as you search for a replacement or another approach.”

2.Begin with Inspiration

Bunny always looked to inspiration. Bunny says “There is nothing that has not already been done in design. It is the joy of discovery that creates the excitement, and interest of putting together old ideas with the originality of the individual person.” She used inspiration as her guiding light and felt that everyone should find a little something as guidance before implementing a plan in your garden.

Image Details: A trelliswork pavilion and stone obelisks punctuate the rear garden in Bunny’s Manhattan Residence

Photo via Architectural Digest.

Image Details: Bunny’s Oak Spring Residence

Photo via Architectural Digest.

3. Plan and Measure for Your Garden

Bunny believed that a garden should be planned as a whole picture, instead of in parts. Some of her favorite things to incorporate in her gardens were flowerbeds outlined by boxwoods and irregular stepping stones. Below are the specific steps in how to create a plan for your garden from Garden Secrets of Bunny Mellon:

Step 1: Make a list of the “problems” you wish to hide (such has a water pump / hose)

Step 2: Make a list of the items or things you want to have in your garden (such as a vegetable garden/tool house)

Step 3: Measure and record the length of your garden, your house, and the garden paths you want or already have (and anything else you think is worth measuring)

Step 4: Outline the garden plan on a piece of graph paper.

Step 5: Use colored pencils to bring your sketch to life.

4.Consider Atmosphere / Balance

Bunny says that “nothing should be noticed” in the garden. Meaning no one thing should stand out more than another. In order to do this, there needs to be balance between each element in the garden. She says that you have to be willing to let trial and error be a part of the process. If one idea does not seem to work at first, try another.

5. Look at Light and Shadow

In one of Bunny’s Garden journals she writes that “Light especially has a great influence on the mood… it is one of the most important things to consider.” Light creates not only a feeling in the space, but also must be considered in a practical manner. It is important to have moments of shade and sun for both the cool spring and the hot summer months.