Garden of Squares (1974)

Just like the Water garden and the Flower terrace, the Garden of squares is a garden without grass. The garden is also divided up into squares.

Design and planting

The design of the Garden of squares is based on squares: the paving stones, the flowerbeds, the pond and the raised terrace with its roof. The flowerbeds are slightly staggered making the design interesting. The design can be compared to the paintings of Mondrian. To emphasise this effect the prime colours of red, yellow and blue have been used with a maximum of two sorts of plants per bed. The paving stones were laid with a join of about 2 centimetres. Moss growing in between the paving stones emphasises the pattern of squares.

The garden is fenced in on two sides by an L-shaped wall with a terrace in the corner. The longer wall separates this garden from the Flower terrace and is partly covered with a rambling rose. The border with the Autumn garden consists of a hedge of field maple, Acer campestre and above that the trellis covered with the vine, Parthenocissus quinquefolia.

History

The Garden of Squares was designed after extending the gardens in the fifties. The “Brederode’wall was the north boundary of the earlier garden area. The wall is called after the factory maker, Bredero Beton.  He suggested that Mien Ruys used his concrete wall to indicate the boundary of the Gardens. For this, solid B2 blocks were used and the more open patio blocks.

The garden was first called The Stone garden but later on was changed to Garden of Squares. There have been many changes here but the basic starting point of square beds set in between the paving using square tiles has always remained the same. When the number of visitors increased, the covered terrace became too small and also there was not much room between the pond and the terrace. During the eighties, the terrace was enlarged, the canopy roof added and the pond was moved and made larger. The Bredero wall was taken down and replaced by a completely solid wall. According to Mien Ruys the open patio blocks with holes in them did not combine well with the rigid forms of the climbing plants.

In 1977 the garden was renovated once again.