How to grow Topiary Borders and Trim Art forms with your Plants for Your Garden Which Shapes in Feng Shui to avoid while making Topiary

Easiest green Borders Plants for Your Garden

Trimming and shaping of plants is termed as Topiary. It is an art form in many countries especially Japan and China as an expression of art with nature. Topiary is an horticultural practice in training live plants by clipping and trimming them in various forms and shapes.
The word Topiary comes from the word for an ornamental landscape gardener , topiarius, a creator of topia or places. Plants, greens grown as borders are a beautiful way to define the garden landscape design. Green border plants are actually any thick foliage plants with green leaves and they are tough and require less care.
While we do see a lot of greens cut and trimmed in fancy shapes and objects , the ones from Hanging garden are still remembered with love, those shaped as deer, elephants,

Elephant Shaped Design with Trimming Plants

lady carrying her child, Giraffe etc. In Botanical gardens of Singapore, China and Japan  and Large gardens this is a beautiful way to decorate and add some style to any landscape design.
How to grow green borders in your garden-
1) Choose foliage green leafy plants that do not flower and are fast growing. Those that are ever green, woody, mostly small leaves, and look dense and thick with foliage.
2) Hedge is the simplest form , to grow borders put bricks surrounding the corner of the pathway to have controlled borders.
3) If you wish to have  a Topiary in large size or specific shaped Topiary then wires and metal wire cages , metal frames, help to give specific form, strength and shape and a body to your plant design.
4) Shrubs, vines and climbers can all be guided in different modern designs to form a great Topiary.
5) Trimming carefully with sharp scissors and clippers is essential. this is an art form and need great hand control for trimming in specific shape.
From the feng shui point of view there are some shapes that you must avoid in topiaries in your home garden. Topiaries are a beautiful way to welcome great chi around. Choose   easy growing woody foliage plants, curvy and smooth flowy lines are considered great and auspicious in Feng Shui as they allow positive chi to flow smoothly in the space. They also give a sense of direction and  focus. Sharp corners and spiky plants are to be avoided if they hurt past walking by.
1)   Avoid man and women , family, shaped outside your main entrances.
2) Avoid huge Topiaries out side your main door if it blocks the view of outside and blocks the main door.
3) Avoid large horse and elephant Topiary facing outside the main door.
4) Keep a check on the size of the Topairy grown in your home garden. it must not be larger than the height of your house.
5) The most important feng shui shape to avoid is broken and abnormal shapes. This creates shar energy on viewing.
Box wood, is the best for borders and we have out lovely Cyprus plant that can be shaped and trimmed into any beautiful form . Cedar or Cyprus plants are good.

Orange colored  Berries climber in the wilds

While we love Topiary as an art form , a beautiful expression in gardening and a highlight in your garden design it is important to understand that this is an ongoing process as plants soon grow and you need to trim them again to maintain the shape!

Meanwhile on the home front,  Euphorbia leucocephala , Pascuita, White small leaf Poinsettia, Snow White Plants. These are with me and grow profusely thick and tall and need regular trimming but its a beautiful snow bush and gives a great show in my little space under the sun! This time though am scared, gone over board with the trimming, hope it grows back fast!

My favourite Plant Snow Bush Euphorbia leucocephala needs regular trimmings

Trimming of Garden plants after rainy season

 After enjoying the rains and the luscious green thick foliage  with colors in my garden the difficult part comes now, trimming them to shape! second time this year, sad part is I have to throw these cuttings...so many ...wasted...the hibiscus leaves are eaten by bugs.. so trimmed them .

Hibiscus leaf eaten

A bit of sadness coming over, I think we have lost our precious Flame of the Forest, Gulmohar this season. with us since past seven years growing happily in a large sized container, it gave us the maximum amount of vermillon vibrant  blooms this summer season  and with the rains, it looks really dried, even on breaking the branches they are hollow...and there is this brownish white mushroom that is growing since past month that has dried too..keeping my fingers crossed!!!

Gulmohar Tree Mushroom growth

Hoping for the Best, All the Best from Rizwana!