Designing a garden is never an easy task. But decorating a green area to be a tropical garden matched with a modern-style garden was a challenge that gardener Tharpanit Rittem met by selecting trees of different visual textures and providing paths connecting the different gardens together under the concept of "More Functions and More Design".

Tharpanit says home-owner Wichit Chareruchitpaisan sought to design his green area after buying a detached house in the Palm project on Phetkasem Road with a total land area of nearly 2,700 square metres.

Wichit's house, which has four bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and five bathrooms, occupies only about 700 square metres, leaving about 2,000 square metres, and Wichit was keen on having a tropical garden.

Tharpanit says it was his idea to mix and match a tropical and a modern-style garden around Wichit's home.

The tropical garden was to have a waterfall, stone features, large trees and shrubs with leaves of different shapes, while the modern-style garden had to strike a balance between conforming to a geometric model and artificially shaped trees.

Tharpanit says his first step was to lay out the entire garden into three zones with five functions, to meet Wichit's requirements.

The first zone - a tropical garden - surrounds a 30-metre-long pond that has both stone features and a waterfall. Tharpanit selected trees of different shapes with leaves of different appearance to grow around the pond.

Then he designed two pavilions to stand near the pond and serve the home-owner's need for an area for outdoor relaxation. The pavilions have additional space to accommodate outdoor parties for family members and their friends.

A modern-style garden occupies the second zone. Its main features are two concrete and cement-block sitting areas designed in geometric shapes. The blocks are painted in bright colours, and the concrete pavilions match a network of pathways. The modern-style garden also features sculpted trees.

The third zone is a fruit garden behind the house, as well as a vegetable garden and yet another pavilion.

Tharpanit says that because Wichit saw many functions for his gardens, they contain a total of five pavilions. Those in the tropical garden are built with a close-to-nature concept and made of natural wood. These serve the older members of the family.

The pavilions in the modern-style garden, made of cement blocks and painted in bright colours, serve the teenage members of the family. The fifth pavilion, in the fruit garden, uses narrow slats of timber to create a relaxing environment near the vegetable patch.

"If you build a garden, you must concern yourself with taking care of it, so that it looks better and better," Tharpanit says. "Gardens must be easy for home-owners to care for, so tropical gardens, which have free-form trees, will suite home-owners who don't have much time to take care of the garden.

"If you want a modern-style garden, you must take more time to trim the trees into shapes that match the style of the garden. It all depends on your lifestyle and what you want from your garden," he says.

Tharpanit says both tropical and modern-style gardens are suited to Thailand's climate, and the choice depends on home-owners' individual tastes.

Meanwhile, if a home-owner wants more gimmicks in the garden, he suggests small decorations like garden gnomes or earthenware dolls, cushions or flowers that will help the garden look attractive for visitors.

Somluck Srimalee

The Nation