Muslim style of the garden - strict lines and luxury plants

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The Muslim, Islamic, Moorish, Oriental or Arabic landscape design styles are undergoing a new era. Influenced by the trend towards an increasing spread of landscape projects with natural planting, the fashion for their exact opposite has also grown. Ornamentality, accuracy, subtle interconnections and an amazing sense of harmony of the Muslim garden offer a much more “fresh” alternative to fashion for simplicity than already bored French or Dutch trends. Calling on everything to search for meaning and using simple tools to create complex landscapes, the Arabic style opens up new horizons in the design of a colorful garden with an impeccable appearance in a minimal area.

Content:

The special philosophy of the Moorish and Muslim gardens
The structure and basic elements of the Muslim style
Water in all its forms
Materials and colors of the Moorish garden
Design a relaxation area in a Muslim garden
Moorish style plants

The special philosophy of the Moorish and Muslim gardens

The Muslim style (also known as Arabic, Oriental and Moorish) is a landscape design direction, ranked among the most traditional. It strictly defines not only the philosophy and ethics of garden design, but also their structure, tools and plants used. This is the only direction of garden design that clings very strongly to its roots and is inextricably linked with historical projects.

Despite the fact that modern trends and the influence of garden fashion are manifested in Arabian gardens, they are guided by unshakable principles and rules in their design, playing with which is allowed only in details. Perhaps that is why the Muslim garden is so easily recognizable, since all projects go beyond uniform standards and canons.

Today, the most influential direction of the development of the Muslim style remains Moorish - South European, drawing inspiration from Spanish gardens and developing as a symbiosis of different trends in landscape design, which was born at the junction of European and Arabian culture.

The luxury of the East, adapted to a different climate, opens up the possibility of decorating the Moorish garden in regions far from subtropical and tropical climates. Islamic and Moorish landscape design trends formed their foundations until the 15th century. Today they are almost indistinguishable from each other and are considered almost as synonyms.

The philosophical ideas of Muslim gardens are inseparable from the religious perception of the world. The Moorish Garden is a project in which a whole model of the universe is reproduced, starting from rich Eastern traditions and culture. Any garden in the Islamic style is a symbol of the Garden of Eden, with historically established design laws and mandatory elements.

Such gardens for many are a symbol of almost flashy luxury, rampant in colorful colors and numerous patterns and ornaments. The main characteristics of the Muslim garden are rightly called:

bright colors and colorful color combinations;
bet on mosaic and ornamentality;
variety of forms;
an abundance of greenery;
strict structure;
the important role of water bodies;
isolation from the outside world;
masonry dominance;
lack of lawns;
bet on flowering and fruiting plants;
the important role of aromas and sounds.

In the Moorish garden, an extremely strict and straightforward form is softened and compensated by plants and details. From the symbiosis of elementary geometry and unrestrained landscaping, an amazing sensation of luxury and abundance is born, which you will not find in any style of landscape design.

Such gardens do not seem boring: despite the simple structure, a special subordination between the individual elements reigns in them. Small details are connected in a complex system that creates a special mood and atmosphere.

Space, expansion of borders, a game with optical perception and a balance of mass and volume - all this is not for the Moorish garden. He relies on multiple stimuli, affects different senses at the same time and creates a feeling of magical, fabulous detachment from everyday life.

Muslim Gardens - Small Gardens

Moorish gardens are limited-area gardens. Usually this style is chosen to design those areas where it is simply impossible to break a garden of a different style. Like the historical examples of the Muslim garden, the modern Arabic style suggests creating an oasis in a small area, but giving a full-fledged atmosphere of relaxation in an ideal corner.

You can use this style not only in small gardens. Large sections are divided into rooms or square-shaped zones, creating separate spaces from each other, in each of which they are looking for something new. You can design a Moorish garden and as one of the areas of a large garden, decorated in other styles.

The garden, which is decorated in the Moorish style, regardless of whether the south of Spain or the Middle East inspire its creation, is always surrounded by high walls. Classic fences or green hedges, high lattices twined with vines - there is a choice. The main thing is to have a complete feeling of being closed from the outside world. Even if we are talking about the design of just a separate zone, it is still separated from the rest of the garden by a high wall.

The structure and basic elements of the Muslim garden

All Muslim gardens are built on squares. Even if a large territory of rectangular or irregular shape is formed in this style, the site is divided into separate square zones, one after the other, or the authentic Moorish garden is formed only in the square zone closest to the house, and the rest of the territory is played using other styles.

The arrangement of the Muslim garden always begins with paths and zoning. Thanks to them, in practice they implement the principle of four gardens, or chor-bagh - a symbolic embodiment in the garden design of the four sacred rivers that flow from the Garden of Eden and divide it into equal parts.

At the intersection of the tracks is the semantic and geographical center of the Moorish garden, the design of which is always paid special attention to. The square section of the garden determines its strict geometric structure, which does not change even in the original modern interpretation of the oriental style.

Each separate secondary square in the Muslim garden, if the size permits, can be divided into four more squares. In turn, a central water element or an object of small architecture can be introduced into each “unit”, playing endlessly with squares and their variations. Arteries or paths can be laid diagonally, if the size of the garden allows you to play with symmetry in complex ornaments.

Paths in the Muslim garden always complete with a striking architectural element. An arch, a green tunnel, a decorative gate or false doors and gates should mark the end of each path and create a visual point of “fixation” of its length, complete the perspective.

The central part of the garden and each individual square is the most important element of decoration. In the geographical center of the square section, a water body is broken up or a recreation area is created, which will become the semantic center of the entire project.

The most popular design option for the central part is an expanded paved area, which contains a fountain, a pool or a decorative pond with a fountain. Square or round pond copes with this task. But there are alternative solutions - from a pavilion or a gazebo with lines that appeal to Arabic motifs to placing a rosary.

Water in all its forms

Water plays a special role in the Moorish style. The idea of a blessed or paradise garden is emphasized in the Moorish style by the obligatory presence in the project of water objects that enhance the feeling of the oasis. The worship of water that came from the Arab culture has led to the fact that water bodies become the central starting point and an indispensable element of the design of any garden in this style.

The symbol of eternal life and purification is also introduced into the heart of the garden, beat off in the central element of each secondary square, laid along the axes and brought in as much as the budget can afford.

Canals, strict ponds, pools, baths, cascades, streams and other reservoirs allow not only to emphasize the geometry of the garden, but also to fill it with new meaning. In Muslim gardens, ponds are flat, paved or decorated with mosaics, with an obligatory strict frame, the ponds are made flat, located almost at the level of paths or on a hill. A water drop and water fun, installing fountains or creating a natural movement of jets fills the garden with sound.

Water plants in Muslim gardens are not used, as well as fountains in the form of sculptures. Only the pure play of jets is appropriate here.
Materials and colors of the Moorish gardenThe materials in the design of the Moorish gardens are also determined quite strictly. Ceramics, glass, marble, painted concrete and all types of pattern paving and mosaics in such gardens should be present as much as possible.Ornamental laying of paths and playgrounds, mosaics in the decoration of strict ponds, complex variants of combined masonry with mixing materials should recreate the feeling you experience when entering the gardens and parks of Arab countries.Preferred for Moorish gardens are sunny, cheerful colors and rough textures - rough surfaces, matte coatings, or, conversely, bright gloss of ceramic tiles and mosaics. White color fills the gardens with festivity, but it can be supplemented with yellow, and all shades of beige and terracotta, and brick paints. Dazzling sky blue, pure golden yellow, muted base terracotta - a classic to complement the white base.In the choice of patterns, small architecture, it is worth remembering the ban on any images of animals and people.Design a relaxation area in a Muslim garden

Rest areas in the Moorish-style garden should remind of the covered terraces of traditional projects, galleries, hidden not only from prying eyes, but also from the sun in high summer. Terrace in the form of a covered patio, a relaxation area under a canopy or a green roof, a green room or pavilions with gazebos - the designs are selected so as to fit into style restrictions.

Pergolas and tents can be both seasonal and stationary. In the recreation areas, they always use bright textiles and comfortable sofas that will recreate the atmosphere of oriental gardens.

The abundance of textiles, forged elements, accessories, ceramics, the selection of furniture with Arabic motifs, the game with mirrors and traditional cultural elements allows you to enhance the atmosphere and set the tone for the whole garden. Tandoor and tables with mosaics, arba and candlesticks, hookahs and elaborate teapots - in the recreation area in the Moorish style any objects and any ornaments are appropriate.

The atmosphere of the Moorish garden can be emphasized and enhanced through decorative lighting. Most often, sources of additional lighting are “tied” to water bodies.

Moorish style plants

Plants for the Moorish garden are selected so as to create a sense of paradise. Bright colors, the dominance of flowers and the pure greens of trees and bushes, creepers and fruit trees fill these gardens with life, colors and harmony.

One of the most popular sites in the Muslim garden is the rose garden. Fragrant and luxurious, he offers to pay tribute to the garden princess, choosing the most brightly colored and fragrant varieties. You can frame fountains and ponds with the rose garden, or you can break them like flower beds, emphasizing the beauty and luxury of plants with bright accessories. Roses are planted and solitary, using them as much as possible.

Carpet beds and mixborders, elaborate arabesques and stalls allow you to fill the squares with patterns and imitate the effect of oriental carpets using perennial and annual plants.

In the selection of plants, it is important to consider several important criteria:

creation of a flowering relay race, a combination of plants with a different flowering period for the effect of constantly present paints;
selection of the brightest and purest, "absolute" colors;
priority in choice for classical cultures.

In Muslim gardens, carnations, poppies, cornflowers, chrysanthemums, peonies, irises, lilies, daylilies, all kinds of carpet perennials look great. In such a project, bright onion accents can be introduced in any quantity - from tulips to crocuses and other primroses. Spicy herbs and aromatic plants of all sizes and shapes are more than appropriate, as are bright summers - from fragrant tobacco to ageratum, gypsophila, laver, lobelia, petunia, which allow playing with textures no worse than with paints.

According to historical traditions, flowerbeds in a Muslim garden are patterned, allowing plants to grow freely. But today, the lack of architectural solutions or an abundance of details in mosaics and water bodies is sometimes compensated by high sheared borders, including ornamental motifs of green frames in the lines.

Strictly crowned trees are inappropriate here. This is a garden for developing free plants. Purely decorative species are less popular than fruit trees. Enjoying the harvest of your fruits directly from the branches is a luxury that immediately changes the atmosphere. Apple trees, cherries, cherries, apricots, plums - you can choose fruit plants to your taste.

Beautifully flowering shrubs placed singly are selected from among the most lush classics. In addition to roses, chubushniki and hydrangea, spirea, quince, dogrose are appropriate. Flowering or deciduous vines, from roses to clematis, actinidia and grapes on lancet arches, obelisks and walls, are also always appropriate in this style.

Tropical and subtropical plants, which have become a symbol of the Muslim garden - pomegranates, palm trees, citrus fruits, laurels and many other plants - are introduced into the design as a frame, placing in those places that lack expressive accents.