When someone mentions "Garden", your mind conjures up a tranquil piece of land with flowers and trees and birds and nothing remotely manmade, right? It is said that when writer Henry Thoreau lived on Walden Pond, his next neighbor was over a mile away. He could hear distant traffic and a locomotive on a railroad track, but they did not drown out the geese flapping their wings over the lake or the distinct crack of the frozen pond during winter. Sadly, that was a lifetime ago. Today, the urban garden is more likely to coexist with the sounds of traffic, the next-door neighbor's lawnmowers and other city noises.

It is one thing to create a secluded place for you and yours in your garden: plants, flowerbeds, a few chairs strewn around and you're done. But what can be done to control noise that could disturb the privacy of your garden? You might know that sound waves, unlike light waves, circumscribe obstacles. To buffer noise from the outside, you have to be a bit clever in choosing plants that can aid in dampening or cushioning outside noise to some effect. However, you must be warned that this is more psychological than physical. It is more of a trick that you play on the mind.

Hollies and evergreens help in buffering a portion of the noise, but you will need a huge, thick fence of at least 100-feet to have any apparent effect on reducing noise. However, the main idea here is to hinder the origin of the noise, so that it appears as a buffer, which can boost the mind into thinking that part of the problem is solved.

Another way of lessening the impact of noise would be to build a dense wall around the garden and then cover it with thick. To soften the noise, you may need to add a thicker layer of the same. Landscape artist Thomas Klope, ASLA also uses a sonic barrier suspended between the panels of a double wood fence. The barrier is invisible and is made from a high-density vinyl, and hangs loose in between the panels. This is because it must be allowed to move freely. The two panels are covered with a cap and any opening is sealed airtight to obstruct ultraviolet rays from destroying the barrier. Manufacturers of the vinyl barriers say that if used at the right angle, it can buffer up to 25% of the noise from 50-60 feet away.

Given below is an illustration of one such barrier. In this case, the vinyl is longer than the length of the panels so that it can also guard against termites. Yet another good noise dampener is good old earth, i.e., the amount of soil used and its placement. The Chicago Botanic Garden has now erected a giant berm-plus-wall along its western edge after complaints of traffic from visitors became very common. They've added another garden to the 23 already existing and the wall has thousands of new plants on the traffic side, giving the people caught in traffic a welcome change of scene to look at.
Experts give the following tips in buffering sound in your landscape:

" Consult an acoustical engineer along with your landscapist (chances are that your landscapist would already have consulted him) on how best to buffer noise in your garden. He will take various parameters into consideration like distance from source of noise, size of garden, architectural structures, etc.

" Opt for a small berm of maybe 3-5 feet. This can filter out some of the noise. Take care to make sure it fits into your landscape and use the right layers of moss or vine to make it as natural-looking as possible. It should look like it has grown from the landscape and is an essential part of it, not an out-of-place bump that mushroomed out of nowhere.

" Add a fountain or ask your landscapist for a miniature waterfall. The sound of running water can reduce traffic noise to a great.

If you like garden design....These pages might also interest you:

Allium Directory, Amaryllis Directory, Begonia Directory, Crocus Directory, Daffodils Directory, Dahlia Directory, Hyacinth Directory, Iris Directory, Lily Directory, Tulip Directory

Also See:

Allergy Free Garden Design, Choosing Color Combo,Desinging with Seasonal Flowers, Design an English Garden, Garden Design Project, Gardening in Small Spaces, Complete Garden Makeover, Napa Garden Design, Favorite Plants for Landscaping, Perk Up a Flower Bed, Natural Garden Design, Using Pathways in a Garden, Design a White Wonder Gardens, Your Own Outdoor Coffee House, Designing to reduce noise, Designer Lanscape ideas, Do it Yourself Lanscape Design, Garden Design Foundations, Keeping Your Garden Size in Check, Gardening With Little Space, Outside the Box Landscape Design, Side Yard Design Ideas, Stone Patio Design, Theme Gardening, Trends in Landscape Design, What to Plant on a Slope, Winning Landscape Design