timeless grace

There's something oh so Southern about allées. They define a place, focus the eye, and lend an air of mystery to the landscape.

leave it to the French to take a simple concept and make everybody afraid of it. It's called an allée, and if you haven't heard of it, you've probably seen it employed in many landscapes during your travels. So before you nervously ditch this story for the security of your childhood blankie, let me briefly explain the word and allay your fears.

An allée (pronounced al-LAY) is simply a double row of trees or large shrubs that frames a view and con-centrates your eye on the distance. It doesn't have to conclude at a focal point, but more often than not it does. These Eastern red cedars are a great example. An allée may direct your attention to a house, doorway, gazebo, fountain, gate, sculpture, mountain peak, and so forth. The most famous example of this in the South is Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana. A quarter-mile-long allée of giant live oaks captures a view of the mansion.

As the name Oak Alley suggests, an allée often seems like an alley. Shrubs or trees form "walls" on either side of a path, walk, driveway, street, or strip of lawn, creating a feeling of enclosure and intimacy.

Think Scale, Not Size

Places such as Oak Alley can give the mistaken impression that allées must be utterly massive in scale and take decades to grow. This isn't true. The effectiveness of an allée depends more on the proper alignment of plants than their impressive size. Thus, an average suburban lot could accommodate an allée, as long as it consisted of small- to medium-size plants, such as burning bushes, crepe myrtles, or Japanese maples, that are in proper scale with the house and yard.

Four Simple Rules

Though basic in design, allées do demand your attention to a few principles. First, because of the formal look required, all of the plants must be equally spaced and the same size when planted. second, formality necessitates the use of only one type of plant. (It doesn't matter whether it's deciduous or evergreen.) Third, in order to create the proper sense of enclosure, the plants of an allée should be at least twice as high as the width of the path, drive, or lawn between them. Finally, the rows should be identical-mirror images of each other.

It's a Piece of Cake

See what I mean? French design terms aren't nearly as frightening as you thought. Before you know it, you'll be tackling the sophisticated principles of trompe l'oeil, which to me sounds more like a fish dish.

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Mar 2007
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