Ways of placing plants to achieve ornamental and practicality 

  

As mentioned, most of the Lingnan gardens are small in size compared to other traditional gardens. Using “Yuyin Shanfang”, one of the famous Lingnan gardens as an example, the whole floor area of the garden is only around 1,500 square meters. However, because of the ingenious space management by the owner of the garden, every inch of space in the garden was fully utilized, which made the garden look larger.  

 

Besides using buildings in the garden to divide spaces, placing plants can also achieve the same purpose and effect. Like the “Ga Qiang Zhu” (夾牆竹) in “Yuyin Shanfang”, the owner of the garden planted a row of Yazhou bamboos between the narrow walls of the “Yuyin Shanfang” and the “Yu Garden”, which is just next to the garden. It encloses the courtyard space and separates the adjacent “Yu Garden” from the garden, which reflects the pragmatic and efficient use of space in Lingnan gardening, and also achieved ornamental and practicality by placing plants. 

 

 

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實現觀賞性和實用性的植物擺放方式

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由於嶺南庭園與其他傳統庭園相比的面積較小，因此空間的使用便會更為講究。 以嶺南四大園林的「餘蔭山房」爲例，整片園林的面積約只有一千五百平方米。 但是經過庭院主巧妙人的空間設計和管理，使庭院內的所有空間都被充分利用，庭院便會顯得更寬闊。  

 

除了利用花園內的建築物來劃分空間外，放置植物也可以達至相同的目的和效果。 像「餘蔭山房」以「夾牆竹」一樣，園主在「餘蔭山房」和緊鄰花園的窄牆之間種植了一排「崖州竹」。 把整個庭院空間圍繞走來，把鄰近的「瑜園」與庭院分隔，由此不但反映嶺南庭院的實用性和有效利用空間的特點，又能透過放置各種不同的植物，達到觀賞和實用性的目的。