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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #734
James Purchase wrote:
> There is not (nor should there be) any requirement that every square
> inch of substrate in a planted tank be covered by plants. Open areas
> of bare gravel can be very effective compositional aids. Insisting on
> every tank having a "lawn" of some sort in the foreground is just as
> bad as the Dutch habit of insisting that plants be placed in "rows" -
> you end up with tanks which look like perennial borders.
I think it was Amano who said that it's a sign of an unhealthy tank when
plants don't cover the entire substrate. That can become dogma just as
easily as the Dutch tank arrangement has become dogmatized.
But...
I'm not sure I see any design sense in the big bare spot at the front of
some of the Dutch tanks. I *could* explain it as an overreaction to the
rule (part of the dogma) that the plantings should not reach all the way
to the front glass. Otherwise, I just don't get it. I don't think the
bare spots are attractive features. It's in the eye of the beholder, I
guess.
What I see in the Dutch tanks is rules, rules, rules. I don't see much
variety or originality and precious little effective composition.
Roger Miller