When designing your garden, the following secrets may be helpful to keep in mind.
1. Color outside the lines.
Don't be afraid of structure in the garden, it creates order and a sense of calm. Retaining walls, paths, symmetrical planting beds or geometrically shaped patios give direction and order to a garden. But, soften the edges with flowing plants that grow over the lines. If you plant right on the edge of these structures, the plants will obscure the hard edges. It is kind of like coloring outside the lines in your coloring book!
2. Create perspective with texture
In small gardens, use small textured plants toward the back, with larger textures in front to make your garden look bigger. This increases the sense of perspective. Most peoples first instinct is to place small, fine leaved plants in front, and larger scaled plants in the back, but by putting the bold leaves or flowers in front, and smaller textures in back, you create the optical illusion that they are further away. This makes the garden feel bigger.
3. Value seasonality!
Remember the beauty of the cycle of the seasons and include plants that show them. Include some deciduous plants among your evergreens. These plants can have flowers in the spring, are green in the summer, red or orange in the fall, and can have beautiful structure in the winter.
4. Using color: to theme or not to theme
When choosing color for your garden, either use lots of color everywhere, or pick a theme. i.e. purple and yellow, or orange, rust and buff. Creating a color theme in the garden can add a sense of calm, order, and harmony. But if you are the kind of person who just loves every color flower, and don’t want to be limited to one palette, then be sure to evenly sprinkle the colors throughout and don't favor one color over another. This will create a similar sense of order.
5. Things change!
Don't be afraid to remove plants. (It's O.K. to mourn them, though) Plants can get shaded out over time, grow bigger than expected, or just don't look good any more. There are many plants that will look great for two or three years and spend many more years just "hanging on". Take them out, and see that you can have "more for less".
6. Things grow!
Avoid the "cute in a gallon can syndrome" by learning the ultimate size of your plants. If you'd be reluctant to remove plants when they get too crowded, don't over plant just for the immediate satisfaction of having everything look perfect on the first day. Also, notice the existence of overhead wires and avoid planting trees beneath the wires.
7. Ease up to walls
Reduce the impact of vertical walls by placing taller plants in front of them. If your wall or fence doesn't have any windows or interesting features on it, then place tall grasses or lacy shrubs right up against them to make a nice transition into the landscape. Be careful, however, to keep the ultimate outside edges of those plants several inches away from building walls. Plants that are placed too close to buildings can contribute to water damage of the structures.
8. Mulch, Mulch, Mulch
This is the main secret to a healthy garden. Mulch helps to keep down weeds, reduces water needs, and builds soil. Don't skimp. Think of truck loads. Use a minimum of 2 ½in all planting beds. 20x 50area x .2 (2 ½) divided by 27 = 7.5 cubic yards. (This won't fit in the trunk of your car!)
9. Learn from your neighbors!
Look around your neighborhood and take note of what plants are thriving. They will probably work in your area, too. Did you notice your neighbor fussing with plants that never seem to look good? Maybe you'll want to skip those. Asking about somebody's garden can be a great way to get to know your neighbors.
10. Study your microclimates!
Plant what works for your microclimate. Notice where the sun never shines, and plant shade lovers there. Think about microclimates you create when you plant trees or build a fence. If you want a vegetable garden, don't plant a large shade tree in the one sunny spot in your yard.
11. It's your garden!
Make your garden work for you. If you like to play in the grass, give yourself some lawn. If, however, you don't have use for lawns and you like to have parties, create large paved areas for dancing or to add several tables and chairs.
12. Got Blank walls?
Think vertical with contemporary wall water fountains to add unusual focal points on otherwise uninteresting walls.
Resources for materials used in gardens
Stain for concrete on the HGTV Patio with Water Feature Garden is by: QC Patina Stains www.qcconprod.com inquiries: (800) 453-8213. The same stain was used on the 2003 S.F. Flower Show Patio. |
