Designing Your Garden

Ask any gardener what is the basic element of design that should be paid the most attention to, and no two answers are going to ever be the same.

When I began designing smaller gardens, the questions I asked were met with, “well colour is of course most important” and ” the most important element is size” and “Whats best is to take into account making the garden bloom in all seasons”, “well shape means everything”. I’m sure you get the idea..

It’s utterly and abjectly confusing to be bombarded with conflicting advice and conflicting ideas when you are new to the craft and already confused.

The truth is that all of those things are important and there is no.. single.. element that will make your garden delight all of your senses.

An herb garden needs to be designed not only to offer the best light for the herbs, and for assuring that you get maximum yield, but also to put them into some kind of shape and style where you have ready access to get the herbs cut for use without stamping on the rest, as well as for scent, colour and in some cases, to deter natural pests in a natural way.

Flowers on the other hand, have several colour and design styles that can be put into play, depending on what you want from your garden.

You can use a one of several colour schemes, such as:

Monochromatic colours, meaning taking one colour and using it to make the entire garden, using several shades or tints of that colour, or moving through them progressively, making the whole garden seem to flow in the vision.

Analogous colours, which means, moving through two or three colours that are close to each other on the colour wheel, such as orange, red and yellow. This works well in that the transition from one colour to the next is usually an easy one, that looks pleasing to the eye.

Complementary colours, on the other hand,are just what they say.. Complementary. This style of decorating and design, uses two colours that are directly opposite, or diametrically opposed on the wheel, such as red and green or yellow and purple. It contrasts well and is quite striking when done but it can also, if over done, or the contrast is too great, create nothing short of a cacaphony of colour that isn’t pleasant to view.

The bottom line is, that in gardening, all of the elements of design, shape, textures, colours are important, as well as assuring that you’ve got something planted that will keep your garden blooming all year, such as in a circular garden, plant some spring bulbs in the front, surrounded by perennials in the center and perhaps fall blooming flowers toward the back of the garden.

Be guided by fashion, and design, but don’t be a slave to it.

If you love violets and lady slippers, then grow them.. at the end of the day, although you want your garden to look nice, you are the one who needs to be pleased with the flowers, the design and the planting of it.

Do what feels right to you.