HOW TO DESIGN A GARDEN WHEN YOU LIKE ALL THE COLORS
Last week, I showed you a client project that had a refined color palette - we used just 4 colors in the design and it allowed for a clean look that my client loved. However, if you consider yourself more of a “make it look like a rainbow” garden lover, let me give you a few tips to keep a garden with a large color palette from looking like a giant mess.
Create larger blocks of color. One of the main things I see beginner gardeners do is buy one 1 plant. This is fine for larger shrubs, trees, or specimen plantings, but for smaller shrubs and definitely for perennials, I always recommend they purchase more than 1 so they can be planted in groups. Groupings, or clusters, of plants allow for a larger visual display, which can be seen better from a distance and can create a massing effect that allows the eye to focus on one thing. When you have a large color palette, groupings are key - larger groups of each color/plant will help the garden look less cluttered. Purchase at least 3 of each plant for one group.
Repeat the same plant & color in multiple parts of the garden. Repetition is a major part of what makes a garden look “designed” or “intentional”. When you are working with a lot of colors, I highly recommend repeating those same colors (or the exact same plant) in multiple parts of the garden. Not only will this create a sense of harmony between the different parts of the garden, but it will also be a visual rest for the eye - it has seen this plant already so it feels more like it belongs there. Without repetition, any garden can look a bit unplanned and messy, and this is only amplified when several colors are in use.
Put contrasting colors next to each other. This will really amp up your color display. Contrasting colors (red & green, purple & yellow, blue & orange) next to each other really make one another pop. It’s an easy way to showcase the various colors and helps them not get “lost in the shuffle”.
Use bloom time to your advantage. You can have an extremely colorful garden but make it look a bit more tame by using spring-bloomers and summer-bloomers in different ways. An example of this is to use a cooler color palette in the spring (Baptisia, Salvia, Catmint, Phlox) and then a warmer color palette in the summer (Rudbeckia/Black Eyed Susan, Echinacea/Coneflower, Monarda) for a nice change of pace. Tie both of these together with a nice palette of various foliage colors (green, red, blue, and chartreuse/yellow) to keep things consistently colorful even when things aren’t in bloom.
An example of plant groupings and contrasting colors from Fine Gardening Magazine.
This colorful garden uses repetition of color in multiple parts of the garden - check out all of the shades of red scattered throughout in both bloom & foliage color. There are purples, pinks, and yellows placed throughout the entire garden as well. Photo from Better Homes & Gardens.
In this design I did for a client in a city apartment, we used three different shades of green (true green Boxwood, chartreuse Japanese Maple, and blue-green Hosta) to have a variety of colors that really pop against the red walls.
In my own garden, I have bright yellow Rudbeckia contrasted against the deep purple foliage of the Ninebark.