Snowy days in February are good for so many things – of course , these long night are intend for perusing germ and plant catalogs , for making infinite wishing lists for the gardens , and of course , for hot deep brown ( the practiced kind – home made with obscure Valrhona , cream and a touch of clavus starch- liquid ganache , really – it can commute single lifespan ) , but I digress … . My tip here is that look out of the window at the winter garden offers some bang-up opportunity – the probability to daydream ( and architectural plan ) with an open judgment . A pic of my garden from a ardent July sidereal day suddenly does n’t expect all that speculative , it ’s so fleeceable and lush , but I can see the gaps , I can blame out the weak fleck , areas where I could use more texture , and , I can see instantly why color when experienced in the garden , is n’t just about the flower itself – it ’s more about the color - addition - all of that green , and that , my supporter , is what this station is all about .
As we all dog ear and flip through catalogue make our wish listing , remember one thing – a close - up exposure of a flower is seldom what it will look like once experienced in the garden environs . I learn this the punishing way , and stopped snipping Pinterest - like clipping of bloom , tap them to a board to reimagine what my garden might looking . A garden is not a livingroom , and landscaping is not the same as interior excogitation . But there are some similarities that might storm you .
I start up planning my summer labor early – in December , long before any catalog arrives , and long before websites are updates with the latest plant introductions . My secret ? I front back at my photos from the previous year ( we give thanks you for iPhoto Mr. Jobs ) . A little search for my metadata notes , and I can spend a cold , snowy , winters eve reminiscing – remember plant life that I desire to order , works combinations to try out , and , time to study what mold , and what does n’t in both mine , and in other peoples garden .
As a originative director , I encourage architect I work with to be influenced first , and then to desegregate that influence into their designs – not literally , of course , but allow it to inform what one creates . It ’s a practice session many creatives do – be they find artists or fashion designers – the conception principals are the same , and even if you are not a professional garden house decorator , you too can memorise from your own images .
Many of the images I am currently using for extension , are ones that I took at botanical garden . I look at things like volume , space , texture and the quantity of plants used in a planting . Here are some of my notes , which I guess you might find interesting .
1 . It ’s all about the Cloud .
Airy panicle are best when plant in large glob . In the Berkshire Botanic Garden ( above ) various extract ofGaura lindheimeriare found in a boundary line in monumental clumps . I ’ve tried Gaura before , but only with individual plants , and the effect was ( yawn ) , a piddling boring . This past September , when I visited the BBG , I guide many picture of their fall boundary line , noting not only how many plant life where plant together ( sometimes with 15 or more industrial plant ) , but also how significant the “ cloud - burden ” is . Here , 6 plants together create a superstorm of color .
2 . Pointillism Rules – Color in a catalogue is not the same en - masse .
It ’s a tendency we all see , but one we seldom practice . certainly , specie Salvia are hot right now , but looking at a close - up of a plum colored salvia species in the Plant Delights Catalog is not the same as find a cloud of plum speckles in the border . One must think the over - all effect . Professional garden designers only pick up this from experience , so why not learn the same way of life they do ? Refer to images , and note the over - all form that a clump of many airy plant makes . It ’s a but like photoshop , right-hand ? I may not care plum dark-skinned or red flowers when charge with a macro lens and then crop and color even up in a plant life catalog , but sometimes ( mostly , really ) , the plant put up a completely different effect in the garden .
guess about scale , the over - all form of the lump , it ’s relative transparancy , how airy it is , think about the inflammation – how the sun may illuminate the passel , or how it depend on an overcast daytime . observe how expectant the industrial plant becomes by late summer , and note how many plants it accept to get to the desired consequence . I sometimes just keep photos which I know will inform me in a booklet . I sometimes star them in iPhoto for succeeding blog posts , or I open up a Word file and make distinction to myself about must - get plants ( like the Cuphea above – which I am still looking for ) .
3 . I make note about my own garden too .
Mistakes happen , as do opportunities . In the above photo from last July , I can see how 1 Helenium is not enough , I can imagine how 6 or 10 together will be more effective . I also can confirm what I at first may have believe to be a mistake ( orange in my color palette of reddish blue and white-livered ) , but in realism , the gilt mango tree color is perfect .
4 . Do n’t feel limited by gullible
OK . Green is indeed your canvass , but there are so many shades of green , so many that one could make a garden with just texture and shades of foliage . In the above image that I take at the Berkshire Botanic Garden last September , note not only the tad of commons , but the forms each plant type pull in . I sometimes shy by from red , but when sedum flower on greyish stems , the puddle of grey green and mauve shape great pool of colour . Texture must be regard too , as dope , spikey things like the pots of Phormium ( New Zealand Flax ) and the silvery artemesia all flux to make variant . I have to become more confident about planting multiple , for imagine this garden with something we all do – planted in singles – just one works of each specimen . The outcome would be lose .
The same corpus is applied here , at the xeric garden at the Denver Botanic Gardens . salvia , salvia and yucca along with many dryscape works , many with silvery folio and stem commingle in a constitution that again , would be boring if recreated with only unmarried plant . Not that many of us can give 10 or 20 of each plant , but begin with 3 of each to read , and then add every yr . A exercise I do often .
5 . plant life in 50 shades of Gray .
Verbascum spires , eriogonum and salvia proove that gray and silver can issue forth in many nuance of grey , so although many of us may come up green limiting , the truth is we are design with flora , and we can not escape the reality that foliage come with some limitations . Explore the opportunity of stems , branchyness , spikyness and even fall down and wintertime displays . sunshine in the sunup can transubstantiate a garden with dewy , fuzzy leafed plants , and a sunset with low Angle of light in the fall , can make a hayfield sing .
I ’ve been work on on my front yard garden for a few years now , after first being urge on by a photo from a British garden that I had on my bulletin rampart for a few class . It used berm ( piled soil to raise the layer level ) and good deal planting of heather , dwarf bush and other evergreens with texture , winter colour and gilt leaf mixed with silvery leafage . Each class I keep tweak the report , adding a twelve new erica here , removing a half dozen hosta , there . Most gardens – heck , all gardens are a work in progress , and surprisal are inevitable . I tried a couple of Eremurus ( Foxtail Lilies ) , a marginally stalwart plant for us here in Massachusetts , but they not only survived ( planted in gravel ) , they thrived . So each year I add a few more , never really at first considering the yellow motif , and how it might work with the reddish blue salvia . In the wintertime , the heather and erica wrench brilliant red , which when combined with the silvery leaved plants , turn the garden into a wholly different pallet .
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