When I first started my garden, I didn't come up with much of a plan. I bought some dahlia tubers and some seeds from Johnny's Select Seeds and did a random sowing. I didn't think of color, or height, or what it would look like aesthetically. I ended up wasting a lot of money and plants this way.
WHAT IS YOUR GARDEN GOAL?
- Redo a grassy area?
- Renovate an existing garden area?
- Change the view on your balcony?
- Greet visitors with flowers on your front stoop?
- Decorate a plain concrete driveway?
- Create a border alongside a fence?
- Plant a cutting garden for bouquets?
WHAT IS YOUR GARDEN AESTHETIC?
- formal French garden?
- wild flower meadow
- monochrome color scheme
- cottage garden
- grown over English garden
- garden filled with fragrance
- Pollinator based garden
Once you have chosen a goal for the garden and a sensibility then it's time to grab a piece of paper and a pencil and get to planning. Whether you are doing a container or a raised bed, you first need to take into account these design principles.
FIVE BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Use of Repetition
- Repeat plants throughout the design for pattern recognition in both color, height and texture
Managing Height
- Most basic designs put the tallest plants in the back making the plan look stade and rigid. If you mix up the heights with taller and tallest you can create interest for the eye to move around. It will look less formal.
Color Design
- Choose plants that can give you color and flowers throughout the full growing season from spring to fall.
- Using basic color theory, most cohesive looks are one of the following:
- 1 color called monochromatic - all white flowers
- three colors that are side by side on the color wheel called analagous colors: these could be jewel toned reds and purples
- two colors that are complements of each other on the color wheel: think orange and purple; red and green, yellow and blue
- three colors that are equally spaced along the color wheel. This is called triadic: magenta, orange and blue for example.
Use of Contrast for the Most Visual Interest
- Mix textures alongside one another.
- Use forms to create visual interest.
- Choose colors that go from light to dark (if you are using more than one color)
Rotate plants by mixing Perennials and Annuals
- Replace spent annuals in your garden scheme to new annuals to create interest and a different design. This is a form of succession planting on a small scale. You could do a different color of zinnias or cosmos. Perhaps swap out violas for feverfew.
Once you have a general idea of the look you are going for, the size of the plot you want to plant in, now it's time to populate it with plants. Stay tuned for tomorrow's blogpost.
