Color my Garden Confused - Page 2


© Carol Wallace
Page 2

It makes sense. Cut a bouquet to bring in and it will be tailor-made for your interior. Gaze out a window from inside the room and you get a perfect picture.

But perhaps you want something bolder in the garden than you have dared in your more permanent paint and papering schemes. Deeper colors than your interior light permits. Something brighter than your neighbors would tolerate in a house color. In that case, there are a few good ways to narrow down a color scheme.

One is the time-honored way of going through magazines and cutting out pictures of gardens that appeal to you. Don't worry about narrowing things down to specific colors. Cut out the ones you really like. When you have a good stack of these, go through them. Do you find that certain color themes predominate? These are clearly the flower colors you are drawn to -- so go with them!

Or go with mood. Close your eyes. Think of "garden." Not any particular garden but the idea of garden. Do you see a tranquil place for sitting and relaxing? Do you see it as a social setting for fun and hilarity? Do you see it as a bright place? Sophisticated? What does the idea of garden mean to you? Color has a way of creating the mood for any setting -- so you will want to choose garden colors to match the mood that means "garden" to you. I will talk more about color and mood in the garden in another article, but this is one of the best ways I know to create a garden that feels good to you when you enter it.

Whichever way you choose to go, make sure you are planting plants that you like, that grow well in your conditions. But make sure those plants are colors you love to look at. Believe me, it will have a big impact on whether you truly enjoy your garden, and whether you have created a garden that is truly your own, or merely an expression of the latest designer colors.

If designer colors are your thing, though, or if you are fanatic about color coordination, you can actually find exactly the right paint color to match your favorite flowers.

Goldsmith seeds has an excellent article on using color effectively in the garden.

Iowa State Horticulture has some great advice on using color theory in the garden.

The Complete Color Reference has an excellent chapter on how color influences your mood and the environment.

       

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages

20.   Oct 5, 1998 12:59 AM
Traute Klein, Editor of Natural Health, promoting life in harmony with creation.

If a well-designed garden has to have a color scheme, then ...


-- posted by biogardener


19.   Mar 26, 1998 9:16 PM
Color combinations can be surprising, can't they? I try to stick to ones I know I like -- but then some plant will suddenly volunteer itself and present a wonderful surprise. I remember thinking tha ...

-- posted by CarolWallace


18.   Mar 26, 1998 5:25 PM
When garden owners just "plonk" a plant in anywhere, it is perhaps a little like the compulsive buying of a dress - wear it once and leave it to die in the cupboard.

I am not organized in my landsc ...


-- posted by Gay_Klok


17.   Mar 25, 1998 11:19 PM
I rarely use the term "plant material" but when you are thinking about design, it is best to not focus too much on plants, the term "plant material" does give the designer a certain distance from plan ...

-- posted by Kirk_Johnson


16.   Mar 24, 1998 7:23 PM
At the risk of sniping, people who literally consider the stuff as plant material generally don't realize plants are living things. Living things grow or die, interact with their surrounds, and genera ...

-- posted by Cottage_Garden





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