Be Bold in Your Garden!

Posted by Robert Dailey Jun 6, 2006

Agreed, the combination of purple penstemmon and a Don Juan rose may appear somewhat startling in a conventional garden. A desert garden, however, can be anything but conventional.

One of the things I try for is asymmetry in color and form, similar to what nature creates in her "real" desert and mountains. I have to admit though that I'm not a "purist." I will combine cultivars and native plants to achieve interesting palettes in my desert garden.

If you are thinking of creating a desert garden, you can let your imagination run wild, creating collages of color, texture and form that catch and surprise the eye (and other senses) in agreeably distracting ways.

Try combining roses and penstemmons, liatris and hollyhocks, blue flax and gaillardia.

I see gardens as individual artistic expressions. Driving down streets and seeing duplicate garden after duplicate garden I find boring. It's like going to a museum and seeing hundreds of duplicates of one Gauguin painting.

But gardens that surprise, enliven, challenge and yes, even amuse, are gems of the artistry of the gardener. Be bold! Be creative! Follow your own gardening instincts, not that of your neighbors.