Learn how to balance your desire for countless plants with the need for a coherent design
I am a plant collector , and I have a “ collector ’s garden . ” In gardener - speak , that is code for acknowledging I have sight of plants ( some would say too many ) wedged to within an inch of their lives in the garden . And perhaps I have too many variations of one character of plant , the subtlety of which most would never notice . The trouble is that I am also a landscape designer . Professionally , I would rarely design a client ’s garden with the salmagundi of plant I have in my small garden , as I know too much motley can lead to topsy-turvydom in a one - of - everything garden .
For a client ’s garden , I start with a leaning of plant life that will work , debate grease , sun exposure , moisture , flower color , leaf colour , form , and peak within an overarching visual sense . The list is often long , but I pare down it down knowing that the design will be better for it . When it comes to my own garden , I simply can not restrain the palette . I spend wintertime online perusing specialty nurseries for the latest and greatest plant life I am plus I just can not inhabit without . I come out my orders knowing I do n’t have space for the 10 works in the online shopping cart . Then outflow arrives . I vagabond the garden , latest plant leverage in hand , wondering “ Where is this short thing conk out to go ? ”
So how have I resolved this seemingly insurmountable job ? Buy fewer plants ? That ’s not happen . Quite just , I rely on the few introductory innovation shaft I use every twenty-four hour period when creating someone else ’s garden .
Plenty of room for plants
From above , the pedigree of the garden , and the order they transmit , are clear .
Start with a strong framework
Every garden benefits from a strong theoretical account to delimitate it , a collector ’s garden even more so . A strong , dim-witted fabric organise the garden quad so that they can accommodate an overabundance of plant varieties . Frameworks can either be built structures — for example , a gemstone garden rampart — or they can be form from plant cloth , such as a clipped boxwood hedge . My garden is define by stone wall , Harlan Fiske Stone and paver paseo , wood fence , and strategically placed garden decoration . I have design these element straight and rectilinear to take on against the slack nature of the industrial plant .
I have also keep the palette of these component simple by repeating materials . The trim color on the house appear on the fence , pavers used for the front walk are repeated in the backyard but in a different pattern , and a local limestone is used for all of the low garden wall and steps . The key is that a persistence in the framework carries throughout the garden so that I can have the miscellanea where I want it — in the plant choice .
Strive for balance, not a mirror image
As a plant nerd I am always seek to grow as many types of plants as potential , but my fashion designer self keeps hen-peck me to do so without creating visual topsy-turvyness . accomplish visual balance with a miscellany of plant can be challenge . One easy trick is to use different plant that are interchangeable in var. . As an example , the front yard of our city lot is divided by the walk leading up to the front porch . Two colum nar shrubs flank this walk . Overall , this create a traditional and symmetrical front entranceway . However , rather than retroflex this with symmetrical planting march down each side of the walk of life , I have chosen to use unlike works with similar form on each side . Here , the upright stems of Asian lily ( Liliumspp . and cvs . , Zones 4–10 ) are mirror by a group of grandiloquent calla lily ( Zantedeschiaspp . and cvs . , Zones 7–10 ) leaves on the diametric side of the walk , and the mounded form of a Crimson Fans mukdenia ( Mukdenia rossii‘Karasuba ’ , Zones 4–8 ) is repeated by the mounded but much finer sedge ( Carexspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–10 ) foliage like a shot opposite it . The overall effect is one of ocular balance , with the added welfare that I am able-bodied to produce twice the variety of plants I could if I had simply used the selfsame plant on each side to make balance .
Also flanking the entry walk are two checkerboard garden comprised of 16 - inch solid rock and Chocolate Chip genus Ajuga . On one side , the checkerboard pattern fulfil the midpoint of the garden . On the other side , the checkerboard blueprint is small and serve as the entrance to the lawn panel inset within the garden . The two sides are related and visually balanced , but they are not indistinguishable .
Use color to your advantage
Color plays a vital role in my garden , and I have selected a colour palette for each garden room . Some of that colour come from the chronological sequence of seasonal blossom , but just as significant , if not more so , are foliage colors . In oecumenical , I have organized the garden so that the foliation in the front garden way include greens , grays , and blues , with the occasional white in variegate leaf . flower tend toward pink , vapours , and lily-white , with hints of yellowish . As you step into the side garden through the pillar that flank the walk , the leafage dramatically transmutation to yellows , chartreuses , bright greenness , and some “ blacks ” for contrast . Flowers tend toward orange tree and dark yellowness , with a scattering of deep purple , all of which front nifty with the shining foliage colour . After you leave the side garden , the leafage return to dour greens and blue - grays , and the prime admit yellowness , blues , and accents of whitened .
Focusing the foliage and bloom colors in each elbow room creates a distinct identity for each space . The side garden feels alone because of the bright yellowish green leafage , but even more so because the garden on either side is different , with sullen foliage . Framework component , in this case a fence and entry column , limn where the people of colour palette modification . This is not unlike how one treats the interior of a home . A omnium-gatherum of colors in every elbow room would likely be busybodied and chaotic . Rather , the dining room is one palette , the keep elbow room another , and so on . room access and walls , the theoretical account , specify the rooms .
Flowers are more or less momentaneous . You might get two or three weeks of flower color out of a perennial . What is left after the blossom are run low ? Foliage . I regard leaf color every clock time I place a new plant . How will the foliage of one plant relate to that of the plants around it ? For model , I have numerous ferns and hostas , but I have not grouped them in a fern garden or a Funka garden because texturally that would be irksome . The lacy foliation of one fern next to the lacy foliage of another would not show off the looker of that delicate light-green filagree . Rather , I mix my many fern variety throughout the garden , considering how the fine foliage can be used to advantage commix with a hosta or brushing up against a large heart - form brunnera leaf .
I persist in to pick up plants . I write this just having visited a nursery where I picked up three plant life that are new to me . Now where to institute them ?
plant
Ooh, What’s That?
When wandering around a industrial plant collector ’s garden , you ’re certain to reveal more than a few gems . Here are some highlight from Frank ’s garden .
2 . ‘ Lightning strike ’ toad lily(Tricyrtis hirta‘Lightning Strike ’ )
3 . ‘ Lovely ’ sinningia(Sinningia‘Lovely ’ )
4 . Dwarf meadow rue(Thalictrum kiusianum )
6 . ‘ Pippa ’s Purple ’ hellebore(Helleborus×iburgensis‘Pippa ’s Purple ’ )
7 . ‘ ocean Monkey Purple ’ coleus(Plectranthus scutellaroides‘Sea Monkey Purple ’ )
8 . ‘ further ’ lady fern(Athyrium filix - femina‘Encourage ’ )
Frank Fitzgerald is a landscape painting designer in Minneapolis .
Photos : Steve Aitken . Illustration : Conor Kovatch .
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It can be done. You actually can combine a plethora of plants in a small space and still have an orderly landscape.
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A method to the madness. The outdoor eating area instills a focus and order on the back garden that can balance the exuberance of all the plants that surround it.
Different space, different palette. To bring order to a space and to make it unique, the color palettes of the front, side, and back gardens all rely on different groups of colors.
What’s a plant lover to do? ‘Byakko’ Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum‘Byakko’, Zones 4–9) is too awesome to pass up, but where should it go? Its strong white variegation means it needs to go in the front garden, where it will best mesh with the color scheme.
Balance doesn’t mean “matchy-matchy.” The Chocolate Chip ajuga (Ajuga reptans ‘Valfredda’, Zones 4–9) checkerboard is another element that creates a strong design. It extends across the front path but is not the same scale.
Turn a collection into a combination. The foliage of ‘Luna Moth’ hosta (Hosta‘Luna Moth’, Zones 3–9) echoes that of the numerous epimediums (Epimediumspp. and cvs., Zones 4–9) in the garden.
