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Designing Your Flower Garden For Year-Round Beauty
By
Michael Russell
Season of bloom: A big mistake that many gardeners make is to buy only what
they see blooming in the garden center in the spring. Their gardens end
 up
looking lovely in spring and early summer, but lack color during the rest of the
summer and fall. A balanced flower garden has about one-third of its plants in
bloom at any given time. Divide your flowering season into thirds (or fourths,
if you live in a long-growth season climate) and choose plants that bloom in
each part of the season. Visit garden centers in mid to late summer to fine
attractive plants that bloom in those seasons
Flower color and form: Gardeners usually make flower color their top priority
when deciding which plants to purchase. Popular garden themes that revolve
around color include single-color plantings, such as white gardens, soft
pastels, bright crayon-box colors, or motifs to match the color of your house.
Although you really can't go wrong in mixing flower colors, some hues naturally
go well together.
Color wheels, which you can find at your local art supply store, show the
rainbow as a circle of colored slices. Color wheel opposites, such as red and
green, orange and blue, purple and yellow complement each other. Colors that
form triangles on the color wheel, such as blue, green-yellow and red-purple,
also make good combinations. A single hue (such as red) has many lighter and
darker colors (such as pink and scarlet) within its family and combining these
make single-color theme gardens more interesting.
Red, yellow and orange - called hot colors - jump out in the landscape and
can appear closer than they are. Blue, green and purple - called cool colors -
blend into the garden and look farther away. Use these colors to achieve certain
effects. Cool colors in a small garden can make it appear larger, for example,
while hot colors draw more attention to street-side plantings. White also stands
out in the landscape, especially in dim light and is useful for planting with
more colorful flowers to brighten or moderate the mix.
Flower size and shape contribute to the plant's overall appearance, too. Add
variety and interest to your garden by blending plants that produce masses of
small flowers with those that bear larger or single blooms.
Plant height and spread: Most gardens have a front, back and middle. To
arrange plants by height, put the shortest ones in the front and tallest in the
back, just like the lineup for a family photograph. Pay attention to the mature
width of your plants and give them the space they need. But watch out for
aggressive plants that travel unbidden throughout your garden. These usually
creep rapidly above- or underground or spread by numerous seeds.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to
Gardening
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell
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