How Do You Handle Color In Your Garden?
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How do you all light your gardens?
Comments (13)I put up the mini lights along a much travelled stone path under maples, from my back gate where I park. There is a homicidal stepping stone there that juts out of what becomes a gully in wet seasons and the path is hard to see in the dark. I have never been able to have a flash light, it's either lost, has dead batteries or is not with me when I'd need it. And, one more thing to carry, remember, etc. I got a timer for the mini lights, we're still figuring it out, the plug doesn't fit on the gfi outlet so I have to get a short ext. cord. They are closer together than I want or need, 12" would be perfect, but is unavailable. I'm far from satisfactory solutions yet. Any live flame is out of the question in my main gardens, they're 700-1200' from my house. The best thing so far are some small solar powered spots, 3 in a box with a small solar collector. They're small, black, easy to hide and give off a surprising amount of light. They actually throw light rather than just glowing. The thin, black cords are 25' each and also easy to hide. I'm thinking of getting some more and try someting with orange cloth, since the light is too white. The link shows the kind, though mine were 39.00 and have spikes that push into the ground, or you can tie them to a tree. Here is a link that might be useful: Solar spots (...See Morehow much do you guys save on your grocery bill from your garden?
Comments (20)It would be difficult (and time-consuming) to add that up, but especially if you buy organic vegetables, you will save money. Last year I purchased two kale plants and at the time I bought them I thought they were sort of expensive, I think they were over a dollar apiece. But they produced enormous amounts of kale for many months, until our weather got really hot in the early summer. I think I could have kept them alive through the summer if I had tried, but I needed the space for other things, and by then the kale leaves were tasting bitter. But for all those months, I noticed that organic kale of the same variety at the farmers market was about $4 a bunch. If I had bought just one bunch each week I guess would have saved between $80 and $100 just on kale. I was eating at least that much of it, and giving more away. Then there was the organic looseleaf lettuce I grew. I paid $2 or $3 for a large packet of mixed seed (still using it this year) and also supplied myself, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Organic lettuce was going for $2 to $3 a head but since I cut my lettuce leaves with scissors and let them regrow from the roots, I used the same plants all fall and winter and spring and saved an awful lot of money for myself and others. Beets were another good example. They are ridiculously easy to grow and a seed packet seems to last a lifetime. Yet organic beets (heck, even non-organic fresh beets) are very expensive at the market. Not every vegetable provides such a drastic cost comparison, of course. Zucchini squash is usually pretty cheap at the store, and of course it produces so much on the vine that you want to pay people to take it off your hands. Some other vegetables can be bought cheaply, although if you buy only organic vegetables most of those will cost twice as much as non-organic and that makes your cost comparison with homegrown a little more meaningful. But as most every gardener points out, the taste of homegrown food is much better, and the knowledge that food you grew yourself is safe for you and your family is priceless. When you factor in pride of accomplishment, convenience at cooking time, and the joy and pleasure of being close to nature, the value of gardening rises exponentially....See MoreDo you enjoy your garden, or do you just enjoy gardening?
Comments (22)Well, the party line answer is clearly both, and obviously for me too, there is enjoyment of the process and the results. I think that must be true for any gardener who is involved in the making of their own garden space and who isn't getting paid for doing it. But I find that as I get older and farther down the garden path, I would like to enjoy the results more, and I find that the process itself can sometimes be tedious, expensive, require too much patience, and overwhelming. So I am going to be brutally honest here -- while I enjoy the work of gardening to some extent, if I could hire more people to do more things for me and just enjoy the results myself, I would do it. The problem is that, for the most part, if you are a real plant geek like I am (and a whole lot of others who responded above), you can't really hire people to arrange plants for you in the way you want them. So there is a certain amount that you have to be involved with yourself. Being involved again in the creation of a new garden, and having left a mature one, I have to say that so far, I enjoyed the mature one more. The last few years I spent there I did work a lot in the garden still, of course, but the proportion of time spent just enjoying the garden was greater. That doesn't mean that I was sitting when I enjoyed it. It doesn't mean that I didn't pull a weed or two when I walked with a glass of wine in the evening. But after 20 years working on that space, the garden felt "finished" to a great extent. That doesn't mean that there would never be anything new. But the garden had a certain cohesiveness that is certainly lacking in my new garden. It also had as much seasonal interest as I could pack into 2/3 acre in my rotten climate. So, weather permitting, the garden always had moments of great beauty and enjoyment for me. But then again, I know that one of the reasons the garden meant so much to me is that I had spent 20 years making it. I had watched the trees, shrubs, perennials that I had planted get moved from one place to anohter (NAY he says, "I MOVED them from one place to another"...) until they finally found a place that they (and I) liked. Still garden making takes patience, and it is hard in the early stages not to want more results, with less work at garden making. I think that's one reason why, relatively speaking, I did not take many pictures of the new garden this year -- in the last year I was at my old place I took over a thousand, this year less than 100. A reflection that the garden was more about process than results, so far. One of the greatest times of garden enjoyment I ever remember in my old garden was after a big garden tour. The weeds were all pulled, the plants all relatively pristine (it was mid-June), the crowds were gone, my family and the dog were gone, the walks and drives all neat and clean, no cars or other distractions to be seen. Then I walked through and enjoyed my own garden, for a couple of hours, nobody but me and the hummingbirds and butterflies. One of the best times of garden enjoyment I ever had, along with very early foggy mornings and late summer evenings. Give me more of those, and less back-breaking work, any day.......See MoreHow much do you guys save on your grocery bill from your garden?
Comments (22)We live in the mountains of North Carolina, at 4200 ft. That makes gardening a challenge, since so many days aren't quite as sunny or warm as they are in the valleys. That established, we grew our own tomatoes last year for the first time. We found that the south side of the house was ideal in terms of the quality of the sun, and the duration. We only spent $2.00 per plant at Walmart, and had 5 plants. We didn't spend money on cages. We just staked with stuff we had. We did have to spend on a couple of beers to trap the slugs/snails. We didn't buy a single tomato as long as our plants were producing (which was about July through September). when the harvest ended, it was really a disappointment to have to go back to buying them -pricey and not very tastey. This year we decided to grow veggies in some pots that we had saved from previous nursery plants. We have been experiencing a severe drought in the South East, so we are conserving water. I figure that watering potted plants is more conservation-friendly, since the water doesn't just get swallowed-up by all the dry adjacent soil/plants. We have tomatoes; yellow bell peppers; zuchinni; and yellow squash, all growing in their own individual 5 gallon pots. We also decided to try our own romaine. I planted all nine plants in a large, clear plastic storage tub. We lost two plants to wilt, but the rest have been growing, and we have already been harvesting outer leaves for salads. I suppose the plants will eventually stop producing new leaves in the center, and grow rather leggy, but til then the romaine is really tender and nice. We had to spend more for the plants this year ($2-$3 per plant),and some potting soil, but we had the pots. We did buy some tomato food, too. Being a farmer isn't cheap....See Moreingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years ago
Lisa Adams
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoI rather hate to follow Roselady's grand pictures with one of my own, but that's how it goes. There IS one place I have tried not to be so wild with my seeds and plantings, the front bed. It's meant to be peachy pinks and purpley blues. I added sulfur to the hydrangea this year in hopes of making it blue instead of the usual pink in my alkaline soil. I'll do it a bit sooner next year, as the color change looks a bit incomplete. The hybrid musk rose Felicia, is in the center, although she is down to one cluster of blooms at the moment. Hybrid musk Bubble Bath is to the left on the other trellis, and has been blooming for almost two months now. The screaming pink rose on the right, is The Lovely Fairy. It has got to go. I AM totally accustomed to my crazy combos in the back, but here it actually bothers me. I guess I would like to see what my one try would look like, without one loud mismatch in there. There are Chantilly Peach snapdragons, sweet peas, hardy geranium Orion, clematis Rooguchi, clematis Florida Seboldii, Cerinthe major purpurascens(blue honeywort), and Cynoglossum amabile(Chinese forget me not). Not all are in bloom now, and some are annuals that will self sow. I should work in this bed more often, but it's so "public" and sometimes I don't feel like being seen by every person entering the park nextdoor .Nevertheless, it is my one true try to stay within a color scheme. The Lovely Fairy is always blooming, loaded with thorns, and ruining my one attempt at a color scheme. I just need to DO IT! But in my defense, I did purchase and install a second trellis as per some of your past suggestions:) Lisa
Sorry, that one doesn't show much , and I don't know how to remove it. Let me take a closer one.
Edited to add; I wonder how a "pop" of yellow would look in the Lovely Fairy's place. I do have a small yellow ground cover rose that needs a spot. Anyone with more color sense than me? Lisa
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked Lisa Adams
Cathy Kaufell
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
I have always found that if you add hot colors to your garden it will help the pastels pop.
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked Cathy Kaufell
Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValley
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValleyingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years ago
Cori Ann - H0uzz violated my privacy
6 years agoingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked Cori Ann - H0uzz violated my privacy
HalloBlondie (zone5a) Ontario, Canada
6 years agoingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked HalloBlondie (zone5a) Ontario, CanadaLisa Adams
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoI am horrified! I just wrote the longest, most detailed post I have EVER written on Houzz. It's gone except one crummy last picture. Well this is in the process of being soft chartreuse, white, and pink. Earth Angel(modern Kordes) is in its pot ready to be planted at the corner. I've been killing off grass with the cardboard, so excuse that.
I'm upset! I literally addressed each and every person and then took three pictures. Everything looked fine until this last photo. Then that's all there was. Maybe I wandered too far with my phone from the WiFi connection? No, it shouldn't do that. So sorry and so frustrated! Lisa
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked Lisa Adamsingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years ago
nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska
6 years agoI aspire to the exquisite coordinated elegance of Ingrid or Rosylady or Marlorena or Cori Ann or Carol or Lisa in these absolutely gorgeous pictures, but I know I could never achieve it or if I had it maintain it. My attitude toward color is MORE MORE MORE. The kind of eye-popping color Cathy shows with her wonderful perennials and shrubs is what I'm shooting for and one of the reasons that mixing in companion plants is so important for roses. Even when we have roses that are fully established and blooming well, they have down times and I crave as much color as possible in every spot of the garden. Mostly it's an unobtainable quest, but it's fun to try.
The closest I get to the kinds of color I want in the yard is during bulb season. My philosophy is that everywhere there isn't another rose or other plant there should be a bulb. As closely as I plant my many roses, there is always room for a ton of bulbs (if you don't mind ripping your arms to shreds to plant them each fall - smile). In bulbs I can go crazy and actually plan to have coordinated colors that echo the colors of the roses in the various beds. Below is my OGR (soft cool colors) and hot color rose beds combined, but I do hot color tulips in the whole thing to be an integrated whole. Here was two years ago in May:
Since even the best Darwin tulips only last two or three years when in an irrigated bed with roses, I can keep the same color scheme and vary it each year. Here was this April in almost the exact same shot (tulips were quite early this year):
Just to show I CAN coordinate other colors, here is my front bed of white, apricot and purple tulips (even though these "purples" weren't dark enough for my taste and a little too pink)
...and the peachy-pink-cream pastels of another bed with some maroon thrown in for contrast (yes I have to have contrasting colors in my beds, including roses)
With that effect as my mental goal, I consistently fall short in my rose garden, probably because the roses don't all bloom at the same time in a predictable way like tulips do. The closest I got was in 2013 when all the roses DID bloom at the same time (then I had nothing at all for most of July from the roses). Here's the OGR bed looking something like what I'd envisioned. I purposefully plan for contrast like the dark and light pinks, though the Dr. Huey wasn't planned and was dug out after he made this glorious swan song.
You'd never believe that I meticulously planned which color went with which in these beds, with cool pink/white/burgundy colors on the right and hot orange/yellow/red colors on the left, since roses never quite bloom the colors you think they will. The effect is what I call rose chaos, or in this case color chaos, but this is about as close as this bed has come to what I'm looking for as a whole (also 2013):
A closeup of the right side of that bed shows that I did actually plan coordinated colors (more or less):
Even when the roses cooperate in the colors I want them to be (and since this bed is supposed to be apricot and burgundy, they didn't really), I need to use annuals and other perennials to complement them. Here I want consistent dark purple or burgundy that just isn't reliable in roses, so I use salvias, snapdragons, petunias, and strobilanthes (Persian shield) in various years to add that contrast (this was October 2014):
Toward fall when the asters and salvia are at their best, the roses can be a brilliant spot of contrast that makes you notice them so much more than if they were on their own in a rose-only bed:
The closest I come to Roselady's peaceful serenity of a garden is in the shade beds, where the strongly colored roses don't tend to thrive anyway. Here's midsummer when the sundrops mirrored colors in the hostas and made a spot of brightness among various pinks, creams and the cool greens everywhere. This was a couple of years ago, but the shade garden has this serene effect with occasional color most of the summer:
I know the more strongly colored vivid picotee and striped and saturated colors that I gravitate to are more common in the modern roses, but the deep saturated pinks and purples of many OGRs (especially gallicas) can be heart stopping. I find that even light colors like the pink of Savoy Hotel in the OGR picture (bottom right) can be saturated color to my eye and hold their own against more bold contrasts (and yes, I know Savoy Hotel is a modern rose and not an OGR - I can't be 100% consistent in anything in the garden). In terms of planning color, I try to have at least one rose nearby to complement the accent color of a striped or picotee rose (like putting Lavaglut and Innocensia Vigorosa near Ferdinand Pichard, but if there is a collection of relatively light colors in a spot I naturally reach for a dark pink or red rose to provide some contrast. It probably makes the beds look jumpy in color, but I consider my gardens to be more "popcorns" of color rather than "mousse". Popcorn is loud, fills the available space and is sometimes obnoxious, but it can be irresistible in the right context. Unfortunately, it's also short-lived, but that's why my gardens are never done.Cynthia
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked nippstress - zone 5 Nebraskaingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years ago
mariannese
6 years agoI try to think of colour in the garden but nature and reality so often intervene and upset my plans. My garden is very green from trees, shrubs and grass inherited from previous owners of my fifties garden. There is a small wood to one side and wild plants keep coming in from there into my carefully colourmatched borders. I don't mind strong colours but keep them strictly apart from pastels and whites. My hot bed to the west, backlit in sunset, is seasonal and at its best in spring and autumn. It's early summer here and the woodland edge is a blaze of red singles, Tove Jansson, Rosa pendulina, Rosa moyesii Geranium, Single Cherry and Austrian Copper. They will be over in a few days. In front of them ito the north-west is a mixed bed of yellow daylilies, oriental poppies, orange helianthemums and geums. This bed will be much quieter in summer with lots of heucheras and sedges in brown and bronze and a few shrubs with coloured leaves. In autumn it will be yellow from rudbeckias. Few roses, only the apricot Folksinger and orange Princesse. This border is shady so I recently removed the Austins Summer Song, Lady Hamilton and Lady of Shalott to better places to the east.
Next to it to the south is a white border dominated by a huge Madame Plantier, surrounded by the white rugosa Louise Bugnet with the same red buds as Madame Plantier, three of my few HT's the white Karen Blixen, the polyanthas Katharina Zeimet and Marie Pavie ( I couldn't resist adding some pink and blue to the white), and Jacqueline du Pré. The underplanting is pink and pale blue from viola Belmont Blue and geraniums. Pink phloxes, prairie mallows, astrantia Roma and pale blue delphiniums in high summer. All roses near a white, Nevada, Rosa spaldingii, Madame Hardy, Alba Meidiland. White is very important with our white summer nights.
The long border to the east is predominantly purple and soft yellow with some blue and black added. The rest of the garden is all pink At least that is the general impression although there is some blue, pale yellow and lime green in there.
I have few roses in bloom now, mostly spinosissimas and other wild roses. Roses are late this year because of cold and drought. This is a small part of the thicket of Double White:
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked mariannesemariannese
6 years agoSheila, I was away over the weekend garden visiting with friends to the south of me and saw your question just now. (No rose gardens, mostly rock and bog gardens, not my favourites). I have no photo of Louise Bugnet except this shot by a visitor. You can see just a trace of the red at the back of the open flower but the buds are quite red. There are much better pictures on HMF, especially by marcir.
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked mariannese
WildWhiteRose
6 years agoRosylady - yes, I have enjoyed knowing that these are some of the same roses my grandfather dug trenches around and watered when he lived here briefly in the 1970s. And your hydrangeas and lath house look wonderful together to me! Your yard is very lush and inviting, like a retreat space.
Sonic - thank you for sharing your philosophy on the gardening journey.
Lavenderlace - I can see what you mean about Mister Lincoln. One bud I got was warm red and the second one veered more toward purple. Here is the "warm" one from Mother's Day.
Cathy and Cynthia - the pops of bright color are lovely.
As for my color combinations, it is a bit difficult to capture in the right lighting and bloom time but here are my best tries.
Agapanthus, daylilies, a couple miniature roses (the one on the right is probably Apollo Parade), and a Provence lavender.
Another agapanthus blooming with Julia Child.
I pretend like Tahitian Sunset is a pernetiana next to this red rose (likely Chrysler Imperial). I like the buds as neighbors, in particular, even when the red fades to bluer hues. Hopefully in the future I will have pictures of OGRs to share in this forum.
Justiningrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked WildWhiteRoseingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years agocathz6
6 years agoingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years agomariannese
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoMy husband complains that I'm never satisfied with anything in the garden but I'm almost satisfied with my largest bed because I managed to keep to a color scheme of blue, purple, grey and pink (except a very little yellow) . The roses at the back are hardly visible but they are pink and white. I take no responsibility for the orange blob to the right, it's a lily that just arrived uninvited.
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked marianneseingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years agomariannese
6 years agoThank you Ingrid! You always manage to cheer me up. This bed is actually 8 small beds with paths between them, a good way to handle a very large bed. This is what it looks like in spring:
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked marianneseingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years agoingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years ago
totoro z7b Md
6 years agoHere is the center 3 zones to the left of pathwith deep pink bed in mddle ground
white and blush on the right of the path includes Earth Angel, Bolero, Eden, Sharifa, Sombrueil, Heritage and white peonies and asiatic lilies and pink cala lilies. Needs more silver foliage.
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked totoro z7b Mdingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
monarda_gw
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoI used to have the idea that there were fixed rules that decreed that certain colors didn't go with other colors. I also thought I had certain colors that I preferred -- pale ones. But it hasn't turned out that way in practice. Since you often don't get what you ordered or nature plays tricks, or there is no other place to put something. Now, at best, I regard it as a puzzle - how to make "clashing" colors harmonize, through repetition, echoes, contrast, etc.
Another thing, I have a house with a facing made of warm, brownish, rusticated brick, and it demands warm, intense-ish colors, not pale ones. In my back yard I have chainlink fencing that came with the house and which we decided to cover with horizontal snow fencing. We could only obtain this in a rusty red iron finish, so there it is. What goes with rust?
My thinking about color goes like this: in spring there are yellow daffodils and yellow and white tulips, and -- oh, heck, all colors of tulips look nice together.
Then you have rose season, which is all pink and crimsony purple with a dash of yellow. Enormous amounts of billowing pink and crimson and white and lilac and apricot overflowing everywhere
Then come daylilies, which are fiery yellows and oranges. Lots of orange lilies big and small, and a few red ones. And then one hopes the roses do a second thing and there are some annuals and vegetables and a few perennials, such as sunflowers.
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 thanked monarda_gwingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years agoingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years ago
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