Gardening with Texture and Color

I plant the plants; God gives the light.

Late afternoon, when sunbeams wash over the foliage, is the best time in my garden. Sometimes I can capture the ethereal atmosphere on camera. I took the following photos just as I stepped out of my kitchen door. Individual plants aren't recognized so much as the impressionistic colors.

Colorful foliage is an important part of my landscape, especially now as summer arrives and spring blooms recede. Yes, I know, according to the calendar it is still officially spring, but when the temps climb into the nineties as they have done this week, I call it summer! Here in Alabama, green predominates through the hot months. Even the interior of my house has a green tint, from the verdant hues reflected through the windows. But green doesn't have to be boring! I know we want to ignore the garden and hunker inside our air conditioned buildings, but with some planning the exterior can be refreshingly beautiful enough to tempt us outdoors.

A shady woodland garden is a pleasant retreat from the hot sun. There are multiple layers to this garden. I am blessed with mature oaks, hickory trees, and pines. Beneath these tall trees is an understory of dogwoods, redbuds, and Japanese maples. Closer to the ground are many shrubs with various textures and colors. Then there are ground covers, perennials, and lush moss paths to cover the forest floor. The entrance into the Woodland GardenA view of the main planting bed in the Woodland GardenA view through the upper Woodland Garden

I am a tactile person. I like to touch stuff. In my garden are many textures, from pitted stone, hard concrete, rough wood, to soft moss, slick leaves and fuzzy foliage. I have added a few accents, such as the snail pot, for additional interest. The pot is made from a heavy, frost proof clay. I love the heft and smooth feel of it.

1st row: The fern in front of the bench is Autumn fern. Afternoon light has turn the fronds gold; The snail pot contains juncus, a twisty rush. 2nd row: Ground cover indigofera; wild violet and pitted rock. 3rd row: Painted Japanese fern with fuchsia in background; a mossy rock with wild violet foliage.Foliage combinations create character and encourage curiosity in the garden. Leaves have various shapes and colors. Some evergreens are not really green but are yellow or blue.Top: Japanese maple, weeping deodar cedar 'FeelinBlue', and mondo grass. 2nd row: Juniper 'Saybrook Gold'; Weeping Deodar cedar 'Feelin Blue'. 3rd row: Japanese maple 'Waterfall'; Groundcover indigofera in front of iris foliage.Other plants are variegated. They may have spots or stripes. Leaves can be purple, red, white, silver, or a mixture of all the above. Green itself comes in a wide range of hues.

Gardening is three dimensional painting, and the canvas is the earth. Colors and textures can contrast or complement. They should repeat in different degrees throughout the garden to provide unity. Don't be afraid to try something different. The colorful pink, white, and blue-green plant in the second row below is in a pot buried in the ground. I sited it to amplify the rosy stems of the adjacent hydrangea 'Lady in Red' and also to repeat the silvery blue color of nearby artemesia. It is a tropical plant that won't survive the winter, so I will move it indoors when the weather turns cold. 
1st row: An unnamed hosta seedling, possibly a cross between 'Elegans' and 'Francis Williams'. It has huge leaves; Blue stems of hosta 'Elegans'. 2nd row: Deodar cedar 'Feelin Blue'; Stromanthe sanguine 'Tristar. 3rd row: Variegated Jacobs Ladder; Calla lily. 4th row: Heuchera; Epimedium and pulmonaria. 5th row: Heuchra and artemesia; View of woodland planting bed. 6th row: Heuchera blooms.All of this together creates visual appeal. Despite the summer heat and my emphasis on foliage, I do have flowers! I have many flowering shrubs and trees which bloom at different times of the year. This is definitely the easiest way to have flowers throughout the seasons. 

Top: A little critter appreciates the bloom of a Rosa palustris, which is located in a sunnier part of the woodland garden. 2nd row: Rosa palustris; Hydrangea 'Lady in Red'. 3rd row: Goldmound spirea; Hydrangea 'Snowflake'.Soon gardenias will fill the woodlands with their glorious fragrance. And when the deepest, darkest, greenest part of the summer arrives, I will sit pots of annuals here and there. I also am not above cheating. I confess, RARELY, I have stuck artificial flowers in pots and put them in the garden!

There is just no excuse for having a boring garden.

Follow-up: Thanks goes to Rosie of Leaves N Bloom, who identified my tropical plant as Stromanthe sanguinea 'Tristar'. 

My Deep Green Summer Garden

It's late afternoon, just after a thundershower. The sun has returned and shines more gently than earlier in the day. The air is as cool as it will get, on a day in my deep green summer garden. I grab my camera and take a tour, breathing in the moist air.

First I step onto the patio. To my left is a view over the front garden. Across the lawn, lavender crepe myrtles are blooming. They were sold to me as dwarfs, to reach about three feet high. They are triple that and still growing. To my right is the herb bed, centered on a birdhouse and bordered with knockout roses, reliable bloomers even in the summer heat.

I walk down into the arbor garden. This is my favorite spot to sit and listen to the birds.

A  couple of striking plants catch my attention. The first is a magnolia seed pod and the next is caladium with the sun glowing through the leaves.

I stroll across the drive and down into the woodland garden. It is verdant and dripping wet, the sun glinting off raindrops.

Colorful foliage with multiple textures and shades of green provide interest in the summer garden.

I hope you enjoyed this walk through my garden. May the work of your own hands, whatever that may be, bring blessings to those around you.  Deborah