I often visit gardens where owners have done a fantastic job of planting all sorts of species, varieties, and cultivars. They look great and are a testimony to hours of time, effort, and care.
Where gardens sometimes fall short is in the understanding of colour. For many folk, the sight of a cornucopia of blazing and clashing colours is a joy to behold: others, I have found, welcome a few thoughts on how colours might best show each other off and might bring out the best in an outdoor space.
The pioneer for a painterly colour consciousness in the garden was Gertrude Jekyll. Spanning both the 19th and 20th Centuries and having trained as an artist, she was highly influential in setting a trend for having subtle colour mixes in the borders of country houses. Out went the rows of garish annuals and in came the bountiful borders that echoed the verges of rural England through the year. As a Hampshire garden designer based in Romsey, I have been hugely influenced by her work.
Her work has special relevance at this time of year when gardens often display their “hottest” colours. Day lilies, montbretia, dahlias, sunflowers and many other plants are all screaming “look at me”! So, it can be helpful to understand that the cooler colours such as blues, purples and greys can be used to “calm” the scene down! When used in groupings, they can be even more effective. Green of course, is the great leveler: with the lowest frequency detected by the human eye, the colour green is a balm for any soul.
To understand all this better, I recommend you visit an arts and crafts garden or, more specifically, one designed by Gertrude Jekyll and take notes on what you see. They really are a joy to behold.
In the meantime, there are some very down-to-earth jobs to do in the garden:
• Ensure that your watering regime is in place – especially if you can get away for a break and you have newly planted trees and shrubs. Adding mulch to the base will help.
• Dead head herbaceous plants, not forgetting dahlias and roses: these will all usually give you repeat flowering later in the year.
• Wisteria will need their summer prune. This gives a chance for light and air to ripen sturdier growth and produce better flowers. The technique is to cut back the whippier new tendrils to about 5 x buds, to just above the bud. Do not forget that Wisterias need another chop in late winter.
• Keep ponds topped up with water, preferably “grey” water collected from roof run off. Try to avoid using a hose when everyone in the neighborhood is having a shower or washing up: they won’t thank you when the water pressure drops!
• Cut back rambling roses when they have finished flowering. Be brutal -they are!
• Hedges can be given a final trim before their growth begins to slow down in September.
It is only a few months before you can start to lift, divide, plant and re-jig your borders. Autumn is the best time of year to do this as the soil is still warm and the rains are expected: plants establish themselves better in autumn than in spring. So why not get some colouring pencils and sketch out the colour combinations you would like to see put in place?
There you are: you can now call yourself a garden designer!