I have always proclaimed an aversion to too much pink in the garden. Whether this is because I have seen too many “My Little Pony” dolls or not I don’t know. However, I do know that, as with many of my other prejudices, I am once again being proved wrong.
Outside my window a cherry and two crab apples are blossoming. On its own, the baby pink of the cherry would turn me off, but adjacent to the whitish pink and the deep cerise of the Malus, the combination is harmonious and vibrant.
So it is with colours in general - it is not just the colours themselves that one has to consider as a Hampshire garden designer when designing a border or choosing materials for a seating area: it is the surrounding colours too. For example, the colour blue will look extraordinarily vibrant when surrounded by a strong yellow: when blue set amongst pale blues and pastel violets the effect will be relaxing: the colours will be recessive, in other words, appearing to be background rather than a yellow which will appear as a foreground colour.
It is worth looking up the classic colour wheel to see which colours complement each other and which do not. You will discover why orange and pink seem to work against each other and are avoided at all costs by most designers (unless you want to draw attention to something or someone!).
These principles apply to all design and almost everyone has an intuitive sense of the dynamics colour. Think traffic lights. Interestingly the colour with the lowest frequency and therefore the most relaxing to the eye is green. Hence the acres of books being written on how gardens and growing things are beneficial to our health. Ask anyone with a dog, a garden, an allotment or a granny and they would tell you that for nothing!
So, when you are not choosing plants, curtains, clothes and cushions there are general maintenance jobs to be undertaken in May:
• Pruning those plants that have been affected by cold winds and the winter such as the Acer or Choisya. Cut back the stems to the healthy growth.
• Cutting back to 10 centimetres from the ground those tender plants that are shrub-like in habit but that are actually herbaceous plants. These include Caryopteris, Fuchsia and Penstemon.
• Putting in plant supports where needed and canes to mark where vulnerable plants are emerging: by doing this they will not be overlooked when watering and weeding.
• Lowering the blade of your lawn mower as the grass becomes more lush and more able to take a finer cut.
• Feeding your lawn with a nitrogen rich fertiliser - preferably an organic one.
• Tying in roses and other climbing plants. Be as brutal as you like when cutting back Clematis montana after it has flowered (short of hacking it down to the ground!).
• Adding compost or manure to the base of shrub and standard roses.
• Dividing and replanting herbaceous plants that have flowered including Brunnera, Pulmonaria and Primula.
• Lifting and dividing daffodils and other spring flowering bulbs.
• Make sure your pond has ledges and access points for wildlife (such as tadpoles) to get in and out of the water. Clear off any excess pond weed.
It is only a matter of time before the shades and hues of the garden begin to explode into life. I challenge you to count up just how many greens alone you can see in your patch. What was that that Shakespeare wrote about “infinite variety”?