Garden Design Techniques that will Transform Your Landscape

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall: Create the Illusion of a Bigger Garden

Mirrors work magic in small areas, creating the illusion of a larger garden room. By tactfully placing a mirror to reflect a gorgeous garden or container collection, one can enjoy the display from two different locations, without twice the maintenance.

Or perhaps you have a striking focal point that would also look great "framed" in the mirror. Another idea is siting a mirror so it reflects sunlight into a shady garden nook, allowing for plants that require more sun to thrive. Use your imagination!

Opposites Attract: Using Contrast to Draw Attention

If you want to increase, extend, and intensify color in your garden, think foliage. Leaves are present before, during, and after bloom. Foliage is the easiest way to insert color month after month (perhaps second only to non-living objects), with little labor on your part. Breathtaking displays can be created by combining leaves of various colors and patterns, shapes, sizes, and textures. Some of the most extraordinary gardens I've seen are those with few or no flowers (although these are not beneficial to pollinators).

Pairing large, bold-leaved plants with finer, delicate specimens is particularly striking. I like to think of this combo as 'Beauty and the Beast'. Partnering perennials rodgersia 'Bronze Peacock' (zones 5-8), with its massive, highly textured, bronze leaves and hakonechloa 'All Gold' (zones 5-9), sporting narrow, shiny golden blades, makes a fascinating display in shade. A sunny counterpart would be Rudbeckia maxima (zones 4-9), threadleaf coreopsis 'Zagreb' (zones 4-9) and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) (zones 3-9), all native to North America.

Hulk-leaved perennials include umbrella plant (Darmera peltata, zones 5-7), ornamental rhubarb (Rheum palmatum, zones 3-9), ligularia 'King Kong' (and many others in this genus, zones 4-9), Astilboides tabularis (zones 5–7), and giant hosta, such as 'Big Daddy' and 'Sum and Substance' (zones 3-9). Lacy, airy choices are fringed bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia, zones 3-9), Arkansas blue star (Amsonia hubrechtii, zones 4-9), Mexican feathergrass (Nassella tenuissima, zones 6/7-9), and Vernonia lettermanii 'Southern Cross' (Zones 4–9).

Bring It All Together Now: Creating Unity with Repetition

Repetition is a commonly used design technique to impart flow and consistency in a garden bed. A particular plant or color is the unifying element. This approach has even greater impact when used to unite an entire landscape. Picture all the gardens linking arms with containers, window boxes, hanging baskets, and other outdoor accessories.

The easiest way to accomplish this subtle merger is by repeating a selected color (shades or tints). This color can be echoed in inanimate objects such as containers, outdoor furniture, focal points, pillows and cushions, birdbaths, and more. As far as plants carrying this "color baton," foliage is the simplest means to accomplish this, providing three, if not four, seasons of harmony. Remember to also include unifying foliage plants in containers and other vessels.

As noted, colors can trigger emotions. My twin sister loves her garden jammed with hot colors: masses of orange, fuchsia, and red flowers. After gazing at her beds I feel like I've had five cups of coffee! My younger sister is also partial to sizzling colors. She planted a garden in full sun (that also has a lot of reflected heat from boulders) using only brilliant yellow, red, and orange blooms. This fiery plant palate, combined with the garden's setting, had me begging for a drink! My garden, on the other hand, is composed of mostly cool colors — lavender, purple, blue, soft pink, pale yellow, and silver. I use hot colors as carefully placed "exclamation marks." Having said all of the above, there is no right or wrong when using colors in your garden. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder — yours!