• Home
  • Photos
  • What's On
  • Blogs
    • Gardeners World
    • Esmé's Page
    • Building our Community
    • Recipe of the Month
    • Frenchay Residents
    • Frenchay Place Names
    • Frenchay Mysteries
  • Local News
    • Downend Library
    • Just Run
    • Frenchay Tennis Club
    • Downend & Frenchay Tennis Club
    • Neighbourhood Watch
    • Redrow Updates
    • Frenchay Residents Association Reports 2022 >
      • FRA Reports 2021
      • FRA Reports 2020
    • Local Representatives >
      • From our Parish Councillors
      • From our South Gloucestershire Councillors
    • Biodiversity Group
    • Frenchay Museum
    • Preservation Society
    • Frenchay CE Primary School
    • Frenchay Village Hall
    • Cricket Club
    • Dings Crusaders RFC
    • DRG Frenchay Football Club
    • Frenchay Probus Club
    • Frenchay WI
    • Rockleaze Rangers Football Club
    • Frenchay Foxes
  • Clubs & Societies
  • Information
    • Quick Links
    • Transport
    • Libraries
    • Nature Reserve
  • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
Frenchay Community News

Gardening with Colour through the Seasons

1/4/2021

0 Comments

 
The garden is naturally a colourful place... green grass, brown earth, painted fences and sheds, but it is the foliage and plants that provide the added zing. Gardening for colour is all about creative planning and judicious planting. Spring is an important season because we need something to reassure us that Summer is not far away especially in these strange times. In Winter it is wise to invest in a couple of Winter/Spring flowering  shrubs near the front door, kitchen window, or to be seen from your favourite armchair .
 
There is no need to stick to rigid colour combination rules, experimenting is part of the fun of producing your kind of colour scheme. Some like having a glorious mass of different colours, and in nature they never seem to clash, but knowing how to use colour throughout the different seasons can make a big difference to the final scene. Whether your patch is to be bright and cheery, or a haven of peace and tranquillity, will influence your choices. The hot colours...red, orange, yellow...are exciting, stimulating and demand attention: the cool colours...green, blue, purple, and white… restful calming, and recede into the background. When choosing plants and planning a colourful border, remember to select plants that flower at the same time in order to achieve your scene. As well as colour and flowering season, think about height and contrasts in shape. Tall upright plants like foxgloves, irises and day-lilies mix well with wide flower heads such as sedum and yarrow and spherical heads like alliums and dahlias. The colour value of plants used, i.e. how bright, pale or dark the foliage and flowers are likely to be, bearing in mind that this changes with the season. A small area of light colour in a sea of much darker planting creates a powerful image. Repetition of colour is an old trick to avoid a riot of shades. e.g. if you love red have more than one area if it ...think of block planting of the same  colour plant. Pale colours reflect light and brighten up a shady corner. Bright colours can look vibrant and wonderful in the sun while pastel colours will look pale and insignificant  Cool and pale colours give a sense of depth : bright colours appear closer. Planted at the end of a border,  pale colours make it look longer, while bright colours shorten it. These ideas can apply to colour in the garden all year round, using conifers, trees, bulbs, shrubs, annuals and perennials, and can make an artist out of a gardener.

​Hazel Wyatt
0 Comments
    Picture

    Archives

    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.