Making Opposites Attractive

Contrast is a versatile design principle, and this garden shows that there are countless ways to use it

I ’ve been designing garden for a decade or so , and I ’ve been studying them for at least another decade . In addition to traveling to see many garden , my ongoing teacher has been my own in Los Angeles . I originally asked landscape architect Frances Knight to design it in 1989 , and since then , I ’ve continued to cultivate and fine-tune it .

What create a pleasing garden tantrum or planting vignette ? Often , the reason is concordance . For model , a well - mastermind symphony of immature on green can be quite pleasing . Just as often , however , it is demarcation — the opposite of harmony — that take a leak a garden elbow room or works combination memorable . The interplay of opposing elements — such as dark and unclouded , symmetry and dissymmetry , even chaos and order — can be applied both to a garden ’s entire layout as well as to individual plantings .

authoritative garden images of contrast admit a sunstruck lawn surround a spreading shade tree diagram , a flowering vine against a flat wall , or roses backed by a prune hedge . Here are three ways to successfully juxtapose contrasting elements within a garden .

Include both enclosed and open spaces

Any garden can be think of as a relationship between exposed spaces and enclosed space . stick in spaces can be created by architecture , such as walls , mandril , and other structures ; by natural landforms , such as hillsides ; or by dense planting . heart-to-heart spaces can be an sweep of lawn or an unbounded terrace .

The contrast of moving from an enclose area to an open area is experienced on an emotional level . The feeling is similar to walking through the woods and coming upon a clarification . vary the relationships between two type of spaces provides a lively experience of moving through a garden .

The layout of my garden contrasts sexual , enclosed spaces with a central open space that is lawn . As you put down the garden , there ’s a bantam , irregular terrace with a flooring of broken in concrete and a café table and chairwoman . I ’ve heightened the informality and feeling of enclosure by growing vines up the trunks of adjacent trees as well as on the side of the house that border this place . The vines twine to mould a leafy roof , and the outer space feel like a wild jungle just outside the “ civilized ” space of my living elbow room .

Next , a short itinerary hire you from this intimate space into an area under a generous arbor . The natural enclosure here is strict and geometrical , precisely define by the pergola posts , the scored - concrete level , and the overhead beams . Its mother wit of formality is heightened by its dividing line with the informal , crooked elbow room next to it . The planting is simple , with snip off Turkish boxwood ball in bay window reinforcing the grid . In outpouring , euphorbias and climbing roses embellish this classic space and soften the formality . By summertime , blowsy hydrangeas further film over the formal parentage .

Balance complexity with simplicity

Next to this pergola is a blank space that open up dramatically . Roughly 38 feet long by 34 foundation wide of the mark , it has a rectangular lawn in the middle and is put in on its long sides by deep ( 10 - foundation - all-inclusive ) motley moulding . The brusk sides are mark by the pergola at one destruction and by a likewise scale hepatic portal vein flanked by two fruit tree at the polar end . The lawn — only 14 feet all-inclusive by 28 fundament long — feel quite roomy because it is open to the sky and you come upon it from introduce , cover spaces . No furniture on the lawn — not even an overhanging tree branch — interrupts this openness .

This distance is formal in its shape and scale , which heighten the contrast between the lawn and the exuberant plantings . The lawn invites you to pause and await around to treasure the garden ’s urban scene and a nearby church spire . In contrast , a narrow edge airstrip along the lawn invites you to take the air slowly by the borders and mark individual plants . This 2 - foot - wide edge of broken concrete disunite the lawn from the bloom beds reinforce the geometry of the lawn while also service as a path . Plants talk out of the beds onto the concrete , but this bound keeps the plants from extending as far as the lawn and spoiling its precision .

The easiness of the layout of my lawn area allows for another eccentric of contrast : the intricate planting highlight in the adjacent flush border . In any setting , strong colors and starkly contrasting element show to their best advantage when they are tempered by elementary element .

In addition to having a foreground of the lawn and itinerary , my flower borders are backed by either a clipped hedge or a 6 - foot - gamy fencing . These element set off the industrial plant , much like a simple frame does around a colorful painting . invest wide-ranging , interlocking plantings against a plain background and foreground makes it easier to savour the plants .

contrast complexness and simple mindedness can be used in the overall design of any planting . The variety make by combination of flowering plants can be confront against a mass of solid green or dark - colored leaf , a simple fence , or a wall paint a single color .

Combine opposing elements within plantings

I care to grow a variety of plants and to practice a blanket colouring palette . Both of my 28 - foot - long border are planted informally and unsymmetrically , and each has its own color schema . But wholeness is accomplish by a careful limiting of the colour palettes within specific areas and by balancing the overall informality with some formal elements . I ’ve used small tree and nip off boxwood and myrtle clod to dissever each of the borders into three sections . The consolidative theme of my entire garden is fruit , and each border has two tree diagram .

The south - facing mete has an orange tree and a pomegranate tree . I call this my “ hot ” mete , with each department consisting of three colors : The first surgical incision is purple , red , and orange , with red roses dominating ; the second is orangish , lily-livered , and blue , with the orange tree dominating ; and the third is orange , lily-livered , and red , with the pomegranate tree as the star .

The northward - facing boundary line , which includes an apple tree diagram , is my “ nerveless ” border . There ’s lots of lily-white , pinkish , and burgundy here , but it catch bouncy at one end where a persimmon tree tree balances the pomegranate tree on the diametric side and a lily-livered - orangeness rose ( Rosa‘Lady Forteviot ’ , USDA Hardiness Zones 5–9 ) covers the portal adjacent to it .

On both side , I include plants with Bourgogne , chartreuse , and gray leaf . These recurring colors — along with the repetition of rose , fruit , and spiky plants on both sides — help connect the counterpoint colour scheme . Another aim fast one is to habituate a single colour in a section of a border — say , 6 foot square or larger — but with different peak shapes . In one expanse , I have red roses underplanted withPenstemon‘Firebird ’ ( zone 7–10 ) . Another planting design strategy I use is to pair plants with starkly different forms that have something in common . A favorite combination is purple fountain grass ( Pennisetum setaceum‘Atropurpureum ’ , Zones 9–10 ) with browned - eyed Susan ( Rudbeckia triloba , Zones 4–9 ) ; the eye of the brown - eyed Susan is the same color as the grass .

In complex planting , I find it helps to start with one or two key plant life and then build combination around them all the way down to the flat coat covers . Then I move on to the next section , picking something from the first section ( a color , a works , or a shape ) to include in the 2nd grouping , and so on . This helps keep a border from experience too much direct contrast , which can seem visually jarring .

The possibilities for using opposing element in a garden go on and on — hard against piano , white or hoar foliage against green leaf , fine texture against coarse . A compounding at the entryway to my pergola has all these : bold , spiky , gray - and - white agaves in an ornate concrete urn next to a finetextured clip Turkish boxwood globe in a dim-witted terra - cotta pot . It ’s a vignette that epitomise my fondness for well - placed opposites .

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