by Sammy Stein

Created on: August 21, 2008

Using flowering plants for your landscaping is one of the best ways to change, enhance or introduce a theme to your garden. The plants can also be used to link areas within the garden, or to link the garden to the house by colour.

Colour is important whether you are designing for tubs, beds or individual plants. You should try to avoid major clashes or one colour dominating the entire garden or flower bed(unless this is intentional).

When planning any arrangement, remember that flowering times differ. If you want a colourful summer display it is no good designing a display of plants which flower at different times. On the other hand, you may be want to landscape a bed which will have blooms from April to September, in which case you will need flowers coming out at different times.

The art of harmony is appreciated close up but contrast is more effective at a distance. To be bold and achieve contrast you must have the more aggressive shades in the primary colour range, but try not to go overboard. Often a simple plan with colours in blocks looks much more impressive than trying to mix colours in complex patterns.

Not everyone is blessed with a good eye for colour, but if you are observant you will soon compensate for this. Gardens based solely around a single colour can be just as effective as a kaleidoscope.

You can use colour to direct people in the garden and offer division, for example plan using the predominant colour of white and you have a very effective method of edging for a lawn or path.It can be even more effective if used with contrasting colours behind such as yellows (to make the space feel larger) or reds and oranges (to make a place feel vibrant and smaller).

As well as the mix of colours, you need to get proportions right. A small tub overflowing with colourful plants is fine close to the house, but placed at the bottom of a garden it will either draw the eye and make the garden seem shorter than it is, or be totally lost (unless it is enormous).

Contrasting colours can be used either for plants next to each other, or with one colour as a carpet and the other as a taller display. For instance an effective spring display could be a low growing carpet of forget-me-not (blue) with the taller plants of tulips in purple or pale pink. Equally effective is a carpet of one colour with the taller plants of the same colour.

Colour patch bedding is a simple but very effective tip for use in small gardens. All you do is fill any available space with small clusters

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