Garden design by colour

MIX A PALETTE OF COLOURS... Gardens are about the many shades of colour nature provides. Photo Steve Hutcheson
MIX A PALETTE OF COLOURS… Gardens are about the many shades of colour nature provides. Photo Steve Hutcheson

Whether you’re designing a garden for your new home or from scratch, looking to give your existing garden a revamp, or you’re just keen to learn about how garden design works; there’s some basic fundamentals that are worth noting.

The architectural style of the home and existing garden, or preferred garden spaces can provide both parameters and inspiration for your design. The colours used in the building materials of the house, paths, steps, walls and fence can be used as your starting point, with a view to design your garden’s colours to compliment .

By treating the property’s structural colours as you would the paint on your walls and the plants in your garden as your interior furnishings and decor, you might start to get a sense of your personal garden style.

The colour wheel, composed of half hot or warm colours and the other half cold or cool colours, usefully demonstrates the differences between (planting) harmonious and contrasting colours and tones.

A successful garden design, in addition to displaying complementary colours, group plants together with the considerations of; their required growing conditions, timing of flowering and horticultural compatibility. The availability of light is also evaluated, at various times throughout the day, in different areas and through the different seasons.