Designing Gardens for Impact

Things You Can Manipulate

Think about using any, or all, of the following to achieve an impact:

Colour

Texture

Movement

Change

Surprise

Features

Colour

Colour is often the most important visual element in a garden. Skilful use of colour can create fascinating effects. When planning a garden based on colour, consider the different effects that colours create.

Complementary colours are those opposite each other on a colour wheel like orange and blue, purple and yellow, red and green. Pairing these colours provides a vivid and stimulating contrast.

Warm colours like reds, oranges and yellows are dramatic and evocative. In a garden, they tend to ‘leap out’ creating excitement – but they can make a garden space feel smaller. It can become overpowering if they are overused.

Cool colours like blues, violets, and greens are less stimulating. They create a peaceful ambience. Also, they tend to recede into the background, making a space feel larger.

Whites and pastels are more subtle often needing a stronger background to be effective. They can be used to reflect light into shaded areas.

To create a dramatic look, you can put warm and cool colours together - the dominant colour will stand out.

Colours that are close together on the colour wheel, e.g. purple, pink, and red, create a harmonious effect.

Massed colour (e.g. planting in drifts) is generally more impactful than individual colours dotted around the garden.

Texture

Texture refers to what the surface of something in a garden feels like or the way it reflects light. It can be rough, smooth, hard, soft, glossy, matt, etc.

A contrast in texture – on foliage, tree bark, or hard landscaping materials – can draw the eye and stimulate the senses just like colour. Consider:

A clump of large soft-leaved plants placed amongst a shrubbery of plants with small spiny leaves.

A low, coarse brick or stone wall in the foreground juxtaposed against a smooth, tall painted timber or metal wall in the background.

Limit the range of different textures otherwise the garden may appear too busy.

Movement

Movement in a garden provides energy and vitality. It can be created in different ways.

By growing plants that attract birds or butterflies. Most butterflies are very specific about plants they lay eggs on, but less fussy about the flowers they feed from. Plants that flower for long periods of the year are most attractive to butterflies.

Birds are attracted to plants for a variety of reasons e.g. to feed on nectar, catch insects attracted to flowers, perch on high branches to spot prey, build nests in dense shrubbery as protection from predators.

Water features also attract wildlife. A bird bath will attract not only birds but also bees and other insects. Fountains and cascades provide a striking visual impact. Water also attracts frogs, lizards, and other animals.

Windmills or moving sculptures activated by air movement.

Tall flexible plants like grasses and bamboos that wave around in the wind. Their arching foliage and feathery flowerheads add to the impact. Also consider plants with delicate foliage – every region has species with this type of foliage.

Plants that ‘move’ themselves. The leaves of some plants (e.g. some in the pea family) move when touched. Some flowers open in sunlight and close at night.

Mirrors that reflect movements to create a bigger impact. Acrylic mirrors are lightweight, durable, easy to install but may scratch, warp and turn yellow over time. Glass mirrors are heavy and may break but provide a clearer image. Water and glossy surfaces e.g. marble or stainless steel can also reflect movements in the garden.

Change

Some gardens look relatively the same all year round. This can be soothing but not stimulating. A garden that changes through the seasons is stimulating. Deciduous plants and other seasonal changes in plants contribute dramatically to change in the garden. Consider:

Flowers come and go. Different bulbs can provide colour from winter through to summer. You can select flowering plants to provide a continuous but ever-changing display throughout the year.

Changes in bark and leaf colour. The silver bark of many plants is much more striking in overcast low light than in bright sunshine. Although evergreens retain most of their leaves throughout the year, they can look less vibrant in winter or during harsh summer conditions.

Many plants follow flowering with attractive fruits or berries. Berries often change colour as they mature e.g. from green to orange, red or black.

Surprise

You can hide parts of the garden so that unexpected sights and experiences are discovered as you journey through it. In a big garden – that can be broken into different areas – fencing, screening shrubs or hedging can be cleverly used to create small garden ‘rooms’ so the whole garden can’t be seen from any one point. Paths can curve to guide you around a corner, or through a gateway and gradually reveal points of interest.

You can also introduce surprise through:

Using perennials or bulbs that pop up at certain times of year.

Using a plant which contrasts with the overall garden theme.

Introducing statuary to otherwise predictable garden layouts.

Features

Features in a garden should grab your attention and invite your gaze. It may be a statue, water feature, a folly, or some hard landscaping such as a wall, pergola, garden building, or a beautiful tree or shrub.

Features act as focal points. Therefore, positioning is important. Consider placing an ornate urn or statue at the end of an axis or where two paths cross. A feature tree could be placed in a central garden bed.

A feature wall can be emphasised by making it stand out e.g. paint it a bright colour or place contrasting coloured or shaped pots in front of it.

A pond could provide visual impact during the day because of its reflections and at night with underwater lighting.

Pergolas provide a vertical plane in a garden. For optimal impact, a pergola should be aligned with windows and doorways of the house but be in proportion to the rest of the garden, and it should integrate the overall garden.

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