Structure, to me, is all important in garden making. Without it, a garden usually looks wimpy, mushy, and kind of inconsequential. There are exceptions, of course, but I’m just saying. Anyhow, I like using manufactured items from time to time, but feel as if the basic bones of a garden should come from its plants. So I work leaf by leaf, and build my garden vignettes by assembling dramatic juxtapositions of foliage. With color I’m conservative, often creating monochromatic yet kaliedoscopic effects by exploring all the subtleties and variations of a single color in a given space. But with leaves, I go all out. Continue Reading →
Hard to say if there’s any such thing as a foolproof garden design strategy, but the principle of repetition comes pretty darn close. The basic idea is simple: use something more than once. And when I say something, I really mean just about anything. You might use two or more of the same container, two or more of the same plant, two or more swatches of the same color, two or more tuteurs, two or more of the same ornament,…or, as I said, two or more of just about anything. Then it’s time for the fun to begin. 
As a dedicated container gardener, my approach to gardening in pots is always evolving. I wrote about my 
Last month I started my seasonal orange bender. It being the color of all kinds of wonderful things, from mangoes to sunsets to campfire embers. I can’t get enough of it–in the garden or elsewhere. So I shared some of my favorite flowers and promised a return to the topic with a post on good leaves for orange themes. Here goes: 