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Designing with color

Container Gardening: Designing with color

Bringing color to your deck, patio, or outside setting can easily be done by planting flowers and plants in containers. The containers can placed in small groups for a dazzling display of color or placed individually to brighten up even the dreariest spot in your yard.

Containers can be placed almost anywhere in the yard. Some of my favorite places to add color include:

near the mailbox

near the garage doors

on an old stump

next to a bench in the yard

When you walk into the nursery to pick out your flowers, it is usually an overwhelming experience if you are new to gardening. There are so many choices and it is hard to imagine what your flowers will look like once you get them home.

Keep these things in mind when you pick your flowers:

Light, water, and food: Try to pick flower and plants that have similar needs, this will make it easier to care for your container plants. For instance, it is extremely difficult to successfully grow both shade loving and sun loving plants in the same pot.

Texture: Make your container garden visually interesting by picking plants and flowers that have different textures.

Height: Be aware of the growing heights of the plants and flowers that you plant in your containers. You want some height difference but you don’t want such a huge height difference that the arrangement will end up looking silly.

Color: Designing with color isn’t difficult if you knew a few simple color and design rules. There are three basic color schemes that once you are familiar with, will make you look like a pro when you design your container garden. Do you remember the color wheel your art teacher showed you in school? Basic knowledge of this wheel will help you create amazing floral displays of color!

1. Analogous color scheme: pick 2 or 3 colors that lie next to each other on the color wheel. This can be done in “cool colors” or “warm colors” depending on the mood you would like to create. Typically cool colors create a soft, mellow, and peaceful feeling; whereas warm colors spice things up with their vibrant hues!

2. Complementary color scheme: pick colors that are opposite or almost opposite on the color wheel. My favorite combination using this color scheme is deep purple and bright yellow.

3. Monochromatic color scheme: pick several shades of one color. I recently made a beautiful container garden using various shades of pink. I cheated a bit and added a few white flowers that had pink centers. White flowers can be combined with all colors and of course a container of all white flowers is breathtaking!

Don’t be afraid to experiment with color. Remember if you don’t like what you have created, it can easily be changed! Container planting is fun because you can change your color schemes with each passing season! Have fun and be creative!

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