Monochrome (one-color) Compositions In The Garden

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Recently, monochrome color compositions have become increasingly popular among gardeners. On the one hand, they are simple in structure, on the other hand, they are correctly selected, they can look more spectacular than many variegated flower beds. When starting to create a garden, it is necessary to think over its composition and structure in advance. But if the plan for the location of curtains, flower beds, planting trees and even the location of the garden can be easily represented on a scale on paper, then it is much more difficult to accurately create the color composition of the garden. Color composition is a combination of color spots in space, organized in a certain pattern and designed for aesthetic perception.

If you put into practice the theory of color borrowed from painting, you can achieve beautiful combinations, even without having much experience in creating landscapes. In color theory, there are three primary (yellow, red and blue) and three composite (or derivatives) colors, obtained by mixing the primary (orange, green and purple). Warm colors include yellow, orange and red. In any composition, they always stand out and serve as the main accent, visually bringing the flower garden closer to the observer. Green, blue and purple are cold colors, they visually make the composition separate. Plants with blue and blue flowers are often planted to deepen perspective along the border of the garden, or to accentuate the shade under trees in the garden.

There are several principles of color combinations that are used in creating gardens. When creating monochrome color compositions in the garden, various shades and tones of the same color are combined. Some shades will be lighter than the main tone, others will be darker. For example, it can be a combination of blue and various shades of blue and purple, or (depending on the taste of the owner of the garden) red and orange. Many classic gardens are based on a monochromatic color scheme. There is a wide range of perennial and annual flowers on sale in various colors, which makes it quite easy to create such combinations.

In a monochrome garden, a mood is immediately formed that matches the general tone. Although monochrome color compositions seem simple in structure, there are a number of rules for their use in the garden.

Red shades of flowers improve mood, add vigor. It is easy and pleasant to create such compositions - a lot of plants have a red tint at least at one of the stages of development. The red bark of many ornamental shrubs adorns the garden even in winter.

Yellow color brings a sense of celebration and the presence of the sun to the garden in any weather. Golden and sunny shades in the garden cheer up. A garden dominated by yellow-orange colors will remind you of the sun and warmth even on the most cloudy day.

A blue-blue garden is soothing, peace and openness are the mood of a blue garden. The romantic garden is perfect for experimenting with blue. All shades of blue are cool colors, and a garden that uses this color scheme will look cool even on a hot summer day.

Pink shades are also characteristic of romantic-style gardens, warm pink-raspberry tones are cozy and calm.

The purple color of the garden evokes fantasies, it is mystical, but exquisitely beautiful.

A garden of white and silver flowers is traditionally considered a symbol of purity, and although such a composition requires especially careful maintenance, in the evenings the bright and mysterious white garden is very beautiful.

Placing a monochrome composition

When creating a monochrome composition, it should be borne in mind that under different lighting conditions, plants of the same color are perceived differently. In bright sunlight, a person's ability to distinguish colors is dulled, and in daylight, but not in the sun, colors of warm (yellow-orange) tones appear brighter than colors of colder (blue-violet) tones.

Thus, even a perfectly composed but poorly placed color composition can look bad. There are a number of subtleties here, depending on the chosen base color. In a well-lit place, the pale-colored flowers of a romantic pink arrangement will appear to have burnt out, and the weak contrast of light shades will cause eye strain. In such a poorly located light garden, a subjective feeling of "stuffiness" often arises, although in fact the garden can be perfectly ventilated.

When creating a garden in red tones based on shades of foliage, keep in mind that plants with dark foliage love the sun. In the shade, their foliage loses color and most plants turn green. In addition, deprived of the sun, they are susceptible to various diseases, which significantly reduces their decorative effect. Therefore, the composition in red colors should be located in a well-lit place. One of the first rules to follow when creating a blue garden is to avoid areas with too much shade. This is explained by the fact that the constantly shaded parts of the composition, which have a blue tint, will become almost black and look gloomy.

Therefore, the location of the garden often determines its color composition. As for the combinations of shapes and volumes, the design of a monochrome garden can be either avant-garde, original, including plants that seem incongruous at first glance, or harmonious, classic.

Small architectural elements in a monochrome garden

A common mistake that novice lovers of landscape design make when creating a monochrome composition is adding small architectural elements of the same color to the composition as the entire intended composition. And in many "for dummies" manuals, color elements are often mentioned as a necessary component of monochrome gardens. However, this is wrong.

Remember: adding bright colored elements of artificial origin to a monochrome garden will not support the composition at all, but will destroy it. The fact is that any artificial object in the garden (statue, gazebo, bench, etc.), painted in a bright, precisely defined color, will look much richer than the natural palette of the garden - and as a result, the whole effect will be lost. The result is a garden in which, first of all, they pay attention to the colored pergolas or a bright bridge, and only then to the plants. Thus, the result will be the opposite of intention.

Therefore, it is necessary to carefully select small architectural elements for a monochrome garden - let it be better if they are a neutral dark green color or a pale shade coming from the main color. It is much better to use natural elements to enhance the color in the garden. For example, a small pond or an artificial body of water that reflects a blue sky is the best way to support the overall tone in a blue garden. This element will not become a solid spot (like a blue statue), but will mix the blue color with clouds, reflection of plants in water, etc. However, you should not go to the opposite extreme: to give the garden compositional completeness, it is still desirable to select decorative elements and small forms taking into account the general color scheme of the garden.

Monochrome green compositions

The pinnacle of the landscape architect's skill is the creation of a monochrome garden built on shades of green. Such garden compositions are ideal for resting from city life and relieving eye strain, therefore, they are most often created if the owners go to the garden only for the weekend. Since very often this is the life of most modern townspeople, the monochrome green garden deserves a special mention.

It seems that it could be easier, because most plants are green. However, this is where the difficulty lies: each shade of green on closer inspection turns out to be mixed with yellow, then blue, then red. A simple combination of different plants without taking into account their color palette gives the effect of unnecessary variegation. Let's remember - even herbs for lawn mixtures are selected based on the shades of the leaves of cereals: rich green, golden, bluish.

With the right layout, monochrome compositions will not look boring; on the contrary, you will be constantly amazed at the variety of shades and shapes created by nature. In addition, it is in such compositions that the neighborhood of plants with different foliage looks especially impressive. Indeed, due to the diversity of traditional flower beds, mixborders and even larger arrays, we often simply do not pay attention to the leaves. Here they will play one of the main roles.

An extremely impressive garden can be created by choosing plants in which leaves, flowers, fruits, replacing each other in time, will give the plantings the same color. At the same time, gardens look most beautiful, in which both woody and herbaceous plants are used, having different shades of the same color.

Coniferous plants, which retain their decorative effect in winter, can become the curtain for such compositions in our climate. The range of their shades is unusually large. Many varieties of different heights and shapes have been created. For example, Conica is the most popular dwarf variety of conical spruce with bluish-green, very dense needles, 1 m high. Junipers and fir are also diverse. Among the pines familiar to the look, the most unpretentious and decorative mountain pine is a shrub that has many forms, suitable for various combinations.

The varieties of thuja western are unusually good for a monochrome garden, they are unpretentious and shade-tolerant. Brabant (light green needles), Columna (dark green needles) and Smaragd (extraordinary emerald-colored thuja) have beautiful shades. Bright, spectacular globular varieties - Danica and Globosa - will also easily fit into many compositions in the foreground and middle ground.

Of course, interspersed with related shades cannot be avoided, but this gives some variety in the garden without breaking the general harmony. Flowering plants must be selected very carefully. Here is a rough list of plants that can go well with a monochrome green arrangement.

In spring, right after the snow melts, green-flowered tulips of the varieties Green Land, Spring Green, China Town, whose petals are decorated with a greenish strip in the center, will set the general tone in your garden; hellebore, in which inconspicuous flowers are hidden among large green bracts. Recently, there have been many daffodils with greenish-white petals: Rockall, Green Island, Liberty Bells.

In summer, the composition will be supported by a wide range of flowers. Despite the many common variegated varieties, there is also an antirrinum (snapdragon) with delicate greenish-white flowers, for example, the Rocket Lemon variety. Sage green, the tops of the shoots of which are decorated with snow-white leaves with green veins, can become an excellent element of a flower garden, just like Italian bristle with thick large inflorescences-ears of olive-green color. Graceful zinnia Envi with a large hemispherical inflorescence looks very impressive thanks to the pale green ligulate flowers with a bluish tint and silvery-gray tubular flowers. Of course, it is worth remembering the cuff, which forms lace rosettes of graceful bright green leaves, above which the brushes of greenish-yellow flowers rise, and the wonderful hosts, striking with a variety of leaf shades.and suitable as a background (and sometimes tapeworm) in most green compositions. Even green roses have been bred: for example, the Lovely Green rose has an exquisite narrow-rounded flower shape, and its petals are greenish-cream.

In autumn, the green gladiolus flowers of the varieties Green Snowflake, Dubravushka, Green Ice will pick up the baton. Phlox paniculata of the Empty Feeling variety is not inferior to them in beauty - there are no petals, pistils and stamens in its flower, since all of them have transformed into green leaves.

Vines of various shades will also look great in the garden: dark green shoots of maiden grapes, juicy whips of hops or light velvety leaves of actinidia. Despite all the advantages of a green garden, you should not decide the entire garden in such a color scheme, especially if you are a beginner amateur landscape painter. Several places should be allocated for bright blotches, for example, flower beds, which inside themselves can also be solved in a certain color scheme.