šļø70+ Landscape Design Mistakes: https://www.prettypurpledoor.com/landscape-design-mistakes/
šļøGarden Color Schemes: https://www.prettypurpledoor.com/garden-color-schemes
šļø3 Gardening Secrets Training: https://go.prettypurpledoor.com/secretrevealyt
šļøGarden Color Tips Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXY-JJidTXYUxvF-1uJS9KQBsedW5f4DL
šļøLandscaping Mistakes Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXY-JJidTXYVCm2_fvOjI_bYMXXsaagAh
Garden Color Mistakes
Color plays a pivotal role in shaping the ambiance and visual appeal of your landscape. However, navigating the color wheel requires a thoughtful approach and a little bit of planning (and self control).
In this video, Iāll share ways to create a vibrant and cohesive color palette that adds allure to every season. Avoiding these color missteps will ensure your garden is beautiful and cohesive throughout the year.
Mistake 5: Not Choosing a Color Scheme
Mistake 4: Using Too Many Colors
Mistake 3: Not Having Color in Every Season
Mistake 2: Not Being Bold Enough with Color
Mistake 1: Using Colors That Clash
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š·Helping you create a vibrant, manageable 4-season landscape that is uniquely you.š·
Iām Amy and I help home gardeners design landscapes that are uniquely you.
3 Gardening Secrets Revealed (Free Training): https://go.prettypurpledoor.com/secretrevealyt
Free Plant Pairing Guide: https://prettypurpledoor.com/guides
color plays such an important role in your garden design in any kind of design really so in this video I want to cover some of the top mistakes that I see homeowners making when it comes to color and color schemes and using color in their garden and then I’m going to give you lots of tips for achieving a beautiful color scheme at home so that you can have that Garden that you’ve always dreamed of my name is Amy and over at pretty purple door I help home gardeners design Landscapes that are uniquely used so let’s get into these mistakes and solutions for color mistake number five is not actually choosing a color scheme and a lot of times when people come to me asking for help with their Gardens they say things like it doesn’t feel cohesive the garden doesn’t feel like it flows together and a lot of times that’s because there actually is no color scheme in their garden and things are just not flowing together they don’t feel like the same space when you go from one area to another so actually choosing a color scheme ahead of time is going to save you so much time and so much frustration the biggest thing that I hear my students say is that when they go to the Garden Center it really Narrows down their choices and not in a bad way it’s just that when you go to a nursery there’s so many options and there’s millions of plants and it could take you all day to get through all those plants but if you go with a color scheme in mind first it really cuts down on how many decisions you have to make and the choices you have to make you can kind of just stick to the purple and yellow flowers and pick from there and it’s just going to make it a lot easier and you’re going to know that everything that you choose is going to go together at least visually by color as a designer who was actually trained in color theory and I took college classes on it uh this is really my jam I love talking about color and I have an awesome article on my website I’ll leave a link to that in the description below that goes over all different color schemes for your garden that you can try out at home mistake number four is using too many colors in your landscape design and I know it’s really easy to get bombarded with all of the beautiful choices that you have and kind of pick too many colors but again this is the reason why it often doesn’t feel like it flows or goes together when you’re new to color and you’re not really trained in how colors work together my biggest advice is to stick to one color at first just choose a main color for your garden and that doesn’t need to be as boring as you’re probably thinking in your head if you choose purple for your color for example you can have really bright purple flowers and then you can mix them with really light lavender colored flowers you can even choose foliage that’s really a dark burgundy color so there’s a whole spectrum of color that you can choose from even if you’re just using purple so think about that and as you get better at understanding color and you know that all of those plants are going to go together because they’re all in the same color family then you can start to add to that and kind of build your garden out from there make sure you check out that article in the description below for how you would do that but even in that article I’m recommending starting with one main color for your garden to keep it feeling cohesive and make it flow and again this just makes your shopping experience and choosing plants a lot easier and a lot more fun to do instead of just being overwhelmed all the time when you’re trying to make those choices mistake number three is not having color in all of the seasons so I find this to be really common where a homeowner will choose perennials but then they find that it only looks really nice in Spring and then by summer everything Putters out and by Fall just forget about it there’s nothing going on so make sure that you’re thinking about all the seasons of the year when you’re choosing those plants and kind of learning about when they bloom so that you can make the right choices so that you have a little bit of color going throughout the year first try to think about obviously spring summer fall and winter and then in my designer Forest is and garden course we get a lot more nitty-gritty about that and we even go into early spring mid spring late spring early summer Midsummer late Summer On and On so there are definitely Seasons not just the Four Seasons but with perennials they don’t Bloom for as long of a time so you have to kind of keep replacing what’s going on so that you have color all year long and another option if you’re not into just trying to figure that whole thing out is you can choose some annuals so annual plants typically will Bloom for the entire season from the time that they start blooming basically until Frost if you live in a colder climate so adding or supplementing with annual plants in the same color scheme is a really good option to keep that color flowing from season to season if it’s feeling like it’s a little dull in different seasons of the year and if you liked that tip you’re going to love my three garden design Secrets training it’s about an hour long and I do talk a lot about creating Four Season interest in your landscape totally free I’ll leave a link in the description below so you can sign up and check that out mistake number two is not being bold enough with color so earlier I talked about choosing just that one color and building your scheme from there but like I said there’s nothing wrong with doing that and getting started in that way and there’s nothing wrong with creating like a specialty Garden like a moon Garden or something that just has one color in it but I find that people are either on that Spectrum where they are going too crazy and choosing Too Many Colors or they’re not choosing enough colors or not making enough of a statement in their Garden so being a little bit Bolder with your color choices can really add a lot of impact to your design not just color but foliage can work too so i’ consider if you are doing a landscape and it’s just feeling a little meh you may want to pick another kind of a showcase or a focal point plant that is in an opposite color of what you’re using in your landscape to really draw attention to that space and just don’t be afraid to experiment and be a little bold with color at times it can really help move the eye around the landscape and make it feel more energizing and more vibrant and just a lot more interesting obviously that’s not for everyone you can go with a really calm relaxing space and not a lot of boldness or not a lot of contrast in it but if you’re feeling like you need that little pickme up try adding a contrasting color or something bold to your design and mistake number one is using colors that actually clash and this is a whole thing with colored Theory 2 where there are just colors that don’t really go so well together I don’t want to discourage anyone from using the colors they love in their landscape but this can be a problem and if you’re finding that in your garden you may want to kind of revise things so one of the biggest color clashes that I see in gardens is using a really bright red with really bright magenta and I’m not saying that red doesn’t go with pink or that you can’t put those two together but oftentimes because red is so vibrant and so bold and so is magenta when you put these two together they can really Clash so things that you can do to prevent these types of things is number one you can separate bright bold red from the bright pink magenta colors uh put something in between them so that they’re not planted right next to each other another thing like I said earlier is you can kind of stick to the same color family and just play with the variations of color inside of that family so instead of just having very very bright bold everything you could do light pinks and dark pinks and brighter Bolder ones in the middle and just stick within that color family you really want to make sure that you’re not making things clash and making it too hard to really discern what’s going on in that garden bed color plays such an important role for how we feel in our Gardens different colors actually have different meanings and it’s really fun to start exploring that so I really do recommend you check out that article in the description below for some ideas of like what blue means and what purples can mean and what bright yellow Sunny yellow means to people and you can actually build a really cool color scheme just based on like the feelings of what these colors really mean to you I think it’s a really fun way to design a garden and if you’re looking for some more inspiration I have lots of other color theory videos on this channel I also have have a lot of other mistakes Style videos like this one so I’m going to leave some suggestions for you right here and I’ll see you over in that next [Music] video
45 Comments
omg thank you so much for the great tips!!
Hello! I have a small garden, I just removed sod there. I need dwarf shrubs and some evergreens. Size should be under 3 ft. I like the Tater tot Arborvitae and plan on putting a small white gardenia tree in the pot. I also like coleus on the boarder. Question, do you have any suggestions for color in the middle? I do like the candy corn shrub but i'm not sure if the color will fit and definitely like the lil ditty viburnum but they seem to be all sold out. Pls help, I have a blank slate
We have a big side yard with defined flower beds. I have a different color scheme selected for each one. Large bed going down the side of the house: purple, white with some yellow. First circle: bold colors dark reds, dark purple. Second circle: pastel colors focusing on coral, but some peach, yellow, orange and a tiny bit of purple. One landscape designer we had a long time ago said to not focus on color, but I like all colors, but just not together and find it helpful to have some color scheme.
Thatās my problem too. When at the nursery, I see what I like & forget about color coordinating.. and then my garden ends up looking kind of hodge-podgy. Color coordinating is something Iām trying to work on.
This is why I always stay away from red flowers š I have red salvia and I have no idea where to put them in my garden
Great tips! Many comments here are almost taking offense to having to set parameters for garden color, but I really appreciate suggestions as to how to make my garden landscape flow nicely. Thank you so much! I know where I must start ā¦ I have a great spring and summer garden, but itās sort of dull in fall and winter.
If only we all had huge budgets to buy all plants at once. I started with an empty and large yard. For now im adopting all of the plants I can lay my hands on and starting a lot from seeds. I have no idea what will grow well and what not at our high altitude and super short season. Ill trow everything in and will edit later. I would say the biggest mistake people make in a garden is spacing out plants too far and not planting in masses.
Personal preference
I love color so much and how can I stick to one coral bell! š Theyāre all so beautiful, and itās hard to be cohesive when the front of my house is quite literally half shade and half full sun my poor coral bells just were not surviving in full sun. Thatās my hardest part with staying cohesive any suggestions when quite literally half the front of my house is full sun and the other half mostly shade? We have a big Japanese maple in the front of the house that only covers one side other half is straight sun ALL day.
Yes! You are spot on! For the first few years I gardened I could never figure out why I wasnāt happy with how it looked. Until I realized that it just all looked jumbled because of too many colors! So when I see something I want that doesnāt fit color scheme, I put it in a pot! that way it doesnāt disrupt the cohesiveness of the rest of the garden. Thanks for the advice.
Excellent points! It drives me crazy to see commercial landscaping all over the place with color. Pastel pinks, warm reds and marigolds. No just no.
I love black! Thankfully, I garden for other reasons. Color is so important in a garden and for me stepping out of my color comfort zone means gardening with someone elseās taste in mind. I donāt like gardens that look too formal but I also donāt like really messy gardens. I think having a color palette is very helpful. Thanks for the tips!
Mine would probably end up in the examples of what not to do š
I plant native plants. The color palette is very limited. When you value supporting wildlife over how it looks to humans, color theory is of zero value.
sheesh!! So many snarky comments!! Some people are interested in learning about color theory which can get truly complex, so having some easy to practice tips is helpful.
Mistakes?
I would say options, combinations, preferences or whatever.
Flowers have nuances of memories, dreams, happiness, freedom… And always have mother nature as cocreator.
I do white, blue, purple, and pink (different shades of each) by the house and it looks cohesive. We want that flow for our house front. But by the greenhouse I have more variety of colors. Yellows and reds mixed in.
I went to interior design school, but now doing landscape and garden design. Color has always been a huge part of my consideration, in just everyday life even. Clothes, decor, gardens, my guitars and guitar pedals, heck even my car/trailor/branding signage. Iām thinking about replacing my car for the business in the next year or two and whenever I see a good deal itās ALWAYS the wrong color. š So I 100% agree with you on this. Color theory, moods, goals for feeling, itās all hugely important.
I call myself a color snob. I use purple and orange in my back yard and purple and pink in my front yard. Occasionally I use something different but most of the time I just use those colors. I really enjoyed your video.
Use colour wheel
To each their own. I personally garden on a tight budget. I like to pick up plants on clearance and revive them and so I have lots of colors and textures everywhere. The pollinators love my garden.
I was just on 'Proven Winners' yesterday on their color scheme selection. Today I saw this. Thank you. One more THING: I can't remember what video of yours I learned about using odd number of the same plant. Using even numbers seemed logical for me. Well, this year we made an effort to start by buying three of each; or if we had one or two already, bought enough to bring it up to three or five of each. What a difference!! Now my goal is to see where this method can be done with whatever is already rooted in my garden beds.
As a gardener, Iāve not reached the point of worrying about the colors yet.
Wow! Great video!
Greeting's from Ireland, Interesting video, For me over the year's the main consideration is not colour but that the flower is bee and insect friendly. I like the natural look but that's just me. At the end of the day no matter what your garden looks like as long as it's make's you happy that's what's count's.
Good advice, good information, good in every way.
These are very useful tips. I donāt work this way at all though, for a number of reasons. One reason is that Iām very much a plant collector. I donāt repeat a lot of plants because it would be cost prohibitive. So until they can be divided I achieve the visual effect of repetition by utilizing plants with similar characteristics in the same bed, for example I have hostas, Solomonās seal and fatsia that all have a wide white margin interspersed with purple foliage plants and a few chartreuse accents. It works out eventually. But it takes a while to find suitable plants to create a design. I end up moving things around a lot. And frankly the process can be somewhat agonizing at times.
If itās possible Iād definitely recommend buying at least 3 of each plant. It generally makes it so much easier to create a cohesive garden
šš
Please donāt listen to influencers and plant what you like. Nobody needs ādesignerā gardens, like nobody needs designer bags. It is your garden , make it yours!
Talk about clashing colors; I seem to be in the minority about this, but I think white is the ultimate 'clash'. Everyone says it sets off other colors, but I disagree; it just sticks out like a sore thumb. In my opinion, it just doesn't go with anything. Well, maybe silver, green, perhaps pale colors, but with bright colors it just doesn't. And I'm just not fond of white anyway(maybe it's years living through winters in the midwest, lol). I love bright and deep colors! Although some of the most exquisitely scented flowers are white: gardenia, tuberose, jasmine, white gingers, lily of the valley, citrus blossoms, the Singapore and Celadine plumerias, white champaca.
Red and magenta may not work(I think it's because they are too close on the color wheel) but I love bright orange with magenta or deep, bright pink. And joining that partnership with purple or violet, or yellow, or lime green is amazing in my opinion.
I have a very large garden and try to let the color palette change as it goes from one area to another. My problem is that plants are not always what they claim to be. By the time I realize this it is too late to return them. The only choice is to move them, toss them, or live with it.
Itās called personal preference and itās the joy of gardening. There are no āmistakesā. How patronising.
You can add white to any color scheme and it will augment the look
Yikes, Iām encouraged when the plant actually decides to show up for the season! Actually, I donāt think Mother Nature had a well developed style sense. I donāt think they get embarrassed when the plant beside them decides to show up with in electric blue and itās wearing a muted blue.
Foliage colors are important.
Wow, I do the opposite of this. I think itās just that our brains work differently that everyone has such differing opinions on this. You either view things as a whole where everything has to coordinate or you view it as individual plants that happen to be next to each other. When I look at a plant, Iām looking at IT. How pretty the flowers are, maybe the leaves are variegated in a pretty way. I donāt care what itās next to. I only see the plant Iām looking at, till I look at its neighbor and then Iām seeing that one. Other people seem to see things zoomed out. Like āhmm no, that color in the corner is clashing with that color in that other corner.ā And theyāre both valid ways to enjoy your garden. Whatever makes you happy, is the right way to do it.
I chose white flowering plants to plant all around..lots of different types of white/yellow daisy's and now im adding some colors. Thank you for sharing this
In the woods or forest, all colors grow together. They don't have a set pattern. They don't say I am blue and you are red so we shouldn't grow next to each other. This is good advice for someone who is looking for perfection amd unity, but gardening should be fun and enjoyable no matter what you plant together, you can always move it if it doesn't work for you. Thank you for the ideas.
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While a lot of color can be unappealing at times in a garden, often it can be quite beautiful . I believe the key is more about arrangement and balance. For my eyes if I only see one of every color it doesn't work well. If I see many colors but they repeat, are in drifts or balanced it does. I like many types from one color to many. It depends on how it's done. Vicki
I love this video and the message. Iām trying to create a small romantic flower bed and the only colors I have so far are soft peach and a dark red. What other color could I add to enhance that maybe a dark purple? I do have two dark green hedges as a backdrop. iām trying to be really careful because I donāt want buyers regret when I see some thing I like, but I know the color it wonāt blend. Iām glad to have found your channel.
I'm planning a gre and yellow garden. This motivates me.
I love a whimsical garden with lots of color but I definitely wished I watched a couple of your videos before I did my spring planting .so many great tips.
Nature doesnāt pick colours or plants that coordinateā¦
Do exactly as you please
I just made this mistake yesterday!š±red and magenta now what? Donāt want to replant
No such thing as wrong colors or too many colors in a flower garden just because you say so.