Calne-based garden designer, Alex Heath has joined forces with Calne News to bring you monthly garden news.
Alex is the owner of Sulis Design Ltd, a design-only service which focuses on low maintenance, climate resilient gardens and borders for his clients to enjoy and relax in. He also offers a garden lighting design service to create atmosphere, provide security and increase garden usage into the evenings in an environmentally conscious way.
by Alex Heath
We are half way through the gardening calendar and the Gregorian calendar - it is hard to believe.
Whilst the first week of June has been wet, we have experienced a taste of summer with an increasingly common hot May.
Hopefully, despite all the hot weather, your garden has managed to stay green if you took on some of the guidance that David Glass, Head Gardener at Bowood House & Gardens, gave and reported here in Calne News.
Or, if you took part in No Mow May, you saw a difference between the maintained and the natural lawn. There was definitely a marked difference in the number of invertebrates and wildlife in my personal garden, and the longer grass made the lawn much mor resilient during the hot weather, keeping its green colour.
When looking out of the window on your garden space, the most likely thing you will notice is colour, then shapes and forms, then that piece of bind weed that has sprouted overnight. Colour is there to stimulate a reaction in our brains such as to relax or to warn us of danger.
Fast food restaurants have for a long-time used colour theory to boost business: the colour red stimulates our brains to say that we are hungry and there is an urgency that, paired with yellow (a stimulant for friendliness and happiness), creates an environment where we want to eat, be social, are happy and comfortable and less likely to leave.
If you want to create a calming space then your colour palette should predominately use greens. Green sits within the middle of the electromagnetic spectrum of visible light and so our eyes are not stressed by the extremes of ultraviolet and infrared. From a psychological viewpoint, green represents abundance and growth in plants, important for when we were nomadic hunter gatherers.
The inclusion of cooler colours in the spectrum – white, blue and purple – will create a garden that feels abundant and calming as the colours harmonise together creating a cohesive look. The cooler colours will add interest and break up a purely green space.
Colours such as reds, yellows and oranges will create a vibrant and exciting garden which will feel like it is full of life. Red tones will complement the greens, and adding the adjacent colours of yellow and orange will really create an impactful border or pot.
One thing to consider is painting large objects such as sheds, walls and fences (check the ownership of boundaries before painting as there may be costly legal consequences if you don’t) in the darkest colour your can – either a grey or black. These colours make plants pop with colour and cause your eye to look at the more colourful items in the garden and beyond rather than looking at a fence panel, shed or greenhouse.
The key thing to remember though is that the main constant in a garden will be the green of leaves. Flowers will be pollinated, fade or change colour over time and so don’t depend on colour in the garden to provide the interest.
A magnolia is a prime example, with blooms being destroyed overnight, by a frost or inclement weather. Instead think about form, focal points and garden objects to provide interest throughout the year, and enjoy the colour whilst it is there.
If you would like to redesign your borders or garden to have zingy or calming colours, please get in touch by clicking on the Sulis Design banner above, or visiting our website directly at www.sulisdesign.co.uk. We would be more than happy to help.
Plant of the month.
Roses are currently showcasing their beauty and scent throughout many of the gardens in Calne. With many growers and nurseries selling them it can be hard to choose one. My top tip is to not rely on looks alone when buying online. Before deciding on a variety, you could visit a garden, local nursery or garden centre, where you can see the plants up close and smell how perfumed they are.
Remember that roses come in different groups, such as shrub, climber or rambler. Always check the labels of plants to ensure you have the right conditions for the plant you are buying.
Garden jobs for June
- Plant out young vegetable plants such as sweetcorn, runner and climbing beans.
- Keep succession sowing crops such as radish, lettuce, carrot and beetroots to have fresh vegetables
throughout the summer. - Keep on top of weeds around the garden.
- Protect soft fruit from birds with taut netting and cages. Remember to check regularly to ensure
birds don’t get caught in the netting. - Plant up hanging baskets for summer displays of colour and scent.
- Check your greenhouse regularly to ensure it doesn’t get too hot and plants damaged.
- Create wildlife habitats, particularly log piles to shelter reptiles and amphibians as we get closer to
summer. - Provide support to large and floppy plants such as dahlia, peony and sedum.
- Provide a source of water for birds and other wildlife, and remember to keep them clean to prevent
the spreading of infection and disease. - Don’t forget to take time to enjoy your garden with the longer days.
