29 March 08
Shades of Gray with a Splash of Orange
When I first pulled out the freeway daisies in front of the house for a herb garden, I had this vague notion I wanted it to be predominantly gray. This doesn’t work very well if what you want are herbs that you use all the time, such as parsley, cilantro, or basil, but I thought I could hide them in among the lavenders and sages (and artichokes) and it would mostly be gray. (Note to self: never, ever can sorrel be hidden among gray; it perks up in its yellow green perkiness in pure defiance, but can’t bring myself to pull it out, so delicious is it…)
I made some mistakes — part of the gardening rite of passage — and it turns out that most of the items that have since been pulled out have tended to the yellow-green rather than blue-green/gray. The latest casualty was the lemon verbena that never really recovered from the frost.
What I didn’t plan for, though, was the delightful colonization by California poppies. They can, and do, take over, but who could mind it? And if they really do crowd out something, they’re easy to pull out (and will certainly come back next year).
The orange sets off the gray to perfection. I’m trying to focus on the rest of the flowers in this garden being bluish purple. I finally planted the olive tree Jennifer suggested a couple of years ago and though it will grow very slowly it will be the focal point.
Garden design is a difficult and serious art, but the good news is, even if you don’t know what you’re doing, most things will reward you anyway.
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How very lovely to see you in your natural habitat :-)
The poppies are so pretty! Sometimes we wish we lived in CA so we can plant a greater variety of things, but we can grow pretty much most of what we love to eat (we even had citrus trees indoors, but I’d give an arm to be able to grow mangos and avocados here). We grow a lot of parsley, cilantro, basil, and sage. I want more lavender than what we have right now. The kids like to eat sorrel freshly plucked. We’re going to try artichokes this year. Wish us luck. ;)
Your garden is lovely!
Who was it (Van Gogh?) who said that blue needed orange to get itself noticed? Or words to that effect. Compliments on a great garden. Sue, who couldn’t resist the pun.
Thanks all. Teresa, I wish I could grow artichokes better — it’s so hot and dry here in the summer for them. They need misting. I’m getting all my tomato starts ready — lots and lots this year. (With one, repeat one, zucchino.)
Rachel, thank you.
Sue, nice to see you stop by. I know you love these poppies! And yes, there’s a school of painting that says everything is either orange or blue.
I am going to have to turn off comments on this post since, like the five-year one, it’s getting deluged by spam. Sorry…