The dream of having a simple garden may seem out of reach, knowing that each plant requires unique attention in order to grow to its fullest potential. However, the concept of a simple garden may not be quite as far-fetched as it seems. Colorless, or monochromatic, gardens, tend to be the right balance of beauty and simplicity. Here’s our advice for finding the right additions for a colorless garden from a nursery near me in Sussex County and Bergen County, NJ.
Related: CHOOSING THE RIGHT COLOR AND STYLE FOR YOUR PATIO PAVERS IN ORANGE COUNTY NY
The key to creating your simple, yet beautiful, colorless garden is to find a balance of hardscaping and softscaping. A mixture of natural stone colors in your hardscape, with textured greens in your softscape, will create a peaceful and relaxing environment for you to enjoy.
Hardscape Features
When planning out the hardscape portion of your monochromatic garden, choose a solid color for the stone you’d like to work with. As with any naturally occurring material, there may be slight variations throughout the stone, but the overall effect will be a simple and gorgeous solid color. We recommend choosing a light grey or a neutral tan so that the features of your hardscape will be noticeable, but will not overpower the darker greens in your softscape.
Define the borders of your garden with a modest border wall around part of your garden space. Leave openings for one or two entrances and exits, and utilize the wall as a bench to sit on with a good book. If your garden backs up to a hillside, build the wall slightly higher on the section bordering your hill to use as a retaining wall, creating more vertical dimension and visual appeal.
With the same color, or similarly colored stone, map out walkways to meander through your garden. If you are hoping for a more natural or rustic atmosphere, lay flagstone with some space in between each one. For a more modern or stately garden, use concrete pavers lined up edge to edge. Consider the possibility of including a couple of stairs for a tiered garden.
Other hardscape features, such as fountains, bird baths, large planters or statues, are beautiful additions as a centerpiece or as accents on the corners of your garden.
Softscape Features
While your softscape won’t be truly “colorless,” a simple, monochromatic garden makes use of different textures among the same shade, or very similar shades, of green. Lawn-style grass, or ornamental grasses, lay the backdrop to start blending in with your hardscape.
Large shrubs can adorn the corners of your garden, and will add the first big spot of texture in your softscape with the shape and thickness of its leaves. Accent each shrub with smaller, more ground-loving plants to contribute to the varying dimensions of the garden and add more texture with a different quality of leaves.
Continue to blend your softscape with your hardscape by lining all or part of your garden wall with a slightly shorter hedge. Allow weeping greenery to fall gently from planters placed atop the garden wall, or create an old-fashioned look with ivy crawling up it.
Add in white flowers here and there for a little pop of beauty, while staying true to the colorless theme. Use small flowers in your accent planters, or larger flowers in a retaining wall, to create the perfect finishing touch to your simple outdoor space.
