Gardening is like cooking. It is tempting to cook only with the goal of achieving great tastes, with no thought of healthy eating, but that often results in tasty concoctions so full of fat, sugar, and salt that they are deadly in the long run. Similarly, it is tempting to garden only for beauty without regard to the many ecological roles our landscapes must perform. All too often, such narrow gardening goals result in a landscape so low in ecological function that it drains the vitality from the surrounding ecosystem. (Douglas W. Tallamy, Nature’s Best Hope.
We don’t have to compromise on color to still have a landscape high in ecological function. The easiest color plan is the monochromatic color scheme. Combine shades of a single color together. For example, use shades of red and pink, shades of orange and shades of yellow. Other color schemes include shades black or violet.
Refer to the color wheel to add primary, secondary and analogous colors to your garden. The primary colors are yellow, blue, and red. Look at the basic relationships between the colors by combining colors using those that are next to each other on the color wheel. These colors tend to blend well together. Red and orange, orange and yellow, yellow and green, green and blue, and violet, and violet and red. These colors can go beyond two colors, groups of red, orange, and yellow. Or, blue, violet and red can also be considered.
Yellow is the most common color seen in the garden flowers besides green leaves and stalks. The color grabs your attention and makes a cheerful statement in the garden. An example of native yellow plants are: sunflower (Helianthus), tickseed (Coreopsis), black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), goldenrod (Solidago), cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum), Helen’s flower (Helenium autumnale), and yellow coneflower (Echinacea paradoxa).
Red flowers that attract hummingbirds are: cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica), fringed poppy mallow (Callirhoe digitata), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), royal catchfly (Silene regia), and fire pink (Silene virginica).
Blue flowers are not as common as yellow or red. They are: bluestar (Amsonia), salvia (Salvia), wild sweet William (phlox divaricata), bluebells (Mertensia virginica), mist flower, wild ageratum (Conoclinium), blazing star (Liatris), blue lobelia (Lobelia), larkspur (Delphinium treleasei), and New England Aster (Symphyotrichum).
For additional contrast to the garden bed, add white flowers and silver foliage.
When we see the land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. – Aldo Leopold, The Sand County Almanac.
Mariellen Griffith