Using Color in Your Landscape

Color can capture and hold your attention more than anything else in a landscape. It can also make a dull yard more interesting.  Bright colors in a landscape, such as yellow orange and red, jump right out at you.  The color can come from a plants flowers, pots, or structures in the yard.  But you need to keep in mind that bright colors can make a small garden feel even smaller. 

Colors can be used to create a theme or set a mood for a garden.  Light and pastel colors, such as sky blue petunias and light pink celosia, may seem to be boring, but they will create a restful or tranquil mood. Darker colors, purples, dark blues and deep greens tend to make areas look mysterious and also larger.

If you have a lot of shade and want to brighten up the garden look for plants or containers that are festive shades of pink or white.  Those red, yellow and orange colors will make a landscape look festive and fun.  Bright colors are also great to highlight an area, such as a featured flower bed or a front entry way.

There are tricks that color plays on the eyes.  Cool colors, such as blue, green and violet tend to recede.  If you are trying to make a small yard look bigger, put cool colored flowers or containers towards the back of a bed.  This is a simple design trick that makes the flower bed appear deeper and makes the yard look larger.

Using too many different colors can make the garden look mismatched.  It’s better to go with a scheme that uses one color in various shades; colors that are closely related; or colors that are complementary (across from each other on a color wheel). Complementary colors include: red and green, yellow and purple, and orange and blue.

And remember a professional landscaper can steer you in the right direction on how to include color in your landscaping.

Posted on behalf of:
Cunningham Landscape Group
Duluth, GA
(678) 942-6818