Texture: Garden Gift of Visual Interest

I promised to share a few of the past year's favourite garden things this month describing them in terms of the gifts I have gained. I have based this on the twelve days of Christmas (like the song) but will be stretching them out between December 1-25th. I won't be talking about Poinsettias or Christmas cactus or ways to extend the life of your holiday tree. Instead I speak from the heart and start the series with a basic design element: TEXTURE...

I always want something better in the garden and sometimes I don’t know what I want – I just know there is something wrong with the little flower bed or pot in front of me. I saw a tip once to test texture by photocoping a colour image of a garden in black and white. Because we love colour so much we can't analyze the textural interest of the garden unless colour is removed. If you like what you see even when there is no colour you are probably enjoying a garden lush with textural interest.

The two photos above show a garden in Wales with lovely colour but after doing the B&W test it is obvious the garden lacks the added drama of texture.
When I saw the garden (below) with big empty pots in Indiana this summer at the 63rd GWA conference I knew the scene would pass the B&W test.

The role of pots or any coarse element in the garden is to add texture. The contrast makes an otherwise plain jane garden fabulous.