Design principles for a planting plan
The shape of the plant
Apart from its height and width, knowing the overall shape of a plant is most important when you want to create a theme or mood for the garden. Plants with tall, thin and triangular shapes like some of the small thujas and pencil cypress attract attention and create interest. Drooping plants like gungurru (Eucalyptus caesia) and the softly textured, weeping she-oaks create a restful atmosphere, while glossy green palm leaves look tropical. In natural bushland, plants tend to mimic the area. Desert and sand-dune plants usually grow flat and spreading, while mountain plants, competing for light, tend to grow tall and narrow to match the steep hills.
Colour
Colour is the most noticeable criterion of the success of any planting. Plants provide colour to a garden most obviously by their flowers and a well-planned garden has some plants in flower for every month of the year.
If you are using any annuals in your garden only use those that are water thrifty. Ensure that the colours will harmonise. Warm colours - red, orange and yellow - tone well with each other as do the cool colours of blue, mauve and purple. White and green contrast well with any colour. Violet contrasts with yellow and red with green for special effects.
The leaves of plants are another source of colour than can be used for different effects. Dark red, rust, red-green, maroon, grey-green, white, lemon, gold, dark and bright green are some foliage possibilities. It is possible to find hundreds of variations of just the one colour - green.
Evergreen plants can keep their foliage colour all the year round, but deciduous plants provide another variation as far as foliage colour is concerned. Plants that are green, passing unnoticed during most of the year, will suddenly change to a beautiful red, yellow, orange or pink. Some deciduous plants begin to change colour in early March while others still have a few leaves left in mid-June. There are many exotic plants including the Pistachio and Melia that give good deciduous autumn colour but still grow well with very limited water.
In cool mountainous areas and protected places where plants are kept moist the leaf colour lasts longer and is more intense. Brightly coloured berries and the seed pods of native and exotic plants give yet more colour to the garden. A single deciduous plant may have refreshing green leaves through summer, beautiful coloured foliage in autumn, brightly coloured winter berries and spring flowers.
The bark of some trees can be very colourful. The lemon-scented gum (Eucalyptus citriodora) has a silky smooth cream trunk while silver birch trunks are a stunning white. Prunus serrulata has a red trunk and the ironbark has a beautiful rough textured black trunk.
Remember that the brighter colours appear closer while pale trunks and flowers add distance, looking as if they are further away.
If you are using any annuals in your garden only use those that are water thrifty. Ensure that the colours will harmonise. Warm colours - red, orange and yellow - tone well with each other as do the cool colours of blue, mauve and purple. White and green contrast well with any colour. Violet contrasts with yellow and red with green for special effects.
The leaves of plants are another source of colour than can be used for different effects. Dark red, rust, red-green, maroon, grey-green, white, lemon, gold, dark and bright green are some foliage possibilities. It is possible to find hundreds of variations of just the one colour - green.
Evergreen plants can keep their foliage colour all the year round, but deciduous plants provide another variation as far as foliage colour is concerned. Plants that are green, passing unnoticed during most of the year, will suddenly change to a beautiful red, yellow, orange or pink. Some deciduous plants begin to change colour in early March while others still have a few leaves left in mid-June. There are many exotic plants including the Pistachio and Melia that give good deciduous autumn colour but still grow well with very limited water.
In cool mountainous areas and protected places where plants are kept moist the leaf colour lasts longer and is more intense. Brightly coloured berries and the seed pods of native and exotic plants give yet more colour to the garden. A single deciduous plant may have refreshing green leaves through summer, beautiful coloured foliage in autumn, brightly coloured winter berries and spring flowers.
The bark of some trees can be very colourful. The lemon-scented gum (Eucalyptus citriodora) has a silky smooth cream trunk while silver birch trunks are a stunning white. Prunus serrulata has a red trunk and the ironbark has a beautiful rough textured black trunk.
Remember that the brighter colours appear closer while pale trunks and flowers add distance, looking as if they are further away.