How to Add Texture to a Garden

When planning a garden, all the materials in the garden have a shape, a growing habit and a texture. Adding textures to the garden is as simple as getting to know how to put different plant shapes and growing styles together in interesting combinations. Gardeners, whose main interest is plants, will want to buy one of every interesting plant that they encounter, but from a design point of view, a few interesting combinations create a much more textured and beautiful result.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Garden
• Plant reference books
• Sketch pad
• Plants

1. Know your plants. It takes time to understand the qualities and characteristics of different plants. Pay attention to every garden you visit, whether it is a stately Victorian garden, a park, or a tiny urban garden, to see how plants and flowers grow and contrast with each other. Look at the shape and composition of the leaves and flowers. Are the leaves or flowers sharp like blades of grass? Feathery or wispy like wisteria? Or low and vibrant like hostas? Note any combinations that you find interesting.

2. Understand plant shapes. There are, in fact, very few shapes that cannot be found in plants. Umbrella shapes, domes, columns, cones and even ball shapes can be found and utilized in formal gardens. Whether the plant has a natural shape or it's a topiary that can be shaped, always consider plant shape for bringing texture to the garden.

3. Look at plant surface textures. Every plant has its own individual surface texture and pattern. They may have shiny, wrinkly, fuzzy, striped or spotted leaves. Don't just look at the live leaves; investigate the stalks and dead leaves textures as well, because chances are that you will see them just as often.

4. Add large leaf textures. To create drama in the garden, use large leaf plants, such as foxglove, hydrangeas, hostas and catalpas. If you use foxglove, it grows leaves that are around 8 inches long and "hairy," plus you get the bonus of beautiful blue flowers in the late spring. Catalpas tolerate urban pollution well, but become damaged in high winds, so plant them in protected areas. Hostas and hydrangeas come in a variety of sizes and colors.

5. Add medium leaf textures. There are an infinite variety of medium leaf textures to choose from and most of the flowering plants in the garden will be medium leaf textures, including climbers such as clematis, evergreens (like ivy) and clinging roses. Roses, of course, add beauty and texture.

6. Add small leaf textures. The line between the medium and small leaf is not quite defined, but usually you are referring to plants like sages, daphnes and fine leafed shrubs, such as myrtle.

7. Add topiary shape. Usually thought to be found in large formal gardens, topiaries work very well in small, closely spaced areas. Evergreens and conifers with dense leaves make excellent topiaries. Don't feel that you have to make intricate shapes. Simply making the plant surface flat is often enough to add dramatic texture to your garden.

Tips & Warnings

• Sketch out your garden plans and match them with reference pages from gardening books or on-line sites.