The Gardens on Spring Creek

By understanding the basics of color theory, gardeners can have a greater impact without more work.  Let’s start with a refresher: you may remember that the primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. Mix these together in different formulations and you get the secondary colors orange, green, and purple. On the left side of the color wheel are the cool colors, the ones that inspire calm and tranquility. Opposite these are the warm colors that excite and buzz.  Mix in your neutral colors – white, black, and grey – and you get tints, tones, and shades.  Working with these foundational concepts is where things start to get exciting. The most dramatic color combinations are those that sit opposite one another on the wheel, like my personal favorite of tangerine and violet. Referred to as contrasting colors, be sure to choose highly saturated colors for contrast plantings as muted colors will only reduce the intensity. Perhaps a monochromatic planting is more your style. When I’...