Garden colors

Our front garden is finally starting to fill in a little bit.  I feel like each season I experiment and learn a little more about what plants complement each other, as far as their textures and their colors.  I am slowly picking up that some of the same principles of interior decoration apply in the garden as well.  For instance, repeated elements make the whole scheme more coherent and pleasing.  That means not planting one of each specimen but instead repeating colors or leaf shapes or planting one type of flower in mass.  Here are some of the colors that I'm trying to repeat throughout our garden right now (plant names at end of post):

 

I have a couple types of flowers, but mostly our front garden relies on different colors and textures of foliage, which I like because the beds look consistent and nice all summer long.  I only plant flowers that bloom late spring to autumn, which in our case means hydrangeas and balloon flowers, plus a couple pots of annuals.  In case you're interested, here are the some of the perennials and shrubs pictured above:

Green

Boxwood

Ferns

Contorted filbert
Viburnum

Pink

Impatiens

'Endless Summer' and 'Twist 'n Shout' Hydrangeas

Grey

Lambs' ears

Artemisia

Hosta
Wormwood

Purple

Heuchera
Balloon Flower
Purple sweet potato vine

Lime

'Limelight' Hydrangea

'Fire Island' and 'Sum and Substance' Hosta

Sweet potato vine

Varigated

Hosta

European variegated dogwood