July Backyard Gardens: Color Palette and Planting Guide

“The human soul is hungry for beauty; we seek it everywhere – in landscape, music, art, clothes, furniture, gardening, companionship, love, religion, and in ourselves. No one would desire not to be beautiful. When we experience the beautiful, there is a sense of homecoming.” – John O’Donohue

July Backyard Gardens

One of the best parts of a home is having a place of beauty where we can rest. Whether it is a planter outside the front door or planted in a small patch of dirt, a garden does not have to be grand in scale to achieve the same effect. A few flowers can still the soul. For me, that is a place that is serene and quiet, yet full of vibrant color.

I have previously written about my backyard gardens. It began humbly out of a patch of sparse grass and dirt which wrapped around the deck at the house to which we moved. It gets adequate sunlight from about noon to five in the afternoon, and it is just below the kitchen window where we wash dishes and spend time eating as a family. It was the perfect location.

Every garden has a story. When my boys were very young, we used to dig in the dirt for fun. They would help me with plants and weeding and mulching with their own plastic shovels and Tonka trucks, and we all learned about the joy of gardening. I became hooked on placing plants in strategic spots for the right bloom times and color combinations. I could plant and rearrange, and as I learned, I noted the combinations I liked the most.

We dug up the entire garden one winter to install a French drain and alleviate the flooding in our basement. That was not ideal — many hours and days of digging and hard work did work and correct the drainage problems. But the poor plants we had to dig up had a hard time recovering the next spring. Yet, most survived.

This July, the colors are bursting and the plants have filled in the border. I love the result!

 

Planting guide:

Echinacea (native of the Midwest, thrives in Ohio)

Daylilies in selected colors

Monarda (careful to thin them in March because they spread)

Tall Garden Phlox (fragrance!)

Liatris

Scabiosa

Veronica

Daisies, Becky

Butterfly Bush

Lithrum

Russian Sage

 

Color Palette:

Tangerine, Magenta, Violet, Lavender, Pink, White, Cream

 

Tomorrow, I am delighted to have an image from my 2008 backyard gardens featured on the Monrovia plants website. If you would have told me 10 years ago that the gardens I loved to photograph would be featured with one of the most esteemed plant companies in the US, I wouldn’t have believed you. I am thrilled. Thank you, Monrovia!

 

 

To buy premium fine art notecards of above images, click here… in July 2018, buy 2 sets of notecards and receive 5 mini cards free.

Photographs, notecards, canvases, and my published book are available here. Other images and products of my photography are available by clicking here. Thank you, and Happy Independence Day!