Repetition of the same plants in many vignettes, regardless of the color scheme, also makes the long border feel connected. and cvs., USDA Hardiness Zones 4–8) and the self-sowing annual perilla ( Perilla frutescens ‘Atropurpurea’) in a few vignettes.Īlthough I wanted purple to hold the border together, I didn’t want it to be the only color in my garden, so I occasionally included a pink-, yellow-, or white-flowering plant in a vignette for variety. I also included purple-foliage plants like coral bells ( Heuchera spp. I provided for long-term color by including annuals like Browallia speciosa ‘Blue Troll’, Ageratum houstonianum ‘Blue Horizon’, and Salvia splendens ‘Salsa Purple’, planting them in groups of five to nine to create drifts of purple that weave into nearby perennials. It would have been hard to weave a continuous thread of color from spring to fall with perennials alone, because most shade-tolerant perennials bloom for only two or three weeks. Purple also works in this border because it is a subtle color if I had scattered plants of a bright color like white or gold in all the vignettes, the garden would look spotty.

I never feel I have too much purple, even when astilbes with rosy-purple spikes are blooming alongside purple-flowering hostas and lavender daylilies. It contrasts well with gold foliage and complements plants with purple, blue, gray, and green foliage. Purple works well because it is a restful color that doesn’t clash with other colors. That way, instead of jumping from one vignette to the next as the eye travels down the border, it follows a trail of purpleflowering plants. Since I had used purple flowers in most of the first vignettes I created, I decided to include shades of purple in all the vignettes that followed. Repeating colors, whether it’s indoors in a room or outdoors in the garden, is a simple design technique for pulling a design together. Then I realized that repeating colors and plants in each vignette could hold the entire border together. At first, I was so intent on getting the combinations just right for each vignette that I didn’t consider how one would influence the next. I loved watching a vignette come together, seeing how one plant complemented another. I designed each by selecting a distinctive foliage plant and choosing five or six plants to enhance its form, texture, and color. Since I could complete a vignette in a day or two, it was a relaxing way for me to bring order to my long border. Although its length was impressive, the garden looked like a hodge-podge of plants until I started to improve sections of it by creating vignettes, small well-designed groupings of plants, all along its length. Each year, I removed more sod and filled the space with perennials until the border was about 15 feet wide and 150 feet long, the entire distance from the house to the road.

When I began planning my garden, I knew I wanted a long border in front of the row of trees and shrubs that edged my property. A screen house nestles into this shady border, which stretches 150 feet from the author’s house to the street.

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