Whatever medium you dip your brush into, allow the Color Goddess inside you to play!

Cafe Au Lait Dahlia – the Serenity Garden is mainly green with just a few patches of off-white blooms

I garden the way I paint – by throwing colors onto my canvas without fear, without editing, without questioning the decisions that feel right in the moment.

And then I stand back and give myself permission to move, adjust, add and subtract, to allow the canvas to evolve.

Bohemian Garden on the left, Veggie Garden on the right

Some colors come together effortlessly (those are the ones you’re used to using). And others take more time and more futzing with.

Zinnia, Black-Eyed Susan and deep purple Dahlia dance together in my Bohemian Garden

It’s taken years, but I now trust myself to push past those moments of indecision, of frustration when it just isn’t coming together (and believe me, in my garden just like my paintings, there are many times when I get frustrated). I’ve learned to ignore the voice inside my head and the voice of others telling me to ‘limit my palette’, that ‘the colors don’t go together’ that I need to follow this rule or that. And I just play!

Because you see, it isn’t done until I say it is.

Before the Cottage Garden was born, I had a Long Border that just wasn’t working - it looked splotchy and because I lost so many dahlias to root rot, areas that should have been filled with green, were dominated by the speckled brown of leaves we gathered in the forest as mulch. I didn’t like it. (sorry I don’t have photos… I just wasn’t inspired to take any)

but it isn’t done until I say it is!

And then, I had a vision – in middle of the night of course – of a Cottage Garden filled with cutting flowers and herbs, very full and a bit chaotic. And I gave myself permission to drastically shake things up! So the next morning I dug up any plant with a silvery undertone - the dusty purples, greys, soft salmons and moved them all to one end of the garden. Voila! I created my Silver Garden.

How could I resist creating a garden palette from of the gorgeous colors in this ‘Amazing Grey’ Shirley Poppy

I pulled up all of the pale yellows and planted them into a new Blue and Yellow Garden. And then gathered everything else and plopped them willy nilly throughout the new Cottage Garden. Bare spots disappeared, Splotchy areas of discordant colors were drawn together through repetition and subtle placement of in-between colors that worked with both. And the colorful chaos started to feel right.

Cottage Garden just after installing stepping stones

The scent of sweet peas permeate the air throughout the Cottage Garden

Is it done? Not at all. But that’s how it should be in a garden!

You see, the secret is simple. Whether you dip your brush into paint, beads, fabric or flowers.

Trust your eye

If YOU like it, then that’s all that matters.

If YOU don’t like it, then give yourself permission to change it up.

That Color Goddess inside you? She knows what she’s doing!

Trust the Color Goddess inside you to keep trying out things, playing with color and texture and form until she says ‘Ah yes – that feels right!’

And speaking of the Color Goddess inside you, I have a REALLY FUN quiz coming up that I know you are going to love! Stay tuned…

At the edge of the Woodland Garden overlooking the Cottage Garden – our favorite place to sit at the end of the day

More about our gardens

Our gardens in these photos are only 4 months old! All of the flowers were seed starts, bulbs, tubers, or nursery plants that I planted this year. As you can see, the explosion of color is due mostly to some very happy annuals such as cosmos, zinnia, sweet peas, nasturtium, honeywort, ageratum etc. that are tucked in and around some structure plants such as lilac, hydrangea, smoke bush, hebes and of course the Japanese maples.

You can read more about the evolution of our gardens (plus some photos and videos) here:

The evolution of our gardens

Expanding the gardens

What’s next? I’ve been clearing brush, creating paths and spreading mulch through our Woodland Garden. It’s just in it’s infancy with a few shade-loving plants plopped in here and there.

And don’t worry, I’m only clearing a teeny bit – we are surrounded by our 20 acre forest (awarded with a Forest Stewardship) which we are committed to keeping as a natural habitat for native flora and fauna, a place for neighbors to enjoy, harvesting only what is needed, and perhaps the most important in these times – carbon sequestration (capturing, removal and storage of CO2).

Come Into My Garden