A promise yet to be fulfilled [04/24]

I’m Nathan Langley and this is A promise yet to be fulfilled, a seasonal weekly newsletter on my garden developments at home in Sudbury, Ontario!

This past week was quite exciting, as I did two things for the very first time: (1) I created a more “traditional” mood board for the plants I want to use in my backyard garden redesign, and (2) I used the app Freeform to make the mood board on my iPad.

Within the mood board, I also did two unusual things (unusual for me, that is). I kept the information simple (not a lot of latin or plant specs), and I created colour palettes using the colour picker and sampling from the plant images I have curated over the years. To give you an idea where I am coming from, here is what my concept documents usually look like:

As you can see, it is focused more on the plant and their key characteristics and not much else. These pages would typically be accompanied by a spreadsheet with more detailed info on each plant used within the design.

For this attempt, I threw caution to the wind! I didn’t add any plant information, and I organized the plants in two ways: (1) by season (spring; late spring → early summer; summer; late summer → fall), and (2) into three groups (primary, secondary, and fill).

Spring

For spring, I intend to plant a lot of bulbs. Particularly daffodils since I am surrounded by wild rabbits who love to nubble on any tulips they find. I love using bulbs in large numbers, too. The initial impact after a long winter is second to none.

Late Spring to Early Summer

Once the growing season gets going, however, the garden will shift into a stream of largely purple and pink flowers (primary) with some contrast (secondary) sprinkled in using flowers that are yellow, orange, or red.

Summer

I will also use a lot of warm and cool season grasses (fill) throughout the garden to maintain sight lines, add winter interest, and instil a relaxed feeling throughout the space that balances the strong colours coming from the perennial flowers.

Cool season grasses will begin to grow in late spring, but will come into their own in early summer. The warm season grasses, however, will begin to grow during the heat of summer and will be at their best towards the end of summer and into fall.

Late Summer to Fall

And finally, late summer and fall continue the patterns established earlier, with lots of purple, pink, and yellow / orange contrast.

Plant List

Here is my plant wish list. It is largely perennials, but I will add in more trees and shrubs when I begin working on the concept plan. I tend to bounce back and forth between the concept plan and the plant list, editing both as the picture of the garden in my head becomes clearer.

More on that next week!

n

The Video: