
Gardening themes are fun, help you narrow down your planting choices and can increase the appeal of your landscape. Gardens can be themed around flowers, shapes or food. They can also focus on a particular hobby or interest, such as a reading garden or butterfly garden.
Themes can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. Here are some ideas:
1. Color
Having a theme garden helps provide structure to the garden. While lines and form are the bones of a garden, color brings the body. Color creates contrast and evokes emotion. Warm colors (reds and oranges) are energizing while cool colors (blues and greens) create calm and relaxation.
Theme gardens can include color schemes in a variety of ways. One option is to use analogous colors, which are colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel. This gives the garden a sense of harmony without being too busy.
Another option is to go monochromatic, using varying shades of the same color throughout the garden. This is a simple way to create a big impact of color.
Themes can also be based on a particular flower or vegetable. For example, an alphabet garden can be centered around edible plants that begin with each letter of the alphabet. This is a great way to get kids involved in gardening and learning about the plant parts. Or, try a moonlight garden with white flowers that bloom in the evening such as moonflowers or night-blooming jasmine.
2. Shape
A theme garden’s shape is a key element in identifying the design. Usually this is done in the hardscape, but shapes can also appear in plant material. Geometric shapes, such as squares, circles and polygons are commonly used in the landscape, but more naturalistic forms can be incorporated as well.
For example, a curved path through a garden can mimic the shape of a river or creek. A spiraling ‘twirl’ can be formed with plant materials that flow around a central point. For instance, a garden planted around a tall evergreen yaupon tree (Illex vomitoria ‘Nana’) in a rounded circle is a great example of this.
A good way to organize a large yard is to theme it into individual gardens with specific purposes. Vegetable gardens, herb gardens and even flower gardens are popular themes. Often, plants with similar water and sun exposure requirements are grouped together to make gardening easier. Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that these are just ideas and that you still have to select plants that will thrive in your climate.
3. Wildlife
Themes can be based on the seasons, colors, plants that attract a specific type of wildlife or on the use of the garden (as in an apothecary garden). Themes also create a framework that limits what is planted, which allows a gardener to focus on growing vegetables, herbs and flowers that will best suit the garden’s purpose.
A garden themed around a recipe will include all of the ingredients needed to make that dish, like paste tomatoes and basil for pasta sauce. Other garden themes include a child-related topic, such as a favorite children’s story book, to encourage experiential learning in the garden.
A wildlife garden focuses on the habitat of birds, insects and other animals by providing food, shelter and water in the landscape. Plants in a wildlife garden often grow naturally in the surrounding environment and provide the nutrients that native species require to thrive. For example, a pollinator garden uses local wildflowers and shrubs that attract butterflies, bumblebees and other pollinators. Other theme gardens, such as a sensory garden and a peace garden, are designed to create calming experiences in the garden through the sights, smells and sounds of nature.
4. History
A theme garden can bring structure to a landscape. It can organize a vegetable garden and orient the plantings to save time and money in the yard. It can also impose a discipline on a garden that might otherwise sprawl out of control, requiring the gardener to maintain each area. Learn the story behind Halls Greenhouse to make sure that you know the tips and tricks of building one.
A garden themed around a particular topic can be educational as well. An art garden can teach children how to paint with flowers such as Monet’s purple iris or Van Gogh’s sunflower. A sundial garden teaches time with blooms such as morning glories, 4 o’clocks and moonflowers. A Shakespeare garden cultivates flowers mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare and can be a fun family project.
Some gardens have a form theme, such as a cottage garden or fern garden. Other gardens have a style theme that blends with the architecture of the house or relates to nearby landscape features like the topography and local climate conditions. For example, a wildflower garden would blend in with the surrounding native landscape by using native plants like coneflowers, lupine and penstemon.
5. Food
Many gardeners find joy in putting food on the table. Having a theme garden that is focused on the production of fruits, vegetables or herbs can be both fun and rewarding for all members of the family.
Themes can also focus on a favorite food or beverage like a lemonade garden featuring everything you need to make your own homemade lemonade including lemons, sugar and ice. Theme gardens can even include plants that are helpful for the body, like a sedative or medicinal garden filled with chamomile, lavender and other therapeutic herbs.
Another type of garden theme that is beneficial for all types of gardeners is a native plant garden. Native plants adapt naturally to local soil and climate conditions, making them more easy to grow and providing a natural food source for local birds, butterflies and other wildlife. They are also low in maintenance and require little or no fertilizers or pesticides.
6. Art
An art garden can be a fun way to introduce children to the concepts of gardening. It can also make the outcomes of garden-based learning visible, making them a valuable tool for assessment, evaluation and sharing of knowledge with others.
A theme garden can be based on flowers, foods, the alphabet, herbs, pollinators or even a book. It can even be centered on a particular culture, such as the Japanese or Native American gardens.
Choosing a color scheme is a good way to start a theme garden. It can be as simple as energizing bright reds and yellows or as complex as using a monochromatic color scheme.
Plants should be chosen carefully to match your theme. Fragrant plants like lavender and sage, herbs for cooking or crafting and plants with medicinal properties are great choices for an herb garden. Plants that attract butterflies and bees are essential in a pollinator garden. Decorative elements such as wind chimes, bird feeders and garden paths can help enhance your garden’s look while adding a sensory component.
7. Sport
A theme garden offers a way to make a complex landscape manageable for home gardeners by narrowing the choice of plants and orienting the yard so that it is easy to tell what is planted where. It is also a good way to encourage younger gardeners to become more involved by encouraging their imaginations around a story, favorite foods or a hobby like music.
Themes can be as simple or complex as the homeowner wishes to make them. For example, a flower or herb garden can be based on a particular color, a specific shape or a group of plants such as roses, lavender and cilantro. A food garden can focus on herbs and vegetables that are useful for cooking, such as basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary and garlic.
Theme gardens can be based on a particular climate, such as a desert or tropical garden or they can focus on a particular style of architecture or a period in history, such as an Italian or Japanese garden. A Native Garden, filled with plants that grow naturally in a given area, is another option as it cuts down on fertilizers, pesticides and water use and promotes biodiversity.
8. Theme
A theme garden groups plants around a common idea, whether it’s a season (like an all-white garden), color (all shades of blue), cultural reference (Shakespeare gardens) or use. Themes can also be based on a hobby or interest, such as cooking, herbs or attracting butterflies and bees.
Choosing a theme is important, says Jim Becker, co-owner of Goodwin Creek Gardens in Williams, Ore. “It sets the whole direction and lets you get really creative with it,” he says. He suggests starting with your favorite interests and incorporating those into the garden in small ways.
For example, a Shakespeare garden could contain a few of the playwright’s most beloved plants, such as rosemary, lavender and thyme. Or a tea garden could include pineapple sage, mint, anise hyssop and stevia to grow in pots or in the ground. Add a few garden ornaments and furniture that reflect the theme to tie the garden together.
If a child’s name is part of the theme, spell out letters with plants and other garden art to create an Alphabet Garden. Fragrant vines like honeysuckle and wisteria, plus grasses and ferns, can make a Sensory Garden, perfect for children to touch and smell.