Just to be clear – I mean using the colour green in the garden – though I approve too of  “green” in terms of sustainability.

You may have read my earlier posts on using colour in the garden – Red, Yellow and Orange , so isn’t green already present with all these colours?

But have you thought about an all-green garden? 

Green is the colour associated with Nature, the environment, Greenpeace, the Emerald Isle (Ireland), safety (green traffic lights), rebirth and hope. It does have some bad associations – “green with envy”, “green about the gills”  but generally it symbolises positivity – life and growth. Green is restful to the eye and a green environment can reduce fatigue.

A restful green garden might sound just a tad boring, but there are so many shades of green from the deep greens of  yew hedging to the glaucous green of  Melianthus major

Melianthus major

or the lime green of Carex elata or Heuchera ‘Key lime Pie”.

Heuchera ‘Key Lime Pie’ with Geranium ‘Rozanne’

the blue-greens ranging to the yellow-greens – blue and yellow, the two primary constituents of green.

Then there are the variegated greens.

So tones or shades of green create interest.

It’s also an opportunity to concentrate on form and texture – the unfolding fronds of ferns, the spiky leaves of yucca, the pinnate leaves of Melianthus and then of course there’s topiary.

and if you need any more convincing, have a look at Tom Stuart-Smith’s ‘Best in Show’ Garden for the 2008 Chelsea Flower Show.

I love colour well orchestrated in a garden, but all-green looks appealing too!

On 17th March, I’ll be decked in green myself.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!