A Moonlit Garden

When I was outdoors the other night, I noticed how bright the yard looked with the full moon shining. I began to visualize a moonlit garden. It could be a place where you could relax and feel stress free after a long busy day.

 

Let’s think about this white garden. It could be a place where you already have a landscaped garden and you don’t have to choose all white flowers. Choosing white flowers, along with some very light and pastel pinks, yellows, blues and purples, will brighten up the evening hours around your garden. It will look dazzling during the day also.

 

You could start by choosing only a few long-blooming, easy to care for perennials; tall white lilies for the background, ‘White Swan’ coneflower, white Nicotiana (flowing tobacco that has a nice fragrance in the evenings), white salvia greggii (sage), dusty miller, white yarrow, or Shasta daisies.

 

Add some annuals to this mix, like ‘Bright Eye’ vinca, white petunias or pastel zinnias. Mixing perennials and annuals extends the bloom time giving you an attractive garden from spring through fall. Plant a moonflower vine along a fence or on a trellis. It blooms at night and has a pleasant sweet fragrance.

 

White irises, bell-flower (Campanula), and white phlox provide a spring to summer succession of blooms. Silvery Artemisia and lambs ear gives texture. This combination of plants could be used in a container garden on a patio or wherever you want a casual, natural setting that sparkles in the evenings. Add mums, snapdragons, and pansies to get blooms through fall. Include some variegated, gray and silver for depth and more texture such as liriope and caladiums. Add an edging of white alyssum for fragrance.

 

Put all your ideas together; do your plant shopping wisely, and you can have a ‘moonlit’, easy care garden providing a peaceful place to spend some down time to relax and enjoy the outdoors. Don’t have to imagine your moonlit garden, create one! Have fun and enjoy!