my garden is not working.

[jes]

Hello all
 I've got a problem, my garden is not working.
 I can not get the look I want.
 Plants, colors, big small, I get it all jumbled together so it's not beautiful.
 Therefore, I would hear about some of you have pictures from their own garden where there is hamoni or whether i can refer to pages on nets where I can find inspiration. Preferably with plant names if possible.
 The point I wish had been flowers and colors in abundance, as we in Denmark call "English village garden"
 Can you help?

 Continued good summer from
 jes

[bulborum]

Hello Jes

It will inspire us maybe
if you have some pictures from your garden
maybe if we see your garden
we can help you with some ideas

Roland

[Anthony Darby]

English village gardens tend to have pastel colours rather than vibrant primary colours. Is this what you want?

[Tim Ingram]

Jes - a lot depends on how much summer moisture you get. Our garden is good in spring with alpines and woodland plants but by summer gets very dry. The 'English Village Garden', what we call 'Cottage Gardens', have a lot of summer flowering perennials and so you need good, fertile and reasonably moist soil, but they can look glorious. They also tend to develop slowly over time as gardeners introduce new plants and exchange plants with friends. If you want a similar effect more quickly I would try some of the stronger and long flowering annuals like Cosmos, Ammi majus, poppies and biennials like foxgloves and verbascum, plus the taller grasses and perennials such as Eryngium planum, Knautia macedonica, Sanguisorba and others with smallish flowers. Many of these will self-sow which is quite a feature of cottage gardens and makes them very natural looking over time.

[jes]

thanks for the reply.
 I unfortunately have no photos from my garden at the moment but I will get acquired.

It is not so much what specific plants I are looking for, I have a wide selection, but more how I get the colors and form put together in harmony, what can be put together so you get a nice "view".
 That's why I'm looking for pictures of gardens or single bed so I can see the overall impression.

[mark smyth]

I dont think about harmony and put plants where there is a space

Where do you live?

What about prairie planting if you have space

[Tim Ingram]

Jes - go for combining just a few plants and work up from there. Some examples from our garden and that of a friend earlier in the year. Later on taller things could be flowering and if you plant carefully you can get a good succession through the year, but I think it will take a time until you get what you are aiming for because every garden is so personal.

[Lesley Cox]

Tim, you mentioned elsewhere today that Rosemary Powis had a fine artistic eye, or words to that effect. That's the secret of course, a certain artistry present in the gardener concerned. Different gardeners will achieve entirely different effects with the same plants. Some are superb, some will be a dog's breakfast. Best just to love the plants and hope their health speaks for itself.