Painted wall inspiration
Imagine how thrilling this pale-yellow Opuntia flower would look against a lavender wall. Or maybe a leaf-green wall, which would contrast with the purple pads of the cactus, especially in winter when its color is strongest.
I’ve just read the Summer 2008 issue of Wildflower, the magazine of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, in which several pages of garden-wall eye candy and an article by Tucson gardener, designer, and author Scott Calhoun inspired an aha moment—as well as regret that for some unfathomable reason I have no wall.
Well, OK, the reason is because walls are expensive. And because I’d never quite visualized how a vibrantly painted wall might set off a xeric (water-conserving) garden. Sure, I’d been to Santa Fe and admired those terra-cotta colored walls, against which colorful hollyhocks just glowed. But reversing the color from the plants to the walls is an idea I find revolutionary, and which obviously plays up the strengths of a xeric desert garden.
As Calhoun explains, native plants in the Southwest tend to have either fine-textured leaves (salvia, penstemon) or dramatic form (agave, yucca, spiny cacti), and few of them grow very tall. A brightly colored wall shows off the form of the dramatic plants and provides a color contrast or echo with the seasonally blooming fine-textured plants.
Colored walls also provide xeric gardens with year-round color, reducing the need, he says, for “water-wasting annual carpet bedding plants.” I wish I could link to the images from Wildflower because seeing is believing, but the current issue isn’t online (find the link to Scott’s article in my second paragraph). Luckily Calhoun has an excellent website with pics of new walled gardens he’s designed. Check it out and see if you don’t want one in your own garden, whether xeric or not. As Phillip at Dirt Therapy reminds us, even a lush Alabama garden is shown to advantage with a purple walled backdrop.
One of the other gardens featured in Calhoun’s article is the incredible Peckerwood Garden near Hempstead, Texas, about two hours east of Austin. “Inspired by Frida Kahlo’s bright-blue house” in Mexico, Calhoun writes, plantsman John Fairey “returned home to Texas to construct his first colored garden wall—a low, vibrant blue wall,” against which he planted yuccas and other xeric plants. For some beautiful images of Peckerwood, including that blue wall, see Tom Spencer’s post at Soul of the Garden.
Which reminds me—I’ve just got to visit Peckerwood this year during one of its Open Days—which are surprisingly few.
If you haven’t read Scott Calhoun’s garden memoir Yard Full of Sun, go buy a copy. You don’t have to be a desert gardener to enjoy his engaging writing, sense of humor, and beautiful yet funky design sense. A new book is in the works, The Hot Garden: Landscape Design for the Desert Southwest, and I’ll be all over it when it comes out. Maybe I’ll get a review copy of this one. (Rio Nuevo, are you listening?)
All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Even though I don’t have a yard full of sun I would probably enjoy the book. I love the look
of the SW Gardens with all their desert type plants. I think most gardeners want what they don’t
have in their gardens. At least that is how I am. I would love a xeric garden as I think they
are so architecturally pleasing to the eye. It won’t happen here unless global warming alters our
climate dramatically. I probably won’t live to see that.
There is something exciting and exotic (to us non-desert gardeners) about the spare yet dramatic desert garden. Luckily, living in Austin, where the lush, green southeast and the dry, sunbaked southwest collide, I can enjoy elements of both types of gardens. —Pam
What is a xeric garden? Sounds intriguing
Helen, according to this California government site, “Literally, the word xeriscaping comes from a combination of two other words: “xeri” derived from the Greek word “xeros” for dry; and “scape”, meaning a kind of view or scene. While xeriscape translates to mean “dry scene,” in practice xeriscaping means simply landscaping with slow-growing, drought tolerant plants to conserve water and reduce yard trimmings.” I believe the concept originated in Denver, Colorado, and it’s been promoted by many city governments across the American southwest and southeast as part of water-conservation efforts. —Pam
Ok, I just have to ask…”Peckerwood” Garden is a sly, tongue-in-cheek sort of name, right? Not an actual, serious, this-was-someone’s-name garden name?
It is strange to call a garden Peckerwood, isn’t it? I have yet to hear how the garden was named, but it wasn’t for the owner—John Fairey. —Pam
I absolutely ADORE southwest-type gardens! (Which is exactly why my front yard looks the way it does). You have this nice soft look with grasses and little flowers – and the WHAM!, right in the middle you throw in a big ol’ Agave or Ocotillo or something else equally architectural. Fabulous. I am definitely going out to the book store and picking myself up a copy of ‘Yard full of sun’ It looks like something I would really enjoy.
I hope you enjoy it, Michelle! Let me know what you think. —Pam
I remember eating at an outside table, in France.
It was in a little nook, below a tall, plain, whitewashed wall – over the top of which smiled a row of large-headed sunflowers against an incredibly blue sky.
I took a mental photograph and grin whenever I ‘look’ at it.
Very simple. Very memorable. Very dramatic.
Esther Montgomery
What a lovely “souvenir” from your trip—a happy garden memory. Thanks for sharing, Esther. —Pam
ESTHER IN THE GARDEN
It’s beautiful garden scenes like Scott Calhoun’s and Peckerwood that always make me want to move to the desert southwest. I feel that way about your garden, too, Pam and loved so much of what I saw in Austin. If it made any sense at all, I would paint a portion of my brick house something vibrant and alive…thanks for the links, I will have to spend more time at the Peckerwood site…just typing that name makes me laugh!
Thanks, Gail! I’m glad you enjoyed the gardens in Austin. I fell in love with the mix of southwest and old South that is Austin when we visited from North Carolina in 1994. But like you, I think I could be a happy gardener even farther west, in the Santa Fe area. —Pam
Hi Pam, I have been to Peckerwood a couple of times, once with the Woodlands Garden Club, and once on the open day. John Fairey told us the place was named for the many woodpeckers who inhabited the woods. It was the most amazing gardens, with agaves as large as cars, against that blue wall. There was a wall of water spouts coming from men’s faces that was wonderful. You must go, take lots of photos and post about it. I even made the Financier go back on the open day after we went with the garden club to show him.
Frances, you make me want to see it more than ever. And you got to meet the owner, lucky you. When I go, I will be sure to take lots of photos. —Pam
Peckerwood is staying where it is, but Yucca Do is moving to a place out 290. I want to say Carmine, but it may be one of the little towns along there near Carmine. It will be closer to Austin, farther from me. Poo!
Well, that’s an interesting bit of news. Do you happen to know why Yucca Do is moving, Chris? —Pam
Thanks for the heads up on that book. I will read any garden book recommended as it is always a way to learn something new. The front cover is lovely but not quite as lovely as your opuntia flower picture!
Since I posted about the book, I’ve decided to reread it myself. I hope you enjoy it, Layanee. —Pam
I have been ogling that same article, with the photos of bright walls. I really really want one!
Didn’t you think this issue of Wildflower magazine was particularly good? The eye candy alone… —Pam
I always like a book tip. That Opuntia flower looks like a rose.
I read once (in Fine Gardening?) that the best color house to show off a garden is yellow. Seems like yellow would glare badly in a sunny garden. I would go with leaf green. A contemporary English garden designer whose name I forget advocates painting walls and fences “Garden Club Green” which is grayish. The grayishness helps the wall “recede” making the space seem larger.
Imo, the consideration of a color’s effect on human visual perceptions of size and depth is vital.
I almost painted my house yellow a few years back, but the guy at the paint store told me yellow fades under our hot sun. So I opted for a grayish green instead, which has worked out well with my reds, purples, and yellows in the garden. I’d need another style of house to pull off one of those painted walls, I think (or a bigger garden). —Pam
Pam, I’d contact Rio Nuevo directly and give them the traffic stats on your blog. They’ll send you a copy, I bet.
I only have log walls. Love the design idea though.~~Dee
I’ll do that. And having log walls—that’s pretty cool. How do they affect the way you design your garden or your plant choices, Dee? —Pam
What a wonderful, innovative thing to do! Now that’s true art! To me, the textures of plants are just as important as the color. But color plus texture plus wall sounds fantastic!
Brenda
Yes, fantastic indeed! —Pam
The opuntia is superb. I want one !
‘Santa Rita’ is readily available in Austin. I hope you can find one too, Sue. —Pam
Pam, you’ve captured that Opuntia flower quite well. I have a couple Opuntias blooming now, but haven’t taken the time to take the photos-they are a bit challenging to capture artistically,
Thanks, Nicole. This one would look even better with a painted wall behind it. 😉 —Pam
Pam,
Thanks so much blogging about my “True Colors” story in Wildflower Magazine. The story is just a little taste of the colored wall chapter in my forthcoming book, The Hot Garden. I have been obsessed with plants and wall colors for the last few years and I’ve amassed quite a collection of photos that will appear in my new book.
Your blog is a joy to read. I’d love to meet you next time I’m in Austin, which, by the way, is one of my favorite gardening cities.
Thanks for visiting and commenting, Scott. I can’t wait to read The Hot Garden when it comes out. Meeting you would be a real pleasure. Please do contact me the next time you visit Austin. —Pam
Hello Pam,
Your photo almost convinces me to dig up my prickly pear cactus from its too-shady spot and put it in sun so it will bloom. The clump was already here when we came and has never had a flower. Maybe that area was sunny once but the trees have grown?
I read this fascinating post yesterday and have been thinking about it. To visit someone else’s garden with such a delightfully painted wall sounds like a pleasure, but could I live with one every day of the year? Somehow I doubt it! One reason I like perennials is that they GO AWAY, hopefully to return the next year. A big blob of color that never left would have me reaching for the paint brush after a couple of months. But I’d still like to see what color schemes other gardeners come up with!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Oh, I could definitely live with and love a brightly painted wall. But I do think you’d have to have the right spot for it. Or the right sort of architecture. An adobe or stuccoed house seems to beg for a painted wall in the garden. A traditional frame house? I’m not sure.
Prickly pear will grow in the shade just fine, from what I’ve seen on the hiking trails around town. But no, it probably won’t bloom in the shade. Moving one could be a tricky, prickly proposition though. —Pam
Walls! Walls! Walls!
My most prized possession is the tile work on my garage wall in shades of orange, butterscotch, and yellow that I traded an artist for – it MAKES my garden. And – this to Annie the Transplantable Rose – I am terribly fickle, but this is constancy I can get behind!
I’m going to paint another wall cobalt blue, to jazz up my vegetable garden.
I always suggest colorful walls to clients – only the bravest go for it – and they are always richly rewarded!
I must get an Opuntia ‘Santa Rita’! I’ve wanted one forever!
I remember your tiled wall, Germi. It’s fabulous, and I’m excited to hear that you’ll be coloring another wall cobalt blue—just the color of my bottle tree. I bet your vegetables will really pop against it!
I love ‘Santa Rita’ prickly pear, especially in winter when its pads really turn purple. Would it be a good plant for your monster garden? —Pam
That book sounds interesting. I’ll have to add it to my Amazon Wishlist.
It’s a good read, Jane Marie. I hope you enjoy it. —Pam
Pam, to answer your question about Yucca Do…. First they are discontinuing the print catalog. Too expensive I think. They will still rely on mail order online for most things. They say they will still have Open-Days at the new location. However, I had a talk with one of the owners when I went on their last open day.
He lives most of the time in…Ummm.. I think Costa Rica. I’m not sure of that but somewhere in central or South America. He makes better money doing whatever he is doing down there and lives more cheaply than he can here. So he will keep the nursery, but concentrate his efforts on his business elsewhere. I guess he has other dependable people here to run the nursery. The sign that was up said “nursery for sale” and I was unsure if that meant the land or the nursery business itself. The land in Hempstead is not terribly rural anymore. Wish I had paid better attention and could tell you these things for sure. I was distracted by plants.
LOL
That’s very interesting, Chris. Thanks for the info. I haven’t been to Yucca Do yet, and I hope I’ll still have the chance, but from what I’ve seen online I can certainly understand why you were distracted by the plants. —Pam
‘Yard Full of Sun’ is one of my favorite books. I love to read Scott’s articles, which occasionally appear locally. Have you read his other book, ‘Chasing Wildflowers’?
Aiyana
Nope, I haven’t read that one. But Yard Full of Sun is one of my favorites too. You don’t have to be a desert gardener to enjoy it. —Pam
Scott Calhoun is an incredibly talented writer and gardener. Thanks for spotlighting his recent article.
I think so too, Mike. Thanks for commenting. —Pam