The colour wheel garden

Gardens are never 'complete'. Gardens are always a process, changing and redeveloping over time, and there is no exemption for the world-class gardens at the Diggers Club. Autumn has provided the perfect opportunity to start a new project, planting and cultivating a 'Colour Wheel' in the Heronswood Gardens on the Mornington Peninsula.

Colour is an essential design consideration when building beautiful gardens. Colour wheels illustrate how colours relate to each other and visually demonstrate the relationships of colours, primary, secondary and tertiary colours. Colour wheels are a mix of art and science – just like gardening. The Diggers Gardeners will utilise the ornamental plants offered by the Diggers Club to plant a circle compassing the Heronswood Lawn and iconic Desert Ash, evoking a colour wheel. 

In discussing the exciting development with Head Gardener Bill Bampton, the project offers more than just a pure classification of the range into colour blocks.

As part of the process, gardeners have expanded their understanding of plants' colours and the key features of plants that showcase colour. For example, the dominant colour of a plant might be held in the foliage of bracts of plants, not just their flower below. It has also challenged our assumptions and descriptions of some flowers, i.e. may 'blue' flowers are more truly in the Violet to Purple spectrum of colour. 

'You think you know what colour plants are until you look again.’

While being a different way of looking at Diggers plants, the colour wheel will use a diverse selection of plants with a mix of annuals, herbaceous and evergreen perennials, climbers and shrubs. The ingredients will create subtle interest in flowers and foliage throughout the year. Its beauty will be in a gentle firework of colour throughout the year rather than a peak display in summer.

Though the blocks of colour will be grown in a spectrum circling Desert Ash in the centre of the Heronswood Lawn, the whole garden will create a harmonious impact on visitors and a handy tool for members. Though, in the early stages (the first bit of turf has just been moved), we look forward to this development and the important perspective of plants and design insights it will create.