What makes garden vignettes work?

More ways to put together a garden vignette

Vignettes = Little Scene.  When you want to feature Flea market finds in your garden, just what are the steps you take to get the right design and a pleasing balance of flowers and artifacts? See these great examples and see why each one works.

Izabella Kołodziejczyk says, “Containers make a wonderful transition between a gravel drive or patio and the flower bed…”  Softening the middle ground between the tall fir and the low neutral gravel, are a selection of blue and grey colored containers filled with succulents and green foliage. One of the design concepts to use is this Rule of Heights, Tall, Medium and Low. 

 

Darla Jenkins says, “My beautiful impatiens in old wash tub! Breaks my heart just knowing first frost they will be gone. I’ve enjoyed their beauty all summer.”   Using a neutral background is another good design concept for garden vignettes.  Another used here is a unifying color scheme,…using just a few colors in your flower choices or just one, like Darla has done here.  That pulls everything together.

 

Jane Krauter has used heights plus a strong Red, White and Blue color scheme, always pleasing, especially in summer.

Linda McDonald has covered her home’s entry wall with a very nice arrangement.  The lowest level is two wheeled items, the blue wagon filled with Impatiens.  The fancy wire plant stand is medium height and filled with colorful begonias and ivy.  A very narrow Baker’s rack fills the very corner and makes a place for more interesting small objects.

Julie Brown had this plain brown wall as a background for a large variety of Flea market finds which she and her husband shop for most every month. Editing is key here for it would be too easy to jam everything together hither thither.

The double wash tub dominates on corner, with a plant stand and wheelbarrow for the second and third large object.  Everything else you see is much smaller and added as accents.  An iron filageed headboard adds a secondary ‘background’ behind the flower filled wheelbarrow.  A carpet of Hosta and Corals bells cover the ground underneath.

Here, Julie has simply uses all the same sized containers, each filed with Geraniums, Salvia and Sweet Potato vine and raises them to different levels for tall, middle and low.  The size of the pots unifies the little scene.

 

With a strictly decorative potting bench as a tall background, Jean Morrow uses an ‘about the same size’ Flea Market wash tub and a much smaller birdhouse in the foreground.  Using the design tool of background, ‘middle ground’ and foreground, she then surrounds the objects with containers of flowers.

 

Baker’s racks automatically add levels and a lot of interest.  The eye rests on the bright violas.  Jeanne Sammons makes sure there are flowers on each level. She carefully changes the arrangement here with the seasons.

 

Christal O’Connor says, “I love to get ideas from all the Flea Market Gardening friends, I hope you all don’t mind having your ideas “borrowed.” Using threes, Christal adds watering cans to her milkcan and fills each with dried Hydrangea and red flowers

Cathy Bullerwell says, ” this is a copper washer I found over a bank on our property. It must have belonged to my step-grandmother. I do it up differently every year.”  Cathy uses the Rule of Three found objects and only three colors green, white and hot, bright magenta to unify all three items.  Just the uniqueness of the antique washer will draw visitors over to see this.

 

Carol Lang ringed this informal patio with a collection of containers, stacking the corner a bit higher. Accents are a wire plant stand on one side and a vintage pump on the other for three main features.  The containers are filled with flowers so they blend into each other, a good balance of metal objects and blooms.

 

You may not notice, but the neutrals Marie Niemann has used here, the galvanized grey of the toolbox and wall, and the orangey-red of the rusty wheel and brick, work to make the violas and pansies stand right out.  Take a close look at what your vignette has a s a background.

 

Dandi Gentry’s wheelbarrow holds all the components of her little scene.  The strong color scheme pops with sunny yellow sunflowers and bright red Geraniums.  It works!

 

Here, the wheelbarrow works as a ‘background’ of sorts as it’s placed at a corner of the patio.  In front are two more containers at a lower level, creating different heights and using the Rule of Three.   Flowers overflow at the peak of bloom, white Alyssum, Petunias and snapdragons.

 

Rhonda has used the rule of three and added height with the hanging basket and window on the fence. Easy!

 

Michelle Fairchild‎ says, “After my husband and I had the yard sale of all yard sales, I decided to be creative with some of the things that had no real place in my home, but still yet, I just couldn’t part with them.”  Michelle uses different heights, tucking plants in the drawers and sticks to just a couple colors, chartreuse and pink.

 

Maryjane Callahan‎ says, “A friend was looking for a colorful spring place to take a picture of her five year old daughter. Someone told her to call me and this is what I was able to pull together for her. Most things will end up in ground or repotted but still a tad too early for NE Arkansas.”

 

Orienting a garden vignette at the ends of vegetable beds adds color and interest, before and after the peak of vegetables harvest.  Here, Marie Niemann has planted Blue Lobelia, white Bacoba and red Geraniums

Do you have a garden scene you especially like?  Post your garden photos on our FMG Facebook page or describe it here in a comment.