Meet Dan. He’s a tireless activist in the town of Takoma, most recently for sustainable city management. Yes, a liberal do-gooder and I say thank god someone will sit through all those meetings so the rest of us don’t have to. Seriously.
But to get right to my point, Dan’s recently done some hands-on redevelopment in the rundown part of town by having built a most excellent commercial building - Voila the building. 
Readers, here’s your job if you choose to accept it: Pick some plants that would go with these colors. Beyond your basic green, what? I’m thinking conifers and ornamental grasses but what about something flowering? These look like Western colors to me and I’m a true-blue easterner. I’ve thought of exactly one so far - sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ - which I think would look good and be easy. But what about the easy-care shrub roses I was thinking about for Dan, or the equally easy spireas? I’m stuck.
(God, you should see the "dirt" that our chosen plants would be subjected to. It’s typical construction site clay&rubble and they usually just leave it there, with sod on top, but not this time. I suggested 6 inches of real topsoil - what do you think?)
The site consists of three smallish areas (sorry - I’ll try to get some dimensions), all of which get afternoon sun, or will for the first 10 years or so until the new street trees he’ll be planting really produce some shade. So yes it’ll be a slowly evolving garden, like all real ones. The colors were chosen by local colorist Zoe Kyriacos, who’s enlivening our little town one building at a time. Here’s a shot of Zoe and me on site.
And why are we helping Dan? Well, you’re helping him because he’s such a good guy and you’re all nice people. Me, I’m helping Dan because he and I have a barter thing going and he’s a computer expert. YES! Oh, and that part about him being a good guy.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
M Sinclair Stevens (Texas) 01.13.07 at 9:33 am
Seems like the minimalist design of the building should be complemented by a minimalist garden. If this building were in my climate, I’d suggest yuccas, agaves, and ocatillo–lovely starkly architectural plants. Or ornamental grasses. Or lavender and rosemary. Or a thyme lawn.
I don’t really know what grows where you live, though.
Kathy Jentz, Washington Gardener 01.13.07 at 9:50 am
I agree on the yucca and grasses. For flowers, try some of the orange-hued echinacea along with: rudbeckia, sunflowers, daisies, daylilies, yarrow, etc. - sort of a mixed prairie meadow look.
Hope he has thought about adding a green roof full of sedus as well. Would love to see them “dripping” over the sides.
Pam/Digging 01.13.07 at 10:30 am
I agree with M. Sinclair Stevens and Kathy–ornamental grasses and yuccas would be great. I would steer away from soft pinks and pastels and stick with lots of green foliage and a few clumps of bold yellows, oranges, and deep blues or purples (salvias, rudbeckias, daylilies).
kim (blackswamp_girl) 01.13.07 at 6:41 pm
I am kind of surprised at my own reaction here. The first (and second, and third) thing I thought of was: “Wouldn’t a white garden look good here?” I guess because the colors of the building are so bright, and really can’t be made to look naturalistic.
So… I’d go for the yuccas and the grasses and the minimalist look, too. But I’d stick with white variegation, white flowers, etc., instead of introducing a whole bunch of other colors.
jenn 01.13.07 at 7:01 pm
See, I see that and I want to bounce more color all over it.
Purple leaved small trees - maybe smokebush?
Redbud goes a nice yellow in the fall.
Orange and yellow mums for fall, with October Skies aster.
Blues and yellows - Peachleaved bellflower and happy returns daylilies for summer.
Those weird orange imperials (Fritillaria imperialis) in the spring… and scilla - tons and drifts and rivers of blue scilla
Color color color…
Pam L 01.13.07 at 8:52 pm
I agree with the red and orange coloring, in whatever varities works there, along with the grasses. I think having reds and oranges would “ground” it because of the red being at the top of the building and right now the white of the bottom kind of leaves it floating in a way.
Christopher C in Hawaii 01.13.07 at 9:17 pm
The natural progression in that color lineup is blue.
This is a commercial building. It is likely to get next to no maintenance, so whatever goes in needs to be very tough and stand up to the wear and tear of city life. This ain’t Grandma’s garden.
The building architecture is minimalist except for the color and the vertical lines in the siding. The stone first floor has horizontal lines.
I see three species of tough perennial small shrubs or very durable perennial flowers in the blue green leaf color range and maybe having blue flowers or berries. No grasses because I don’t want the vertical lines they create.
These three species are to be planted in single species horizontal stripes across the front of the building, crossing the entry walkway to the right hand bed and hopefully an upper right hand bed where I see a telephone pole as continuous stripes. There needs to be significant foliage texture difference between the plants that make up the stripes.
This I think will give the building the effect of a wide base to rest on so the color stripes on the building don’t pull the eye too harshly skyward as well as work with the theme of the building.
There will need to be one taller element in the right front bed by the utility meters to screen those and help balance the tree on the left and break up that wall a bit.
That’s the concept anyway.
I don’t knows much bout Yankee shrubberies yet so you’ll have to think what will work from there.
Heather 01.14.07 at 1:49 am
All I have to say is MORE SOIL. 6″ wasn’t enough to help my terrible builder-abused soil when we bought this house, unless you intend to get enough to also refill the holes for the larger plants that will be planted deeper than 6″. I also found that what a landscaper calls 6″ is really just 3″ once it’s rained on a couple of times.
Pam L 01.14.07 at 10:33 am
That’s what compost is for. We had mostly clay and originally brought in top soil but for everything I add to the garden/landscape, even now, 5 years later, I still buy a bag of compost and mix it half and half when planting. You can’t buy enough top soil when it’s this bad and you have to let it grow in some of the native soil or it won’t spread it’s roots from the original root ball.
bev 01.15.07 at 6:12 pm
I am thinking of winter interest also; how about picking up the red at the top with winterberry hollies and/or red twig dogwoods? They both like damp areas, though….
melody 03.04.07 at 11:03 am
Hot Cocoa Roses; bring that great brick/orange/red down from the top of the building.