Be Seduced by Texture for Garden Design

Color's sly sibling, texture invites us to experience a garden sensually, through touch as well as look. Review the basic types of texture, then combine them for effect.

Excerpted from Garden Design

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Combining Rough Elements with Smooth Adds Drama

Rough With Smooth

For rough textures choose stone chippings, dry stone walls, woven screens, peeling tree bark or prickly plants. Choose flat or rounded surfaces like concrete cubes and spheres, plain pots, smooth bark and well-worn cobblestones or river rocks.

Two sets of contrast bring dramatic effect to this walled courtyard: gravel and rough-cut stone are paired with smooth spheres, and the dry stone water feature bisects the colorful wall.