Shea Simmons
If a burgeoning collection of houseplants isn’t in your future and a plain old vegetable garden sounds dull, enter the moon garden.
A moon garden is a collection of plants with predominantly white or silver blooms that reflect the moonlight. While all flowers can be seen by moonlight, these white and silver options will create a luminescent glow in your garden at night.
Jerry Gorchels, regional manager for PanAmerican Seed, points to 2020’s gardening boom as one of the reasons moon gardens have become popular.
“Over the past year, we have been making our homes a proper oasis,” he said. “They are a place we need to feel calm, relaxed, or offer us a new distraction.”
If you want to create your own, Gorchels recommends using large blooms, like snowball hydrangeas and lilies, to anchor your garden. But be sure to also include some foliage like lamb’s ear and silver sage.
It’s not too late to start your own moon garden, either. There are fast-growing blooms out there that you’ll be able to enjoy well into the fall.
White clematis is a quick blooming, climbing plant that would look lovely on a trellis in a moonlit garden. Sweet alyssum is another option that blooms through the fall if planted now.
And don’t forget about classic petunias, which will bloom in about six to eight weeks and continue through the first severe frosts of autumn. As Gorchels mentioned, you can also incorporate some greenery, like lamb’s ear, which blooms in late spring and early summer, but keeps its silvery-green hue year-round.
If you regularly entertain in your backyard and want to take the scenery up a notch for those autumn evenings by the fire, a moon garden might be just the thing.
[Via Real Simple]
