Your flowers mights have faded, but a garden built on a foundation of form, texture and color will brighten the darkest days.

By mid-October, most summer blossoms are well and truly spent. Yet, by focusing on foliage over flowers, gardeners can keep the show going through the months ahead. Winding up the autumn round of Seattle Grows, the botanical party game (that I made up) I reached out to Karen Chapman who, along with Christina Salwitz, wrote the book “Gardening with Foliage First” (Timber Press, 2017).

Do you ever find yourself eagerly waiting for something to start blooming only to be let down when flowering so quickly passes? It happens to most of us. Instead, the foliage-forward designer recommends building our gardens around a framework of evergreen and deciduous foliage, then completing the picture with flowering perennials and shrubs.

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GROW in The Seattle Times