Designing a Magical Moon Garden

Doreen Layman, Landscape Manager at Murray’s Landscape Services, explains how to make your garden shine at night.

The magic of the night can be emphasized in your garden design. When the night encroaches on the garden, the colours of red, blue, orange, and dark pink fade into nothingness. But the light-colored flowers—especially the white flowers—come to life in the night. This is the basis of a magical moon garden.

If you enjoy entertaining at night, your garden can come to life by the light of the moon just by adding white flowers to your garden design. Keep in mind the blooming time and carefully place your plants to ensure your garden glows in the night all season long.

Early blooming white flowers may include Snowdrops, Tulips and Daffodils. Midsummer flowers may include Shasta Daisies, Snow-In-Summer, Candy Tuff and Phlox, Azaleas and Rhododendrons. Late summer flowers can include Astilbe, Hydrangea, and Roses. You can even add pale pink flowering plants, variegated leaved plants or silver plants for a similar effect.

The effect is greater if you do a mass planting of white flowers instead of a few scattered about the garden. I boarder my garden with white Candy Tuff (Iberis sempervirens). You may even try planting a boarder of white annuals such as Alyssum or Begonia Non-stop White.

Emphasize the night garden by adding plants and features that appeal to your other senses. Add fragrant white lilac, white shrub rose, and lavender. Water features, wind chimes, and light-colored pathways all add to the magic. Decorative lights within and around the garden will also enhance the mood on a cloudy night. Make sure you have a place to sit to enjoy this atmosphere. The ideas can be numerous.

So along with the stars and moon, allow your moon garden to put a spell on you. The allurement of peace, romance and magic can be yours.