Re: Bright colour stains for decks and fences

LOL

Sorry Louise, the problem with theories is that they only hold true for the
theorist!  If you saw my garden (or spoke with me) you would never question
whether I am really into gardening.  In fact, I find that peole who are
interested in more than plants have gone through a "strictly plants" phase
of gardening and then realize that it takes more than simply plants to
create a beautiful environment, so they start looking at the overall
environment, including woodwork.

Also, you might not realize that the quality of sunlight in different parts
of the world lends itself to different colors in terms of plants.  In our
area, for instance (Southern California), many people plant pastel
"English" style gardens.  To me, those colors get lost in the bright
sunlight. What seems to work better are more saturated colors, hot colors,
etc.  So here, bright colored woodwork really complements the landscape
rather than distracts from them.

When we restuccoed our house last year, I chose a deep terra-cotta color
instead of the typical white or beige.  I chose those colors to create a
dramatic background for the plants.  If you have ever looked at pictures of
homes from New Mexico, you would have seen how those deep color backgrounds
make the plants shine like jewels.  That is the goal.  The plants are
always the actors, everything else is stage dressing.

Nan



 >It seems to me that the people who do paint their woodwork
>these bright colours are those who really aren't into
>gardening (my apologies to those of you who have beautiful
>perennial gardens and bright blue fences).  They seem
>largely to be people who want an instant, designer type
>garden with maximum impact and very few plants, maybe a
>clump of bamboo and a fatsia or two.  I haven't seen a blue
>fence yet that looks attractive, but then if it was hidden
>behind a lot of the plants that we all love, maybe it would
>look better.  BUT, the other day, I did see on television, a
>fence painted a very dark green (a colour that has been
>acceptable over here for quite a few years).  They put into
>the borders some lovely perennials and shrubs with red
>flowers and red leaves and I thought that looked fantastic.
>I think red and green are opposites on the colour wheel, so
>that should look good, shouldn't it?
>
>Louise, Surrey, England
>
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Nan Sterman
San Diego County California
Sunset zone 24, USDA hardiness zone 10b or 11

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