The Hot Border

Garden Rooms at Havenwood, November 2024

The Hot Border garden at Havenwood

“Warm colors—yellow, orange, red and combinations therein—breathe energy, positivity and a sense of sunshine into any room.”

🍂 Benjamin Moore

Welcome to the Hot Border Garden!

This is a large, mixed border planting that sits on the eastern side of our home at Havenwood in the garden room that we can see directly out of our windows. This is the garden where I can play with all of the wild and energetic colors on the warm side of the color wheel—reds, oranges, and yellows.

Beginning with a formal structure at the center for the box parterre, we have created two deep borders that begin colorfully in early spring with tulips, crescendo in summer with all sort of red and yellow flowers, and finishes in the autumn with waving grasses and seed heads. These planting areas are in part to full sun with a rich soil that we have amended many times over the past decade by mulching with compost.

Come see some before & after photos and hear a bit about the making of the Hot Border Garden. 🍂

Before: Just a lawn in 2013

After: Hot Border in full bloom in 2014

Planning scale and dimensions: winter 2013