Sometimes beauty becomes apparent over time. When I first got into gardening I subscribed to several magazines. One was about English Gardening. The idea was that the garden was beautiful in each season even if it wasn't a growing or blooming season. So, you pay attention to how features will look year round and in all weather, even winter snow. So, that is somewhat how I garden.
I have rocks placed throughout three of the beds. In the hot dry summer they can look dull and be covered by some of the plants. But when it rains, they darken and the colors and patterns of the rocks show up as well. Beautiful to see this change. Oranges, yellows, pinks, sparkles. In the winter sometimes they will melt the snow and show up as very dark. Sometimes they stay covered up and you see mounds in something of a pattern.
In the spring with the plants you have new colors of greens, yellows, reds and blacks depending on what perennials there are. Summer is summer of course. Then if you leave plants to go to seed or dry out you wind up with a completely different palette in the fall. White (lunaria/money-plant/silver dollar plant--that's where I got "pennyplant" from), dark brown almost black, light brown or tan. Seed pods, round, flat, some like small potatoes, some sticking out all over like with cone flowers. So much to look at. And before I learned about this, much of it I would have thought ugly and would have pulled it up or tried to neaten it up. Gardening is much more enjoyable this way. Much more beautiful, IMO.
PP
