Garden of the Week: Constant colors in Washington Park

By Julie Hutchinson, Special to the Rocky

Published May 1, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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* What: Remodeled Washington Park home, garden winner of the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado Excellence in Landscape Award. To see more award-winning projects, go to www.alcc.com.

* Designer/contractor: Lisa Lane with Distinctive Gardens

* Type: Complete redesign of a newly remodeled home in an established, central Denver neighborhood, incorporating annuals, turf and xeric perennials.

* What makes this garden special: This garden is remarkable for its use of flowering annuals to create dramatic, summerlong color and texture. Turf is used sparingly but helps integrate the landscape into the surrounding neighborhood. Waves of complementary shades create a magic carpet of color.

* Biggest challenge: Some gardeners look down upon flowering annuals as plants for amateurs, preferring higher-maintenance, fussier perennials. This garden, however, turns that notion on its ear and uses flowering annuals in an inventive style that challenges any gardener to look again.

* Highlights: The designer takes what some would consider ho-hum annuals - the kind that can be found at any grocery, hardware and home-improvement store every spring - and paints an original picture of summer perfection. Some perennials are included in this landscape, but the highlights are the banks of brilliant color greeting visitors at the entrance and pedestrians lucky enough to pass raised planters flanking the public sidewalk.

* What they like best: The owners love the constant color from the annuals that bloom from early spring until frost.

* Final thoughts: Never turn your back on common annuals again. This landscape uses annuals including zinnias, verbena, geraniums, salvia and lantana for a most unusual garden.

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