"Jack" wrote in message
...
I'm still planning the layout of my mixed borders. I have a normal small
suburban garden -- grass surrounded by borders on three sides.
My question is -- is it a good idea to have separate (but adjacent)
borders -- one for autumn and one for summer, in totally different
contrasting colours? Or is it better to incorporate the autumn plants in
with everything else?

The summer pastel flowers will probably still be in bloom when the autumn
fiery shades come out, and I'm worried that everything will clash and look
awful. The garden is not very large so all the borders are seen together.

Just be careful with the colours but mix the seasons up. In a large garden
you may get away with separate seasonal gardens but a small garden will look
daft if one side is dead and brown while the other is in full flower.
Remember that you probably can't see the whole garden when sitting inside
the house so you'll be kicking yourself if the view from inside is of brown
earth when you know there is a riot of colour just out of sight. You could
try and have a common theme through all the borders and then add some
seasonal interest to slightly raise one area without unbalancing the whole.

Martin