This garden really caught my attention! It happens to be in Marrakesh, Morocco. And it happens to be owned by designers Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Berge’ who purchased it in 1961 and brought it lovingly and beautifully out of it’s state of decay. It had been built by French artist and amateur botanist Jacques Majorelle, who designed and constructed the pavilions, installed the “corridor of water,” imported exotic tropical plants and painted it cobalt blue. The cobalt blue idea was what absolutely outraged polite society back in the day.

It wasn’t just a little blue. No no no. Not just an accent. It was a major amount of blue! Splashed liberally on big walls, small walls, pool edges and more. And it’s not just blue. It’s turquoise and yellow as well. The color is big and punchy. It provides a bold contrast to the flora and fauna of Morocco.

The Arab Pavilion leads to the Square Lake surrounded by many species of angular cacti of assorted sizes. “It is perhaps water - a key element of Islamic gardens - that makes this place. Sleeping and black, it tinkles joyfully, flows quietly or suddenly springs forth in clouds of fresh spray.” (Marie France-Boyer)

Pointed palms and triangular bladed agaves and yuccas contrast with rounded lush aeoniums, bushy bouganvilleas and gnarled vines. Elaborate wrought iron grills and grates contrast with simple unembellished plaster walls.

Can we apply these design principles to our own garden? Yes, of course we can. This is nothing more than taking a color that you love and using it BIG. Do you have the courage that Marjorelle did eighty years ago?

Here is a photo of the brilliant orangey-red poppies that grow in my garden every May. While their foliage is green enough, I am imagining placing a bright green glazed urn right next to them at least during the month that they are in blossom. I am choosing bright green because it is the complementary color to red and is directly opposed to it on the color wheel. But bright yellow would do beautifully too.

And while I am into my color fantasy, the yellow orange lilies that come out in late June / early July could certainly use a purple blue piece of trellis placed behind them as a backdrop.

Here’s a fun example that I came across which demonstrates just what power a colored backdrop can have in a garden. That color green just leaps off the purple fence. Garden eye candy for the neighbors!

Photos from World of Interiors December 2007

Tags: cactus, Garden Art, Marrakesh, Morocco

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