The Transplanted Gardener: Little landscape lessons

Even if you're not new to the Monitor, it's possible you may have missed Creative Combos, a  photo-driven feature I've been writing with the aid of ace garden photog. David McDonald.

We take a little vignette – a composition of plantings – and show how and why they make for effective landscaping.

Here's what these columns look like:

• Pieces of Silver: How pale colors ease transitions in garden beds and borders.

• A Palette of Garden Grasses: These ornamentals add grace, form, and movement.

• Not Your Grandmother’s Hens and Chicks: Drifts of succulents can be stunning.

• A Dreamy Blue Contrast: Sometimes subtlety is its own reward. (See side photo.)

• Of Golden Bookends: On the cutting edge with colored foliage.

• See-Through Plants and Sheer Artistry: Defying the conventional wisdom.

• Stopping the Eye at an Intersection: Man, nature and anthropomorphism.

• Ride the Red Wave: Creating a scene by contrasting color and texture.

• French-Style Floral Flair: Close your eyes and think of … Gallic inspiration.

• Giving Grass Shape: An invitation to climb higher. (See top photo.)

Errata: Iowa, my adopted home, has four seasons – Snow, Ice, Mud, and Dust. And all these elements get in your house somehow or another. Well, there are five seasons if Dog Hair is a season.