Today we’re off to the Pacific Northwest to visit Jen Titilah’s garden, a small space filled with lots and lots of beautiful plants. I’ve always loved plants and the happiness […]
Colorful and rich in textures! Create stunning, easy care, and long-lasting combinations for your sunny borders or raised beds like this one. All plants are deer and drought-tolerant. Undemanding and easy to grow, they require little maintenance and enjoy a very long season of interest!
Create an impactful outdoor space with these small yard and garden landscaping ideas.
This guide will show you how to use vertical gardening to maximize the use of a small space to grow a wide variety of vegetables.
Veronica spicata 'Royal Candles'
36+ Unique and Creative Garden Container Ideas You Never Thought Of
Whether they're flowering, evergreen, or deciduous, these beautiful weeping trees are standouts in the landscape. Meet 14 stunning selections
Here is a list of amazing fragrant plants that smell heavenly. Get to know 10 fragrant plants with scents to die for. Perfect for the green thumb who loves to smell what they've grown!
A never-ending real estate dilemma is whether it is better to rent or to buy. For one lucky Brooklyn tenant, renting is clearly the way to go. Her apartme
Are you tired of spending endless hours maintaining your front yard? Look no further! We've compiled a list of 25 low-maintenance landscaping ideas tha ...
Explore Todd's Botanics' 579 photos on Flickr!
Everyone is planting black flowers in their gardens to create contrast and add a dramatic moment.
It is the final day of June 2013. And it is soggy here at the farm. I thought I’d share what some of our clematis look like at this time. These two clematis are favorites of many of my friend…
Mix and match these flower combinations for a gorgeous garden. Their colors, textures, and bloom times offer something for everyone.
Cryptomeria Globosa Nana (Dwarf Globe Cryptomeria japonica Globosa Nana) is an amazing bowling-ball-shaped dwarf Japanese cedar evergreen shrub. Buy online!
Hakone grass, also known as Japanese forest grass, is a shade-loving perennial with gracefully arching colorful foliage.
Make Your Garden Sing “A garden should make you feel you've entered privileged space -- a place not just set apart but reverberant -- and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.” - Michael Pollan Have you ever been to someone's garden and come home and said, “I wish my garden looked like that.” Well I suspect all gardeners, young and old, beginner and advanced, have felt this way. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what it is that we are drawn to in a garden, yet we have a sense it ‘feels right.’ Trying to implement what we see and sense isn’t always easy. The beauty and the mystery is that all gardens are unique. Ideas may be borrowed but how they are used becomes ours. In my years of gardening there are some threads that I’ve discovered that help a garden work and ‘feel right.’ How you make them unique to you is your job, but starting with a few basics is helpful. These are the ones that stand out for me: Soil It sounds basic and it is. But to have a healthy garden it’s imperative to start with good soil. Not even the perfect placement of plants will ever look nice or thrive if the soil is not healthy. The better the nourishment the better the survival. There are numerous fertilizers on the market that can be used but I personally prefer the organic route and choose to amend my soil with a healthy heaping, about three inches, of compost yearly or at least every other year, usually in the fall. The benefit of compost is that it breaks down slowly and amends the soil and the plants, where fertilizers mostly amend just the plants. Living in the country we are fortunate to have good sources available to us of great compost that has been properly heated so no weed seeds grow and thus the plants thrive. I learned the hard way by putting straight sheep and chicken manure on my gardens once which magically grew the best grass I ever had, everywhere, but not where I wanted it. Using compost, whether you buy it from a reputable source, or make it yourself, is worth the work. No matter which route you choose, the start to a healthy garden is good soil. In addition to compost putting down a layer of mulch (again about three inches) is also beneficial in suppressing weeds, retaining moisture and amending the soil even further. This is best done in the spring after the seedlings are visible and strong. Don’t scrimp on good soil. You will be grateful when you see the results as will your garden. Size One of the other mistakes I made when I first began gardening was making my beds too narrow. They were 30 to 40 feet long but only about four feet wide. Once I enlarged the depth of my beds, doors opened and I and my garden had room to breathe. Now there was space for layers of plants and the opportunity for greater interest. My enlarged beds were now 10 feet in depth in some places and close to 15 feet in others. Whether you choose to have tall plants in the back graduating to shorter ones in the front, or just an array of tall and short plants mingled together, doesn’t matter. What matters are the layers that now enhance the garden. Adding depth to any bed, even from two feet to five feet will add a vast difference in a small bed and create the ability to use more plants effectively. Initially it is a little more work, but in the end, worth every effort. Structure/Bones After visiting many gardens, reading garden journals and books, I noticed the gardens that spoke to me the most all held a common thread. They had great structure and bones. One of my wise gardening friends taught me that when you look at your garden, first look at it in winter, or visualize how it will look in winter. If it’s interesting in winter you have the beginning of a great garden. Snow glistens on tree branches, and highlights shrubs and evergreens as it does ornamental pieces or stone. The result is often breathtaking. The shapes and textures of tree limbs, especially ones with unusual bark add multiple interest in all seasons, but especially in winter. Shrubs soften the landscape adding a calming element and keep the garden from looking stark. Architectural shapes become strong and stunning. Look carefully at your garden in winter. A garden without structure has no bones and little interest. Texture, Shape and Colors Using interesting shapes and structure (mentioned above) along with a mixture of textures and colors will really make a garden sing. For me this is where the real joy and challenge begin. The part where you throw paint at your canvas. A garden with a variety of textures is a garden that does not need a lot of flowers, or flowers at all, because the textures are pleasing enough. Flowers can be added here and there but when they fade the garden is still compelling. When using textures and/or flowers, using a variation of color, height and shape next to one another is quite powerful. For instance placing a soft feathery plant such as an Amsonia ‘Hubricttii’ next to a larger-leaved or dense plant such as a Baptisia ‘Purple Smoke,’ will make each plant pop. Or a tightly trimmed boxwood placed in front of a tall grass that dances around it will make the other more noticeable. Using complimentary colors often works well too. If a big purple leafed Ajuga such as ‘Caitlin’s Giant’ or ‘Black Scallop’ is placed in front of yellow variegated grass they will each cause the other to glow. The list becomes endless: a purple eldberry (Sambuscus ‘Black Lace’) nestled over yellow wax bells (Kirengeshoma palmata), near purple asters, next to a yellow variegated shrub shadowed by a tall Meadow Rue (Thalictrum ‘Lavender Mist’), or hosta with purple flowers. Orange or red heleniums next to blue salvia or hyssop (Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’) behind a red coleus, next to a dark green boxwood. A red Japanese maple near a willowy grass with pink fluffy seed heads, next to a dark evergreen, etc. Colors and textures can play off of one another all the way around the garden creating a lovely cadence that pulls you along. In the end it is a carefully crafted painting of sorts that is not only pleasing to the eye but beautiful. That said, an all green garden can be also outstanding merely by using unusual shapes and textures together especially along with hardscape. Some of the loveliest and most stunning gardens use this palette. How they are placed and trimmed is the art here. A garden can be mostly pinks, blues and whites, or chartreuse, purple and reds. Or perhaps you are drawn to the soft flowing prairie look. It doesn’t matter as long as the textures, shapes and colors make the plant next to it sing. I confess this, too, can turn into an obsession and more work of forever moving plants around for better placement. Hardscape In New England we are blessed with stonewalls and an abundance of granite. Using granite in New England gardens echoes what we see in the surrounding fields and woods and helps unite the garden with the natural world around it. But the use of any stone, and other elements such as brick, iron, wood or metal adds a great deal to a garden. As mentioned above hardscape will become part of the “structure” of a garden. A stone or brick patio, walkway, cobbles lining beds, granite blocks strategically placed in the garden perhaps with pots sitting on top, plinths, benches, chairs, large pots, trellises, arbors, birdbaths, birdhouses, wooden posts, fences and gates, garden ornaments or art all add stability, interest and structure to a garden. The mood can be of your choosing: whimsical, stately, simple and stunning, artistic or a combination. Collecting and adding hardscape is great fun but be forewarned: also addictive. Maintenance and Appearance Maintenance is a tricky word. But a garden that is not taken care of shows it and thus creates a certain sense of unease. Yet there is a delicate balance between cleanliness and comfort. Sometimes the charm is the moss or plants that have set themselves between the pavers on a path or patio or the way other plants have found their way into the perfect spot, or the plants that overflow the edges so that you feel you are walking in the garden and not around it. Some of these acts of nature are the ones that create that “feel” we are initially drawn towards. Time has taught me that nature often does this best. But even a garden with time and age on its side still needs to show signs of care. We have all seen neglected gardens that weigh heavily upon us as if the owner is gone to never return. Again it’s all about balance. Some gardeners like more order than others and neither is right or wrong. The garden will always reflect aspects of yourself, like them or not. I would gather most gardeners have learned a great deal about themselves from working in their own gardens. When I first visited English gardens many years ago they had a huge impact on me for all the reasons listed above and for appearance. There was something comforting about the neatly edged beds of grass meeting dirt at a perfect right angle. How they maintain this is beyond comprehension but I knew it was something I liked and thus try to recreate in my own gardens (but not to the degree the English do). It adds to the list of obsessions, and I realize what it says about me, but I do it anyway because it makes me feel good. So that is part of the balance too. “Gardens are a form of autobiography.” – Sydney Eddison So have fun, continually observe, be courageous, make mistakes, do and undo, celebrate your successes, learn from your failures, keep your sense of humor and sanity (sometimes the hardest part), and enjoy making your garden unique to you, beautiful and healthy and singing its own song. You can even sing along! Maude's first encounters with gardening came in early childhood, when her mother gave her a small patch of earth to care for. As a result of that experience she has carried a passion for nurturing the earth into adulthood and has been gardening seriously for the past 30 years. She holds a Master Gardener's certificate from The University of New Hampshire and, for over 12 years, has served as a dedicated volunteer with the Peterborough, NH Town Gardens, assisting with both design and maintenance. With the eyes of an artist, and a commitment to create beautiful spaces, she also runs her own garden design business, The Artful Gardener, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. For more guest blog posts from Maude Odgers, click here. You can also visit Maude's website at www.maudeodgers.com. All photos of the Odgers garden above by Maude Odgers.
Hello Hello Plants supplies Jacaranda Tree Online at wholesale prices in Melbourne. Shop our Jacaranda Tree Melbourne Online. Victoria Wide Delivery.
There are some schools of thought that say forcing amaryllis bulbs in soil versus water is the best method. Here are some tips on how to force amaryllis bulbs in soil for a successful project that wil
Front yard, side yard, and backyard landscaping and garden design pictures shared by homeowners and landscape contractors. Free how to landscape pictures & ideas.
Flowering shrubs are essential to a well-rounded landscape. Here are 26 great sun-loving choices that can keep yards colorful for months.
Bee friendly, this lovely border includes a few fabulous perennials that will provide interest through color, texture and form for weeks!
We have mentioned that there are countless garden edging ideas but it is hard to choose the right one if you do not even have a head start of what you should be looking for. As such, here is a rundown of some of the most common, easy to install garden edging ideas out there.
It's decidedly one of the preferred choices for those who would like to grow tiny trees with the intention of landscaping. If you're thinking of growing smaller-sized trees for landscaping, you are able to go by means of this information on a few of the small-sized trees for landscaping.
How to Use Azaleas in Your Landscaping Garden And Yard
Gravel pathways offer formal appeal or relaxed charm—it all depends on how you design them. These walkway ideas with gravel let you chart your own course.
Planting a perennial flower garden takes planning if you want maximum beauty. This article offers specific ideas on design and layout.
We are officially into summer; the schools have closed, the weather is pretty nice (not the last 2 days), time to enjoy the outdoors. Out on the porch or patio container gardens can liven up any drab corner by bringing in color and interest. As difficult as it may seem to get the plant combinations...Read More »
Wondering what a cutting garden is and how to grow one? I've compiled a list of the 40 best cut flowers, so you can have blooms in spring, summer, and fall.
Eine Kräuterschnecke wird nicht nur durch ihren attraktiven Look Ihren Garten verschönern. Sie ist eigentlich wirklich praktisch, weil sie Ihnen die
Allium 'Millenium' by Laura McKillop What makes a great garden photo? Anything that delights you. But if I had to put...
Cottage gardens are intentionally casual. Go big on color, but light on labor with this classic, informal garden style.
A blog about organizing made easy and fun through motivation and inspiration.
I was amazed at how many people were doing gardening on Mother’s Day! Many told me that was their Mother’s Day gift from their fam...
Moss dish gardens allow you to get up close and personal with a lush green landscape.
In Chicago, where I grew up, tulips were pretty much the only thing that kept us going through the winter. You can survive snow, and you can survive ice, a
