An English Cottage Garden is a charming and picturesque style of gardening that reflects the quaint beauty of rural England. It's a...
The Hakea Francisiana A shrub of the genus Hakea from the Proteaceae family and is native to West and South Australia.
Flower beds for the front yard
Ornamental grasses are one of the most useful types of plants you can use in your landscape designs; here are five ideas to get you started, plus lots of beautiful grasses to achieve your favorite look.
rtfgvb This week I am featuring a made-to-order garden from Spring Hill Nurseries. For those of you that are not confident in your planning skills, this nursery has a handful of pre-planned, ready to plant gardens. This one is nice because it is planned for waves of color in every season. I ordered this garden […]
Create a beautiful yard with these creative landscape ideas with big impact.
Any plant that has green, soft and succulent stem in spite of the wood and brown
Beautifying your landscape doesn't have to be difficult! These annuals and perrenials are easy plants to grow, for green thumbs and new gardeners alike.
There’s no better way to make your house a home than improving the land that surrounds it. Having nothing but a flat patch of grass or dirt is rather wasteful considering you paid for that land, so make the most of it. A yard would naturally be the first choice for most homeowners, and for good reason.
Add beauty and curb appeal to your front yard with a sidewalk garden. Check out our tips for even the smallest of spaces.
Imagine sipping your morning coffee while enjoying the gentle breeze on your covered patio. This often-overlooked space is a goldmine of potential. From cozy
Landscaping with Lavender is easy and adds a colorful carpet in the yard! We have some of the best ideas for you!
Learn which Hosta companion plants will look the best in your yard with lots of shade garden pictures to provide inspiration and ideas.
Designed by Matthew Cunningham, this garden is an ode to Maine: colorful and tough, with perennials that stand up to all kinds of weather and varmints.
4 simple ways to arrange flowers and plants in your garden to get that beautiful layered look that you want... even if you're a beginner!
Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) capture the beauty of wildflowers. Here's how to care for these loosely planted flowers, water, and fertilizer techniques.
Thoughts about our garden. “We desire,” the Emporer dictated, “that in the garden there should be all kinds of plants.” Charlemagne the Great I do a lot of writing about gardens, but our own personal garden has never been the subject of this blog. Our garden is always a backdrop to my thinking about gardens and gardening—a sort of character in my story whose face is never revealed. There are many reasons for this: first, our garden is just in the process of being established; I’m a terrible photographer and our garden is surrounded on three sides by unattractive roads and on one side by our unattractive house; and mostly because the act of gardening feels profoundly personal to me. It was designed for us, for our own pleasure, so the idea of opening for public consumption is a bit terrifying to me. BEFORE: The garden area when we bought the house. But I love other blogs that openly share their own gardens. James Golden’s View from Federal Twist is a brilliant blog about two wonderful gardens. That James bears his own soul through the garden is a source of endless inspiration to me. I’m just not that brave. And Scott Weber’s Rhone Street Garden is another fantastic blog. Scott transforms his small garden into and endless expanse through the lens of his camera. Through his images, I see and enjoy Scott’s garden much in the way he probably does. Nasella tenuissima and Salvia 'Caradonna' So in homage to other bloggers who bravely open their own gardens to public scrutiny, I am adding a few images of our own “in-process” garden. This spring marks two full years since I began smothering a triangular wedge of lawn in our sunny side yard. This area was too small to be a usable lawn, and too close to the road to be an enjoyable outdoor use area, so it seemed like a practical area for a garden. The sipping terrace which my brother-in-law calls the "duck blind" in late summer The house we bought was a neglected mid-century ranch which we essentially gutted, so my wife and I have poured our resources and time into renovating the house room by room. The only way to afford the renovation was to do everything ourselves, so that has left little time and money for the garden. The assembly of plants—and assembly is a much more accurate term than design—is a result of what we could get cheaply, what we could divide, what was available, and what would survive the mid-summer heat and humidity. This approach is probably entirely familiar to most gardeners, yet entirely problematic from my point of view as a designer. The garden becomes a product of impulse purchases and ad hoc decisions, not careful planning. Kniphofia 'Salley's Comet' with Pleioblastus viridistriatus, Nepeta "Walker's Low' and Eschscholzia californica But I’ve decided to embrace this non-designed approach. Design has its limitations, too. Any designer who has ever installed a garden, walked away, and then visited that garden five years later learns that design is not a singular vision set to paper; design is a thousand of little decisions and actions made through the life of the garden. Iris 'Persian Berry', one of the most exquisite colors I've ever seen With no real design to speak of, the garden has only a sort of guiding philosophy: plant only that which gives us pleasure. To use an admittedly pretentious term, our garden is a sort of “pleasaunce” by default, an archaic term for pleasure-garden. The concept of a pleasure garden is a bit antiquated these days. We are now much more likely to call non-food bearing gardens ornamental gardens. But “ornamental” is such a poor descriptive phrase. Who picks plants like they would pick wallpaper? To match their exterior trim? The worst gardens are those that aim to be merely decorative. No, we pick plants to live with us because they give us pleasure. I was recently re-acquainted with the idea of pleasure gardens when I re-read one of my favorite garden books, Rose Standish Nichols’ English Pleasure Gardens. It is a book I often pick up, read a chapter, and then put it away for a while. This century-old book is a compelling story of the English garden as viewed through three centuries of garden history. Throughout the book, one theme keeps emerging throughout the millennia: gardens exist for our pleasure. Christopher Lloyd’s writings have also been an inspiration of late. Perhaps I’ve spent too many years designing gardens, too many years of balancing client’s desires with safe plant selections. I love the almost garish quality of Dixter’s Long Border. The way it thumbs its nose at “tasteful” gray, pink, and blue color harmonies. The way it mixes tropicals, shrubs, perennials into one boisterous expression. Like Dixter, I would love a garden dedicated to nothing but horticultural craftsmanship. ''Beware of harboring too many plants in your garden of which the adjectives graceful and charming perpetually spring to your besotted lips,'' Lloyd warns as he clutches a black-leafed Canna. I love that. Dixter’s great triumph (and perhaps its downfall) is that it employs every tool in the planter’s toolkit all at once. The result is a hot mess, but one of the purest expressions of horticultural exuberance I’ve ever known. And what a joy that is. Cotinus 'Royal Purple' center (coppiced yearly), Savlia sclarea, Miscanthus 'Morning Light' and Alliums Perhaps all gardening is an attempt to re-create Eden, but our garden has absolutely no paradisiacal qualities. As a result of its placement next to an ugly house and an ugly road, we’ve adopted a more postlapsarian style. In the border, we have an ecumenical selection of wetland plants, desert grasses, South African bulbs, native forbs, and color foliage shrubs. Anything goes as long as it goes. The other side of our yard, we are beginning another more restrained garden evocative of a woodland edge. But in the border, there is no room for restraint, only more and more plants. Nasella tenuissima, Salvia 'Caradonna' and Allium 'Purple Sensation' In this blog, I am often guilty of heaping too much meaning on gardens, burying a simple act under too many metaphors. Perhaps it is an effort to justify my own profession, to add more significance to my calling than actually exists. If a garden exists simply for our own pleasure, what then? Perhaps that is enough. All I know is that gardening is hard work that reveals many agonies and few ecstasies. So despite the garden’s many flaws and failings, when the afternoon sun hits a patch of Feather grass and silhouettes the violet stems of Salvia ‘Caradonna’, it is enough for me. For now, I am pleased. Phlomis tuberosa and Hibiscus 'Fantasia' The ever ubiquitious, but entirely useful Spiraea 'Goldflamme' with Zahara Zinnias Our native-ish garden, planted this srping.
Transform your outdoor space into a stunning purple paradise with these Best Purple Plants Landscaping Ideas!
Something that's taken me by surprise over the last month is my interest in landscaping. My Mom has always had a green thumb, and she even planted two beds in our yard last summer, but I didn't start to take to the
Do not think you need to follow everybody’s ideas of what tall garden troughs should look like, do use your imagination and match the planters to...
Natural fences constructed of shrubbery, trees, or flowering bushes are attractive and environmentally friendly havens for songbirds, butterflies, and other desirable fauna. These living fences also provide an eye-catching way to define your property’s boundaries, and they serve as effective and visually pleasing privacy screens—as the adage says, “good fences make good neighbors.” Here are 11 ideas for integrating a natural fence into your own property.
Transforming the walled garden courtyard area of my home into a Mediterranean inspired, romantic space to eat al fresco.. See all the images and my design ideas that turned my tiny courtyard into an Italian-influenced, inviting space.
Find essential tips for growing flax, a drought-tolerant perennial with sky-blue flowers.
Christopher Bradley-Hole made a stir a few years ago with his Chelsea Flower Show garden, mainly consisting of different heights of boxwoods. Was it cold,
Have a shady spot in your yard? You will love these stunning and inspiring shade gardens and find some fantastic plant suggestions for shady spaces.
Here's a little inspiration to transform your outdoor space (or even just get started gardening).
What is dry shade? Nothing that soil amendment, a little bit of hardscaping and special attention to plant placement can't improve.
Bring the charm of the Mediterranean to your backyard with our mediterranean garden ideas. Explore lush plants, colors, and rustic elements for a serene oasis.
The Agapanthus, commonly referred to as the Lily-of-the-Nile or the African lily plant, displays large masses of striking blue or white flowers atop a tall and slender stalk. Learn more about this pla
Bring some life to your patio with some container pot plants! In this article, we look at several of the best patio plants for the garden and patio area, with special emphasis on easy to grow varieties. Click here to bring your patio to life!
A flagstone and gravel walkway may be the right way to go when designing your yard, garden or patio, perhaps with a soothing fountain or a firepit too....
As I sat down to write this post, I tried to think of the perfect adjective to describe Joe and the word "gentleman" sprang to mind. Joe is a gentleman in the most traditional sense of the word. Retired for a number of years now, he is a petite, shy man. He is also a serious plant collector, who weather permitting, can't wait to rush out the door each morning to work in his garden. A regular feature on garden tours and open on a number of occasions each summer, Joe's garden is probably one of the city's best known private gardens. Like so many of the gardens I share, this garden is a labour of love. There are over 6000 plants that are tended with the greatest care. As you will see, the flowerbeds are all meticulously groomed and edged with exacting precision. The drawing above is a very rough layout of the garden. Pathways take you down either side of the house and into the backyard. Right outside the back door there is a garden of roses and perennials. Just beyond that is a swimming pool and deck area. Toward the back of the property there are two symmetrical gardens with a central area of lawn in each. Then, back through a series of rose covered arches, is a potting area. Let's take a stroll, shall we, starting off on the path to the right of the garage. Astilbe chinensis var. taquetii, 'Superba': Feathery magenta pink flowers in early summer. Height: 90-120, Spread: 60-75 cm Part shade to shade. Average to moist growing conditions. Normal, sandy and clay soils are fine. USDA Zones: 3-9 For now, we will take a quick glance at the rose garden. In an upcoming post, we will come back for another look at the roses. Hydrangea 'Annabelle': Height: 1.2- 1.8 m Spread: 1.2- 1.8 m. Average to medium well-drained soil. Intolerant of drought. Blooms on new wood and should be pruned in late winter to encourage strong new growth. USDA Zones 4-9. Hydrangea 'Invincibelle Pink Annabelle': Height: 100 cm, Spread: 100 cm Sun or shade. Flowers June to September with deadheading. Musk Mallow, Malva: Full sun. Height: 45-70 cm, Spread: 45-60cm. Average growing conditions. Normal, sandy or clay soil. Satiny, single hibiscus-like flowers in early summer. Cutting back the plant in August will encourage it to over winter better and survive longer. Readily self-seeds. USDA Zones 3-9. A mix of perennials including several hosta, a Brunnera, a Heuchera and a Pulmonaria. Astrantia major 'Roma': Average to moist soil and part shade to sun are best for Astrantia. Height: 60-90 cm, Spread: 45-60, USDA Zones: 3-9 A lovely combination: European Meadowsweet, Filipendula ulmaria has ferny foliage and flowers similar to an Astilbe. Plants form a bushy clump with creamy-white flowers in early summer. This plant does best in moist soil in sun or part shade. Trim flowers after they bloom. Height 75-120 cm, Spread: 45-60 cm. USDA Zones 3-9 Astrantia major 'Roma': Average to moist soil and part shade to sun are best for Astrantia. Height: 60-90 cm, Spread: 45-60, USDA Zones: 3-9 Phlox Paniculata 'David's Lavender': Full sun or part shade. Height: 90-120 cm Spread: 60-75 Moist to average growing conditions are best. Sandy or clay soil. Fragrant. USDA Zones 3-9. Joe has an array of hostas that would be the envy of most gardeners. He combines them in groups and also mixes them in usual ways as he has done with these Carefree Delight Roses. Coreopsis blooms for weeks and is a great self-seeder. Variegated Japanese Knotweed, Fallopia japonicaVariegata: Joe has the free time to be vigilant with his perennials. Based on my own experiences, I would be very cautious of planting any Knotweeds! Maybe this is one plant that is best grown in a container. Morning sun or part shade. Height: 150-180 cm, Spread: 90-120 cm. Part shade. Average to moist growing conditions are best. Normal, sandy or clay soil. USDA Zones 2-9. Hosta 'Sun Power': This variety of hosta has large chartreuse to gold foliage. Height: 70-75 cm, Spread: 120-150cm. Part shade. Average to moist growing conditions are best. Normal, sandy or clay soil. USDA Zones 2-9. Phlox Paniculata 'David's Lavender': Full sun or part shade. Height: 90-100 cm Spread: 60-75. Fragrant. Average to moist growing conditions are best. Sandy or clay soil. Resistant to powdery mildew. USDA Zones 3-9. Echinacea 'Double Scoop Bubblegum': Height: 60-65 cm, Spread: 40-55 cm. Full sun. Average, dry or moist growing conditions. Normal, sandy or clay soils work. Attractive to butterflies. USDA Zones 4-9. False Mallow, Sidalcea 'Party Girl': Is a personal favourite of mine. Height: 60-90 cm, Spread: 30-45 cm. Full sun or part shade. Blooms early summer, and with deadheading, again in the fall. Average or moist growing conditions. Normal, sandy or clay soils are fine. They self-seed, but not to the point of becoming a nuisance. USDA Zones 4-9. Phlox Paniculata 'David's Lavender': Full sun or part shade. Height: 90-120 cm Spread: 60-75. Moist growing conditions are best. Sandy or clay soil. USDA Zones 3-9. Yellow Fumitory, Corydalis lutea: Height: 20-40 cm, Spread: 25-30 cm. Part to full shade. Nice ferny foliage and pretty yellow flowers from June into fall. Average to moist growing conditions. Readily self-seeds, but seedlings are easy to pull. USDA Zones: 3-9 Creeping Thyme, Thymus 'Doone Valley: Height: 5-10 cm, Spread: 30-60 cm. Full sun. Needs well-drained soil. Average to dry growing conditions. Trumpet Creeper, Campsis radocans: Trumpet Creeper can reach a height of up to 40' and can spread as much a 10'. In other words, it is a pretty aggressive vine that is hard to control. Full sun to part shade. Easily grown in moist soils. Blooms on new growth so spring pruning is not a problem. Attractive to Hummingbirds. USDA Zones: 4-9 Hybrid Mullein, Verbascum chaixii Height: 40-55 cm, Spread:3--45 cm. Full sun. Average to dry growing conditions. Well-drained normal, sandy or clay soils are fine. Plants flower for a long period and tend to exhaust themselves, so it is a good idea to take cuttings in spring to make new plants. USDA Zones: 5-9 Sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale 'Moerheim Beauty': Height: 75-100 cm, Spread: 45-60 cm. Full sun. Average to Moist growing conditions. Plant likes fertile, well-drained soil. Pinch back in June for a fuller, shorter plant. Attractive to butterflies. USDA Zones 4-9. Trumpet Lilies by the back door. This Climbing Hydrangea is only about 5 or 6 years old! Climbing Hydrangea, Hydrangea anomala petiolaris: is a large deciduous vine that can reach as much as 50 ft at maturity. In early summer this vine produces lacy, flat-topped flowers 5 inches or more in width. Shade, part shade or sun if well watered. Plant in rich, well-drained, moisture retentive soil. One drawback is they are slow growers and can take years to really get going. Once established they do grow more quickly and may need pruning in summer after they flower. USDA Zones 4-7 Here's a link to Joe's Garden Part 2 Bookmark this post with a Pin.
A traditional shingled saltbox with a heavy arbor and flowering honeysuckle shadowing the front door looks right at home on Cape Cod. The problem? This hou
Having a beautiful garden is everyone’s dream. No matter how big the garden you have, the presence of this garden is able to change the atmosphere at home. The presence of the garden benefits the clean, fresh air and beautiful scenery. Not only that the garden is also able to add aesthetics in decoration with their beauty. But, to shape the aesthetic, you have to design your garden to be a beautiful garden and look pleasing. You can do many things to beautify your garden, one of which is to make a flower garden there. If you talk about a […]
Prettiest grassless backyards that portray their charm by using pretty and lush plants. No need to plant grass for a beautiful yard!
How to cultivate allium the ball-like flower – great ideas for your garden Allium is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants that includes hundreds of species, such as onions, garlic,…
Panting roses in a mixed border is one of the easiest ways of enjoying roses in your garden. Combine shrub roses, other shrubs, perennials and annuals to create a tapestry of different colours and textures - find inspiration in our image gallery and tips and tricks for planning a rose border.
There's no need to spend money on boring commercial garden markers if you have some basic DIY skills. Instead, check out these cute and clever DIY plant marker ideas! They'll help you decorate and organize your garden at the same time!
I shared a couple of weeks ago that I was working on landscaping and hiding my AC & pool equipment. I’m almost done but I wanted to share some of my inspiration on how to create paths and…
Designed by Matthew Cunningham, this garden is an ode to Maine: colorful and tough, with perennials that stand up to all kinds of weather and varmints.
Add beauty and curb appeal to your front yard with a sidewalk garden. Check out our tips for even the smallest of spaces.
