While we’ve paid plenty of attention to in our backyard’s design, with new plantings and furnishings, we’ve done very little with our front yard. It’s in need of a makeover, and we’ve decided that this is the year we will tackle it. Our home is a 1964-Streng, a mid-century modern home that resembles the Eichlers […]
Sorting out a multi-level garden with beds sporting vibrant, low-growing plants has made this coastal patch in Torquay a standout.
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.
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Six landscaping ideas that reshaped this home's exterior.
A jaw-dropping casual path winding across a superb mix of drought resistant and salt friendly plantings. This naturalistic, colorful and low maintenance scene has been brilliantly created by Lankford Associates Landscape Architects, using 3 drought resistant perennials, a long-lasting blooming shrub and a couple of ornamental grasses.
Colour blooms in these breathtaking Australian gardens that will inspire even the most amateur of gardeners.
Transform your garden into a serene oasis with these pond ideas and discover a variety of styles and designs to match to your landscape!
Here’s a really great family home which would suit a regular block of land (by looking at it you’d need around 20m frontage though). I like the space and layout with the living through the middle. Kids up the back and parents at the front. YES! Here are some other things…
A restrained revamp by Anacapa and Bailey Peace Design emphasizes the rolling landscape.
It's that time of year where the DIY projects start expanding to the great outdoors. You can see my post on How To Create The Perfect Outdoor Space {Here}. Today we are talking about curb appeal. I'm going to be honest, I rarely focus on the outside of our house. I have this handsome guy who lives with me that loves being outside and getting down in the dirt while doing projects outside. & I'm usually inside covered in paint & glue doing something messy creative. But once in a while I like to get outside with the hubs & make
The site: A medieval nobleman's summer retreat, a palace in ruins, in the Piedmontese hills of northern Italy. The challenge: Create a modern garden to com
Fall-blooming anemones bring an elegant touch to an autumn landscape when their beautiful flowers burst open atop willowy stems.
PREPOSITIONS OF PLACE in on under above behind in front of between next to 1. Fill in the gaps with in, on, under, above, next to, in front of, between 1. The doll in ______ the chair. 2. The chair is __________ the bed. 3. The cupboard...
Here's a non-fancy 4 bedroom home with study nook and triple car garage which would fit on a reasonably narrow block of land.
Simple greenhouse kits are relatively easy to put together and install. They are usually made up of an aluminium supporting structure into which you slide
Learn how to create perfect edges for your garden beds and borders and keep everything looking neat and clean.
Just a quick post on the 4th HugelKultur bed that I finished about a month ago. This will be my second 4′ x 10′ bed. The small branches and twigs were supposed to go on top of the large…
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Window seats and little corners can beautifully transform interior design and decor, and add comfortable reading nooks to rooms with large windows
Wat is een betere manier om jezelf en je gezin te belonen dan met een zeer comfortabele poef? Onze poef is een perfecte keuze om in het grootste comfort te ontspannen en te genieten van je vrije tijd. De modulaire bedbank met een uniek ontwerp brengt een vleugje exotische stijl naar je interieur. Deze veelzijdige slaapbank heeft een modulair ontwerp. Je kunt de modulaire secties in verschillende configuraties eenvoudig combineren en ze veranderen in een bank, bed, chaise longue, eenpersoonsstoelen of poefs - wat je maar wilt! Dankzij de katoenen, stoffen bekleding en de dikke voering is de bank gemakkelijk te onderhouden en extra zacht. De kussens vormen een decoratieve toevoeging en bieden extra comfort. Deze modulaire slaapbank is ook ideaal om op de veranda van het weer te genieten. Belangrijke opmerking: het patchwork ontwerp kan per stuk verschillen, waardoor elk van onze banken uniek is. De levering is willekeurig, wat de exclusiviteit en individualiteit van je product garandeert.
Whether you are in a summer home or your year-round home, check out these summer cottage garden plans. They'll have your front yard cottage-cozy in no time!
Transform your garden into a sanctuary of blooms! Here are the latest on flower beds that promises to ignite your creativity and soothe your soul. Dive in now!
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The site: A medieval nobleman's summer retreat, a palace in ruins, in the Piedmontese hills of northern Italy. The challenge: Create a modern garden to com
It's Floor Plan Friday today and I have this designer and spacious home to share with you.
