Discover Nandina 'Blush Pink', is far from shy - it's a riot of colour! Find out more about this Plant of the Month in this blog post.
Help your garden use less water—and save money—with these simple tips.
Glossy evergreen shrub. Evergreen to partially deciduous. Hybrid of two species from China. Best known and most popular of the abelias.
Here is the list of No Mow Lawn Alternative Ideas for a beautiful yard! This way, you can have a maintenance free garden!
Horticulturist Stacey Parker shares her method for breaking up her lawn using cardboard to accommodate the drought conditions.
The world’s first grass-free lawn has landed!Imagine we are playing the name association game. If I say ‘lawn’, what do you think of? Most likely it would be ‘grass’. Half right! It could now also …
Landscaping with Lavender is easy and adds a colorful carpet in the yard! We have some of the best ideas for you!
Learn what to do, what NOT to do when replacing your lawn. Which plants to pick, which plants will look good with your home. How to start small and expand.
Learn the landscaping pros and cons of mulch vs. rocks including benefits of river rock vs. mulch, and replacing mulch with stone.
Want to skip the fertilizer and stop spending your weekends mowing? Here are the best low-maintenance, yet still attractive, alternatives to a grass lawn.
We’re here for the perfectly unmanicured examples.
Lady’s Mantle, Alchemilla mollis: "Gentle Alchemy" Alchemilla mollis is ubiquitous in English cottage gardens for good reason. Lady's mantle is an unfussy,
Want to skip the fertilizer and stop spending your weekends mowing? Here are the best low-maintenance, yet still attractive, alternatives to a grass lawn.
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.
Take the guesswork out of yard work. This lawn-care calendar lets you know when to mow, aerate, fertilize, and seed your yard in the Northeast.
Many homeowners desire beautiful, emerald-green and healthy lawns to add color and aesthetics to their homes. A healthy lawn is a product of effort and
In case you missed it, 36.96% of the United States is currently in a drought. Giving up our grass lawns is a great thing we can do to help.
The grass lawn's glory days are over. Here's why we love a clover lawn instead.
This clever garden achieves the seemingly impossible – luxuriant lawns and flourishing flower beds on a windswept and once-barren site.
Designer: Adam Woodruff www.adamwoodruff.com Image: © 2013 Adam Woodruff + Associates All Rights Reserved
Have you been thinking about removing your front lawn? Does anyone in your family actually play on that front lawn? If not, it is time to rethink keeping it. Here are the top 6 reasons to rethink your unused front lawn. Enhance your home's curb appeal by adding more interest with a variety of plant colors and textures. Lawn is very basic and is used everywhere. Wouldn't you want to have a more unique yard with colorful plantings that really make your curb appeal POP. Save water = Save $ Sadly, l
If your lawn is in dire condition filled with weeds or just patchy and unhealthy looking then you will want to fix it in the…
These front of house flower bed ideas are perfect for adding color to your front yard. If you are looking for landscaping to add curb appeal, this is it.
A well-designed front yard provides structure and preambles the interior of your home. Check out these 5 easy and modern front yard design ideas on a budget.
Want to skip the fertilizer and stop spending your weekends mowing? Here are the best low-maintenance, yet still attractive, alternatives to a grass lawn.
Need instant curb appeal & flower bed design ideas? Try Front Yard Landscaping Makeover (before & after pictures). thetarnishedjewelblog.com.
As a busy family of 6, (who am I kidding?!?! even when I DIDN’T have kids)… It was just super important to me that our landscaping be A: Colorful because I love color and B: Super easy to maintain. Let’s face it: I tend to kill EVERYTHING. lol. So, we...
The secret to a thick full lawn is overseeding.
Add as much as 15% to your home's value with these expert landscaping tips.
Around the Yard Learn simple habits to help reduce water use outside your home FIND LOCAL REBATES Many California residents are eligible for rebates on outdoor yard replacement through their local public water agency. Search your ZIP code to discover rebate offers in your area. Search Local Rebate Offers Use Water-wise Plants Check with your […]
A hands on project from design to installation, this drought tolerant garden stands apart from its neighboring SoCal suburban lawns with low hedges. Comple
Have you been thinking about removing your front lawn? Does anyone in your family actually play on that front lawn? If not, it is time to rethink keeping it. Here are the top 6 reasons to rethink your unused front lawn. Enhance your home's curb appeal by adding more interest with a variety of plant colors and textures. Lawn is very basic and is used everywhere. Wouldn't you want to have a more unique yard with colorful plantings that really make your curb appeal POP. Save water = Save $ Sadly, l
