You’re either a lover or hater of ornamental grass. It comes in lots of colours and textures and can be wild and bushy. If your style is contemporary then this garden will suit. It gives a bold impact to your landscaping. It’s decorative and low-maintenance so you can’t really go…
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.
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.
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Perfect for creating elegant borders and backgrounds for flower beds. Create a sense of calm, relaxation and sophistication with ornamental grasses.
She loved her wooded yard—until it filled up like a lake with every downpour. Here's how one homeowner carved out a flowering paradise (and a swimming pool!) from the muck.
There are plenty of reasons to get excited.
Use the Arboretum All-Stars planting plan from the landscape outside the west fence of the Arboretum Teaching Nursery as an inspiration for your home garden. Click here for a printable pdf.
Emotion and restraint weave through Andrea Cochran's well-edited landscapes—a look at some of the landscapes that she has designed, as well as our exclusive (and extensive) Q&A with Cochran.
Beautiful ideas for landscaping with tall or short ornamental grasses that you can plant yourself! Creative gardening ideas!
Beautiful ideas for landscaping with tall or short ornamental grasses that you can plant yourself! Creative gardening ideas!
With a little imagination and a slightly broader palette of plants, these ornamental grass combinations showcase your grasses all season.
How do you use roses in your garden? Do you have a traditional, formal rose garden bordered with low boxwood hedges? Or are they part of a mixed border where they jostle with perennials such…
Early spring is the season of hope: for the most beautiful garden ever. And you can have that. You also can lay the most charming front path in the history
Here's a little inspiration to transform your outdoor space (or even just get started gardening).
Get the most out of your ornamental grasses with our 10 landscaping tips.
Curate autumnal vibes with plants that will introduce the colors of fall to your garden. Plus, check out our top fall flower picks, from aster to rudbeckia.
Beautiful ideas for landscaping with tall or short ornamental grasses that you can plant yourself! Creative gardening ideas!
A blog to express, not to impress. A cottage inspired blog, full of romantic details.
There are plenty of reasons to get excited.
Looking for an attractive flowering vine
Ornamental grasses have gained a lot of popularity in recent years. And as an ornamental grass enthusiast, I’m pleased to see that their popularity shows no signs of abating.
Beautiful ideas for landscaping with tall or short ornamental grasses that you can plant yourself! Creative gardening ideas!
В свое время меня удивило название - Russian sage, русский шалфей. Перовския (Perowskia) стала известна благодаря герою войны двенадцатого года и губернатору Оренбургской губернии генералу Василию Алексеевичу Перовскому (внебрачному сыну графа Алексея Разумовского). Генерал нашел его в Средней Азии…
Ornamental Muhlenbergia grasses come into their own after other perennials have peaked, creating swaths of color in autumn landscapes.
Here's a little inspiration to transform your outdoor space (or even just get started gardening).
Creating Exemplary Gardens
As with everything, trees come in all shapes and sizes, so it's important to choose the right-sized tree for your area. Here are some of the best trees to plant in a small yard in the South.
Zwiebelblumen in Töpfen unter Zierkirsche (Tulipa ‚Apricot Beauty‘, Muscari, Hyacinthus)
Beautiful ideas for landscaping with tall or short ornamental grasses that you can plant yourself! Creative gardening ideas!
Explore serialplantfetishist's 8863 photos on Flickr!
Hejka wszystkim. Podgladam was już jakiś rok ale ciagle brak mi było odwagi żeby coś napisać i się ujawnić. No ale wykońcu się przemoglam jakoś. Za sprawa ogrodowiska i chęci uplecenia świątecznego wianka wybrałam się na bronisze i tam spotkałam Panią ...
Considered "the most influential garden designer of the past 25 years," Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf has done for perennial gardening what artist Leonard Ko
Considered "the most influential garden designer of the past 25 years," Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf has done for perennial gardening what artist Leonard Ko
Considered "the most influential garden designer of the past 25 years," Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf has done for perennial gardening what artist Leonard Ko
Prettiest grassless backyards that portray their charm by using pretty and lush plants. No need to plant grass for a beautiful yard!
