I hope you have your garden in shape because, according to the weather forecast, this weekend is going to be a wash-out. They are predicting at least 2” of rain at my house from Friday through Sun…

HGTV shares some of the best shrubs for shade gardens, including shade shrubs such as oakleaf hydrangeas, Euonymus, viburnum and elderberries that will add color to your garden with their flowers and foliage.

In my area, the garden tour season kicks off with the annual Canadian Cancer Society Tour in late May. Not only does the tour support a worthy cause, it is a wonderful opportunity to see local gardens in all their late spring splendour. Today I want to share with you a garden that was a standout on last year's tour. The lot runs wide to the road and so it was hard to get everything in a single shot. This is a view of the central portion of the front garden. In the beginning, Liz Maliki inherited a builder's beige front garden with a few rather nondescript planting beds and some basic hardscaping. What she really wanted was a garden with interesting sight lines, texture, color and a full four seasons of interest. To determine a new layout for her garden, Liz stood at the front of the house in the dead of winter, when there are less visual distractions from foliage and flowers, and devised her plan. The lot she had to work with was a wide rectangle that sloped gently down to the road. Though the plantings were initially unspectacular, Liz was lucky to have inherited some mature trees including some pines and a red maple. In her new design, Liz incorporated a sweeping series of curved flowerbeds, a fresh mix of plants, and new pathway leading to the entrance to the house. Let's take a look at this pretty garden over twenty years in the making and still evolving to this day: Everywhere you look there are beautiful combinations of color and texture. Even when there is little in bloom, this planting bed will still be colorful. Here we are looking at the same bed as in the previous shot, but this time from the opposite angle. The pink flower in the middle foreground is the Tree Peony in the next shot. Tree Peony A closer look at that mix of perennials and shrubs including hosta, blue and golden colored evergreens, a maroon colored Barberry bush, a golden colored Heuchera (to the left of the Barberry) and Zebra grass (middle foreground). Most of the planting beds can be viewed from both sides and a variety of perspectives. The plantings are not stepped in the traditional way: shorter perennials in front, intermediate and then taller perennials at the back. Instead, Liz has made a point of keeping sight lines visually appealing by varying plant heights like notes in a musical score. A few of the perennials in this bed are hightlighted below: a mix of Heuchera (top right), Hosta (left) the unexpected use of Chives (lower left) and a creamy yellow Tree Peony (lower right). Hostas aren't ordinary when you combine a bright, lime-colored cultivar, a deeply-ribbed, solid green one and bookend them with two variegated varieties. What I think Liz has created here is visual music. The busier variegation of the Euonymous is like the lively notes of a violin singing above the deep, mellow notes of a chello or base, which in this case, are the big-leafed hostas. This is the walkway leading to the front door. On the left, boxwood frames a flowerbed filled with Rhododendrons, Euonymus, a Korean Lilac (on the left edge of the picture). And this is a portion of the flowerbed on the opposite side of the front walkway. Two final pictures of the front walkway. That is a pink Weigela cascading down into the picture frame on the right. In this detail shot, Liz has planted a combination of Hosta, Heather (lower left) pink Azalea and a Spirea (lower right corner). In the next post, we will head into the back garden. More Information and Links: Here are all the details you need to know to attend this year's Canadian Cancer Society Tour. I am going to link this post with the Garden Party at Fishtailcottage and to Fertilizer Friday at Tootsie Time.

Now is the time to dream of summer flowers – and buy seeds for some of them. I have run a landscape design/build company for almost 30 years and every year I make sure to include annual flowers in our clients’ landscapes. I know you may cringe when you hear that you have to plant these seeds or little flowers anew every year but the non-stop blooms are well worth it! Here are a few of my favorite annual flowers from some of our plantings. Please note that some are considered a perennial in warmer growing zones.

How to create a low maintenance shade garden. This area gets no sun and now it is full of shade flower plants that come back every Spring.

Ideal for deep soil and shade, if you have enough moisture.

This article discusses how to create a simple garden plan, as well as the many considerations involved. Sample plans for different situations are included.

Considered "the most influential garden designer of the past 25 years," Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf has done for perennial gardening what artist Leonard Ko

What is dry shade? Nothing that soil amendment, a little bit of hardscaping and special attention to plant placement can't improve.

Try growing astilbe for beautiful, showy flowers that do well in a shady garden bed. This perennial has feathery flowers that sit about the fern like foliage in a majestic way. These tips will show you how to grow astilbe and bring color to your shady perennial garden beds.

Our low maintenance full sun garden ideas will add color to your yard from spring to fall. Meanwhile, your plants will be easy care and tolerate drought with success.

Three months ago I started a seemingly innocuous project. "How hard can it be to make a flowerbed?", I said. Well I learned along the way and so I am now going to share what I learned and the steps to make your project easier. The major milestones are: Design the Area Excavate the Area Construct a Border Refill with Good Soil Plant the Flowers Cover with Mulch Required Tools Work Shoes - At several points it stormed and flooded my half-dug bed. After working for just 15 minutes I would have 2 inches of mud on the bottom. Be prepared to throw away your shoes or be stuck with permanent junk shoes. Work Gloves - This pair is actually the 2nd that I used. The first pair is in the trash. I wore through all 10 fingers on the first set. Large Spade - This is the best way to get soil up. I tried a shovel and had no luck. This worked especially well with the black clay that we have. Whatever This Is - Yup, I have no idea what to call it, but it is the best tool for clearing out defined areas. I used it dig out the outline for the bed before I started. Spreader - I used this to spread out the new soil evenly throughout the bed. Small Spade - Most people have this already. You dig holes for the bulbs and flowers with it. Heavy Duty Cart - Now I did not have this wonderful contraption for most of the project. For the first 40 or so bags, I just manually carried them to their locations. This will save your back when hauling a lot of soil. Now you may ask why I am going to all this trouble. Well that is because I have lots of Black Texas Clay underneath my yard. It has the nickname of "Black Gumbo". It soaks up water and swells. This is one of the reasons that so many people have foundation problems in our area of North Texas. Most plants need "Well Drained Soil" which is pretty much the opposite of what I have. So I replaced it. I ended up digging up only about 1 - 1.5 feet down. Others have done more, but I frankly got tired of digging. Here is what I replaced it with: Peat Moss - 10 Bags Top Soil - 20 Bags Manure - 10 Bags of the cheap stuff. They have premium manure... but I can't imagine what that means. Compost - 10 Bags Top Soil - 20 Bags Mulch - 12 Bags So let's take a look at those milestones again. Design the Area - This is probably the most important step. This allows you to put in a lot of effort without having to redo things. My wife gave in to my pleadings and helped measure the back yard space beforehand. The map came out like this: I went online and printed off a grid and then with help of a ruler hand drew the dimensions. Next, we did an initial master plan, or how we want it to look in the end. Our friends, Karson and Sharon, helped in this process. This keeps each sub-project from being vastly different and looking odd in the end. Next, we prioritized the sub-projects and focused on our first bed, outside of our bedroom. We found a plan in a landscaping book tailored to our area and used it as our base: This plan came from Creative Homeowner's Texas Home Landscaping book. I would highly recommend it. We then took our master plan for the backyard and fit the plants that we wanted into it. The end result looks like this: Sp now that you have a good plan, digging in the right spot and building a border is not a game of chance. Excavate the Area - This where all the oomph comes into play. At least 50% of my time on this project was spent digging. I am estimating that I dug out about 3,000 lbs of dirt. So be prepared for this phase to go slower than you thought. The first thing to do is to dig out the border a little bit. This allows you to be reckless inside that border with your spade. I used our hose and snaked it around into the shape that I wanted the bed to be. I then used the yet-to-be-named tool from above to strip the grass along the hose. I then removed the hose and dug a little trench and shaped the border a bit. The rest is just good ole-fashioned hard labor. One thing that I did not consider before starting this phase was where on earth all of this dug up dirt was going to go. Luckily, the lot next door to me is empty right now.Now lifting all of that dirt over the fence was no fun, but at least it is out of my yard. Construct a Border - I used two different kinds of border. We have leftover brick from the house construction and so I turned that into a decorative border: I had enough brick to go vertical and it looks good from the grass side. You can also see that famous black clay with the brick there. The fence did not need anything fancy, so I bought the cheap pliable plastic border from Lowes:Before going to the next step of refilling the area, it is a good idea to consider drainage and watering levels. I have a downspout that was pouring right into the middle of the new bed and would erode my hard work. I got a very cheap solid black tube and extended the drain out of the flower bed:I also had four different sprinkler heads that were designed for a lawn and not a flower bed. I found replacement heads that are gentler and used a simple female-female connector to attach them to the main line: Refill with Good Soil - Now is when all of those bags of 'the good stuff' comes into play. I put the good stuff in quotes because frankly anything was better than my black clay. So when I see a $20 miracle bag and a $1.85 pretty good bag, I choose the cheaper. With the number of bags that I bought, this added up to a lot of savings. I layered Peat Moss, Top Soil, Manure, Compost, and Top Soil. I had a friend recommend a combination similar to this and so far I like it. I used my spreader to evenly mix the dirt around the entire bed. Make sure at this point re-check your drainage. Make sure that it slopes away from the house for instance.In the end, my nasty soil was transformed into this: Plant the Flowers - This is the part that you actually planned for. This is the easiest stage. We planted a bunch of bulbs and using our nifty plan, I knew exactly where to go. This stage is fairly anti-climactic. Cover with Mulch - Protect your plant from moisture, bugs, and weeds with a good mulch. This last step also adds a colorful layer to the top Hopefully this guide can help you. Feel free to post and questions or suggestions. I will be following up in the Spring and beyond with how the plants grow in and look.

Some days I think I have the best job in the world, others...not so much. This past month in NYC has been brutal (in case you didn't know) and I've usually restricted myself to half days on the rooftops, where the sun and heat are unrelenting. Despite my 70 SPF, I haven't been this brown since before we knew the sun was bad for us. So where does a gardener seek shade and solace on a hot August day? In a brownstone backyard garden, of course. Light is probably the most important variable when choosing plants for your location. Most people with shade gardens complain about not being able to grow enough flowers or vegetables or herbs, but there are times when I crave the relative serenity of a shade garden. True, Caladium and Impatiens aren't the most novel combination around, but they please me, and provide plenty of color in a low-light situation. So what if I can't grow roses, I can have climbing hydrangea. Not enough light for ornamental grasses? Use hostas instead. The fence here was replaced last December, in a careless way that convinced me I'd loose several trees. In fact, I did not, and the climbing hydrangea and Schizophragma are once again climbing the heights. And one bonus you rarely find in a rooftop garden: a little extra space in the back. I use it as a coleus nursery. Whenever I prune (at least once a month) I stick the cuttings in the back of the garden to fill in with some extra color. Please forgive the date stamps. I've been fiddling around with camera settings and I'm mortified to see that I left the date stamp on. It has since been remedied.

Grow your own food with style! Use these tips to create unique, beautiful vegetable gardens that are as attractive as they are bountiful.

This shiny shrub is great up against a house or under a tree. Marble Queen Coprosma reaches 4' in height and width. Village Nurseries has a great selection of different varieties of coprosmas. Here is their webpage showing all the coprosmas they have. http://www.villagenurseries.com/index.php?option=com_sobi2&letter=C&Itemid=61&limitstart=165 Photo by Doug Kalal, taken at a client's garden in Tierrasanta

Shade gardens are a great place to showcase your love for green! From perennials to evergreens, here are 5 shade gardens to inspire your back yard!

Transform lackluster blooms into a stunning display with these six expert tips for maximizing Encore Azaleas performance season after season.

The film Five Seasons about Dutch designer Piet Oudolf's romantic landscapes is a tantalizing 75 minute documentary by Thomas Piper in which to lose yourself in one man’s vision and passion. For screening locations, dates and times read on.