Tag: Custom Garden Design
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Lighting Our Way
March roars in like a lion and leaves like a lamb. Prickly pear hail storms batter us. While the next day, gentle sun caresses our skin. One moment black clouds, while another cerulean skies give way to contented sighs. Meteorological spring has sprung. Daffodil stems from grocery stores now cheer up our counters and tables.…
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What’s Beauty Anyway?
To some, it’s a well organized sock drawer, or the roll of a perfect putt, or the gurgle of a remote canyon stream. Or a garden. To me, its not “either–or, but “and”. Our home landscape and gardens have to potential to offer a place of retreat, play, welcome, and beauty. A designed landscape and…
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Charming Patio Makeover Seats 10!
Back yard makeover transforms this back patio from ugly to Charming, Beautiful, and Functional. Before: Nasty steep slope with miscellaneous plants to old ugly back patio. After: the newly installed landscape design transforms the back patio area. The back patio makeover includes wide easy to use granite steps and landings that lead to the new…
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Late Fall Farm House Borders & Meadow
It’s late October. Ornamental native grasses mixed with seedpods, late flowering white Boltonia, and varied foliage colors rule the meadow. In the house borders, Sedum “Autumn Joy” provides color combined with the lingering silver grey foliage of Russian Sage, Achillea, and the silvery fronds of the dwarf Fountain Grass. “October Glory” Maples color the landscape…
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Farm House Meadow & Borders
Year two: The pollinator wildflower meadow is taking off while the house gardens fill in.The two gardens share some of the same plants so they connect visually and create a sense of abundance.These are happy gardens. The meadow is wilder and seemly more randomly planted.…
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Decluttering Your Garden
Marie Kondo’s method for decluttering your house works for your garden too. While Reading her book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up I realized I’ve been using my own version for decades for designing landscapes, coaching gardeners, and teaching classes. Turns out that the word “clutter” easily replaces the word “chaos” . Chaos created from…
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Modern Farmhouse Gardens
The style, Modern Farmhouse, could be described as a mix of old and new. Textures, comfort, natural materials from antique to industrial, yet spare on accessories describes both the interior design and landscape design style. Wooden arbors, regional stone used for fieldstone steps and walls, and contemporary planters create the elements. Plant color palette honed…
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Make a ‘Paperwhite’ Narcissus Flowering Winter Centerpiece
Ah, Saturday morning. It’s a frosty start in mid-November and a perfect time to plant ‘Paperwhite’ bulbs for indoor flowering. And, make a fall and later flowering winter centerpiece. Planted now, they’ll bloom in late December and perfume your house, too. Last week I popped into my local garden center and bought ten Narcissus ‘Ziva’…
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Gardening at Dawn on a Summer-Like Day
I love gardening at dawn on a summer morning. Cool enough to pull weeds, prune branches, deadhead, plant, lay mulch as I did this last weekend-of-May Sunday. Yet it’s warm enough for shorts and a tshirt. It’s a time of birdsong and quiet in the neighborhood. No noisy lawn mowers, leaf blowers, or power songs.…
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Tools of Enchantment
I’m happy to post a link to my feature article in WaterShapes Magazine. Enjoy! http://watershapes.com/landscape/plants/hardscape/decks/tools-of-enchantment.html?utm_source=WaterShapes+20+January+2016&utm_campaign=1-20+newsletter&utm_medium=email