Tag: Flowers
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Gardens Help Relieve Stress-Consider “Garden Bathing”
Consider a new take on “Forest bathing”–I call it “Garden Bathing”. “Forest bathing is taking time to unwind and connect with nature to improve your health. Simply put: Forest bathing is retreating to nature to immerse in the forest atmosphere. The practice originated in Japan in the late 1980’s and was coined by the Japanese…
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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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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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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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Patio Garden Make-Over Blends Old with New
Here’s one of my recently completed projects – a patio garden make-over after a kitchen and family room renovation. I love it when existing clients call me when they are doing a renovation. I already know their garden style, family lifestyle, how they use and enjoy their landscape, color palette, and the land’s orientation to sun and shadow. (Of…
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Dreaming my spring flower garden
I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming of my spring flower garden. I’m longing to see the daffodils by the granite bird bath with the emerging silver allium by the grey wooden bench with the green metal legs. It’s been a long, long winter here in New England. I’m dreaming of my spring flower garden. I remember…
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Color Starved? Enjoy these Plant Combinations
Mid February in New England finds us color starved. We’ve seen enough white. Piles of snow cover our landscapes and line our roads. We’ve received over 6 ft of snow in the last two weeks. Enough! I hope these images of spring and summer plantings help.
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Sweet Autumn Splendor
The starry mass of the late blooming “Sweet Autumn’ Clematis welcomes visitors to Carlisle Center Park. It’s a great example of vertical gardening with the clematis’ amazing span across the fence. The planting also creates one ‘wall’ of the “outdoor room” I created for the conversation area. The massed plantings flank the benches and create the…