A Glance at Fall Plantings

Another season is upon us, another season to plant.

Pansies and Ornamental Kale

Front porch pots

Mums, red lettuce, and kale

Pumpkins on sticks

Leaf lettuce

Orange Mums. Ok these are fake, this side garden is too shady for the real ones.

Some of the stubborn greens I can't bear to part with just yet. Enjoy the season.

The Broadstreet Gardens

Broadstreet is where I reside with my husband Christopher. The house is located in a historical neighborhood. Here's a look at the gardens we created this year.

Christopher planted the front annual display, as you can See he likes color and a lot of it, too much for my taste. We had lots of compliments on this garden from neighbors and passers by who loved it. I will admit..... it was colorful. This picture was taken right before that Impatiens virus got us.  The Impatiens were repaced.

The backyard is still a work in progress, this is my design, more formal. Christopher added the light to the obelisk this year. The Arborvitae's which were planted last year give us some screening from the alley behind them. I doubt we will ever be able to block out all the buildings surrounding the garden. I like to think of it as a green space in a concrete jungle.

Christopher's front porch pots. A lady stopped by and took pictures and said she wanted her pots to look just like these next year.

 The back balcony garden is where I do the planting and designing.This is where I spend a lot of time.

You see it's on the second floor at the back of the house so it's like a secret garden.

   One of my favorites plantings: here a collar of "Red thread Alternathera" and hot pink petunias surround a red Mandevilla. The red thread became what I like to call a "Thug" because it dominated the pot, I've given it several hair-cuts.

Pink Zinnias, Lime Nicotiana, and plectranthus. This planting combination was stunning.

I like to try new plants, like this Lemon scented Cyprus and the copper petunias

Some old favorites made a come-back to my choice of plants. I wanted color this year and how can you go wrong with sweet potato vines and a Fuscia geranium. This pot also has Verbena Bonareinsis in it and the potato vines are now stretching to the floor.

 I'll have more photos of this garden in a later post, this is just a tast of the gardens on Broadstreet.

A cottage style garden

This is a yard I've worked on for about five years, It's my cottage garden.

This style of garden works best here, the house is a 1930's arts and crafts bungalow and was originally built as a cottage. I can't think of a better place for a cottage garden.

A sunny hot south facing border of flowering trees, roses, ornamental grasses and reseeding annuals all work together to create this controlled madness. The garden is never the same year to year or season to season. The lush lawn and the neatly edged beds do give the garden some sense of order, after all we are in a neighborhood here.

 In high summer this garden is a riot of colors and textures. It's one of those gardens where almost anything will work. Layers of plants keep this garden new and fresh during the growing season. There is always a happy surprise waiting around the corner.

At a glance "in the shade"

Being a professional you are faced with new challenges all the time, in this case it was shade, and a client who longed for color from blooms

Foliage does well in the shade' blooming shade lovers, well that's a different situation. Begonia's come in a  huge range of colors so there was my answer.  I planted lots of them along with other shade tolerant annuals such as coleus, lysmachia, and alacasias.

  Some parts of this garden do get a little sun, I planted two pots at the front door with yellow Hibiscus standards, and hoped for the best.

Coleus and Caladiums do well with little sun.

Triangular metal planters are planted with Begonia's and creeping jenny. This side garden gets very little sunlight.

This row of planter boxes on a fence were planted with Birds nest ferns, Caladiums, and orange begonia's. The purple hearts and Ivy were leftovers from the spring planting.

A variety of pots and garden ornament decorate the back patio, including variegated Ivy topiary, a head fountain and concrete frogs

A bigger than life size frog talks about the garden.

A view of the back garden, a restful private playful retreat

What ever you want to plant Christopher

Planting annuals, it's a matter of choice, everyone has their own idea about what looks good, I Just say go for it.

I guess Christopher didn't like the way I planted the annuals  in the front yard last year so he took it upon himself to plant them. I said "What ever you want, go for it" 

 The front beds consist mostly of boulders, he grouped annuals according to variety and planted them in the pockets between.

 Over at his brothers house, he choose to plant red begonias, ( my least favorite annual ) across the front of the house and along the walk way

The run-way effect is what I call this. Ill post more pictures later of the end results 

Spring 2012 containers.

A pink flowering Dogwood in all it's glory welcomes visiters at this front entrance. What a nice way to say "hello"

Delft blue violas and chartruse branches give this window box height, all we need now are warm tempatures.

Two pots planted diffrently but in the same color scheme.

 yellow pansies and leaf lettuce.

Orange and yellow viola's leaf lettuce and yellow twigs, very cheerful

A group of small pots make a big impact with spring colors

 Purple clovers, indigo pansies and lavender Eucalyptus.

Tall pusy willow branches with a collar of blue and purple viola's and yellow snapdragons.

Here's another way to say welcome to spring.

String Gardens trends.

 Just like almost everything, gardening trends go in and out of style. Have you noticed these string gardens, they are showing up everywhere. Is this a new trend, something I should try or is it just a passing fad in the garden word. I can remember when every garden had to have a pond, yep been there, did that. I do miss my pond though.

Granted these string gardens are  interesting to look at, very modern, and I'm all for modern.  My only concern is how do you water these things. What happens when these plants get big and heavy? do you switch over to rope? or do you treat these gardens like disposable plants, ya know like those florist hydrangeas we get for Easter.

Hmmmmmm, I think I'll pass on this trend for my own garden, I'll just look and enjoy