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

A forced spring

Believe it or not, it's still winter. According to most calenders spring doesn't officially start till late March.

I know, this winter has been mild for most of us, and maybe we'll have a early spring, who knows, I don't.

What I do know is that I'm ready for spring. 

A great way to get a jump start on spring, and decorate, is to use spring 

bulbs. Now is the time to plant up all those bulbs that you planted in containers and stored in your garage just for forcing. Don't worry I didn't do it either.

I just barely get my tulips planted in the fall, usually about a week before the Christmas lights go up.

Luckily, many stores have forced bulbs ready for those people like us.  All you have to do is pick up some of your favorites and replant them in a nice container, they occasionally come in plastic pots with that foil wrapping, that's why I said replant, unless you like that foil wrapping. I just think you could do something a little more creative, that's just me though

Bulbs in glass vases. It's kinda cool to see the actual bulb and the roots.

Bulbs in baskets with moss, a natural look. Make sure you line the basket with plastic, or place a water tight container inside the basket. Secure the bulbs with gravel or decorative stones

 This is cute, bulbs in tea cups. Cover the edges with moss for a natural look. The bulbs don't really need soil, just water. Make sure the bulbs just rest above the water line, other wise the  water will rot the bulbs, you don't want rotting bulbs.

There are special containers just for bulbs you can use those too. Oh yea, this is assuming you know what forcing bulb is. Simply it's fooling bulbs or plants to think it's a different season, so you can enjoy them inside.

 It's a nice way to get a jump start on the season.

Verticle Gardening

Spring is right around the corner. I can't help myself but to think about the up-coming garden season. I think I'd like to try a vertical garden this year. I have some bare wall space that could benefit with a some greenery on them.

Vertical gardens seem to be all the garden rage right now, so why not keep up with the rage. These are like living paintings mostly done with sedums and other drought tolerant plants. Given the proper location I think miniature ferns could work as well. Id love to see a combination of ferns and moss, maybe some lichen covered bark too.

 Of course I'll have to discuss this with the "bad cat" who Will probably hate the idea. He's kinda like "Mikey" he hates everything.

Would you like a formal garden

Formal Gardens are the result of our desire to tame and give order to the natural garden. The look is clean and manicured. A favorite style of French and Italian style gardens the look also works well in modern landscapes.

Repetition of shapes and a mirror beds as seen here in this walkway design add to the sense of formality and order.

This garden with it's tightly pruned trees and central lawn  becomes all most sculptural in design. Formal gardens limit the diversity of plant materials, and focus more on shape. I love this look, it's clean, notice how the trees in the foreground contrast with the ones in the background.

This formal Alley leads your eye to the back of this garden, it's like a green planted tunnel.

Boxwoods are a good choice for the formal garden, but they are not the only choice. They can be easily pruned to geometric shapes. Boxwoods are are slow growing, and evergreen which aid in that manicured look. Small leaves lend themselves to that look of order. Make sure not to over water they like it on the dry side, spider mites can be a problem too.

Straight paths with mirrored plantings, and a central focal point. Though the plantings are more natural, the sense of formality and repetition are here.

Some times the formal garden relies on structures like these two houses. Even though the plantings do not reflect each other, the centered urn at the end of the path, the geometric paving stones give the feeling of formality.

Pruned plants in pots placed along a walkway, this says formality to me. Formal garden do not have to be on a grand scale.This look would work in a small city lot don't you think?  You can even achieve these look with fewer pots, just place two matching pots by your front door,we've all seen that look before.

 Here  are some other formal gardens styles.

This is just a small glance at formal gardens, it's just one of the styles of gardens that I wanted to share with you.