Revamp your old garden look for 2010

14 years ago

For years I've done a set-up under a big maple tree, 5 white muskoka chairs surrounded by white impatients and ivy in pots. It looked very nice in the shade ,the white kind of glowed. But I've been updating my home away from the country style of birdhouses and wicker etc. to a more contemporary look, yet with antiques. I love the house so I'm trying to make the garden catch up with the times too. I've painted the 5 chairs celery green, very bright, they look great. Now I'm painting the wood table purple(a medium shade), I've dug a garden in front of the fence behind the tree, I'll be planting light green hostas and ferns with a blue flower maybe heliotropes for the fragrance. I think this is going to look so good under the dappled shade of the tree. I'll tell you all in July how it turned out.

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Comments (5)

paul_
13 years ago
Tell us, shmellus ... PICTURES WE WANT PICTURES! LOL
goodhors
13 years ago
Sounds very cheery. I bet it will look great in July.
denninmi
13 years ago
Change can be good.

I always do hot pink "Lipstick" impatiens in the front of my house under the shade of a big maple (in containers -- roots and concrete patio/sidewalks.

I'm so SICK of that, but it's the only color that shows up well. White just gets lost against the very pale grey but looks white most of the time vinyl siding on the house.

This year, I'm mixing that up. I'm going to do the bulk of them in the lipstick, but I also bought white, purple, and orange to dot in here and there. And, I'm going to add in coleus, begonias, and some other things to as accent plants.
writerdeman
13 years ago
Me too. I am attmepting a total redo on the 3 acres around my place. Husband says: You know, you could just do a little this year, then a little next year. I always go whole hog, but I think he's right. I'm going to be 58 this year and my hips bother me when I bend over a lot. . . So. I just finished the Master Gardener course and now need to sit down and plan my landscape. I have some cool ideas, but I think I need to hire about ten 18-year-old boys to accomplish this.
I'll just let you in on one area. We have a small natural pond that is overflow from the creek that borders our property. In one of the design classes I took, they said: "The garden design begins inside." Interpretation: Look out your windows and begin to imagine what you COULD be looking at. So I looked out my dining room bay wondows, and realized that I didn't have to dig up and put vinyl borders everywhere I want a garden!!!! What a revelation. My husband took out some trees, which opened up a path (focal point!) I planted some hostas at the edge of the trees last year and just mulched them. This year, I moved four thick specimens of spiderwort there, two on each side of the path opening. Then I planted a Sum & Substance hosta on either side of it. (These get really big and are a yellow-green.) Next, I need to place a few forget-me-nots in the trees, and finally, I want a couple of showy plants to put where the opening begins to close again, and the path disppears into the woods. As you look out the windows, you'll see this little path that edges the pond, and curves just out of view before the woods. Whaddya think? Ideas?
islander_mi
13 years ago
I'm sorry I went with the same old petunia border this year. The rabbits got the blossoms this time. First time they ever went after them. Now I have something else to spray with my Liquid Fence.

Trying a new look with tall, bearded irises in different color groups around the yard. I'm also spray painting cheap birdhouses from Michaels in all different colors for my 2 huge magnolia trees in the front. Should prove an intersting look for winter, when the leaves fall. The birds are digging the heck out of them already.

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. God bless us all.