by Genevieve on March 2, 2010
Thinking of selling your home, or having a party? While a garden makeover may seem like an overwhelming task, if you know where to focus your energy you can get great results without having to fix everything.
Use these four tips in the garden areas most likely to be seen first – near the front door, areas visible from windows or the patio where you might entertain, and next to pathways.
Focus on the edges
Most people don’t see the details of a garden; they notice the overall effect. If you have lawn creeping into your garden beds, or weeds growing along the edges of your garden beds, cleaning up your borders so that you have a clean, simple, flowing line is an easy action that can make a slightly unfinished or messy area of the garden look tidy and cared-for. [Click here to continue reading…]
by Genevieve on January 6, 2010
This month, a number of talented landscape designers are giving their take on the subject of regional diversity in design. Read to the bottom to see what other designers have to say!
I hear it again and again: folks think that natives are boring, that they have a short bloom season, that their foliage is dull; in short, that you’d have to be some kind of environmentalist zealot to want to garden with native plants.
We’ll set aside the arguments for supporting biodiversity and feeding local birds and bugs, and just argue from an aesthetic perspective for a moment. When you go on vacation to a place that touches your soul, is it the McBurger you remember? The Home Depot you passed?
The things that make a region different are what make our experience there special. Doesn’t it make sense to honor our lives in an area by gardening with plants that reflect that difference?
[Click here to continue reading…]
