Our Outdoor Living Space
For gorgeous containers, try the Thriller/Spiller/Filler method.
An ideal container plant plan includes a “thriller,” – a tall plant with a strong form and colorful foliage. Place it at the back of the pot. Next are the “fillers,” – plants which will help hide the soil line, and finally the “spillers,” – plants which will spill out over the pot’s edge, adding more movement and color. In the end, there is a three-dimensional composition that looks beautiful.
Saxon Holt is a commercial photographer that became interested in, and well known for, photographing gardens, landscapes, and plants in the 80s.
Image Source: SaxonHolt.com
From the Saxon Holt Photo Botanic Garden Library. For an even better look at this garden, check out the link above.
Thinking ahead to spring planting- Used bicycle rims, twine and a bit of conduit or plumbing pipe make for a functional and really cool trellis to support pea plants.
You could also use this same idea for cucumbers, tomatoes, or any other climbing plant.
Just make sure that the bicycle rims are clean and free of rust before using them in your garden. You can give them a quick cleaning with some sandpaper and then paint them if you like. Just be sure to use a non-toxic paint so it won’t harm your plants.
Knot gardens demonstrate the formal art of pruning and shaping plants in a defined garden space. Traditionally, knot gardens included a variety of aromatic plants and culinary herbs. Today, knot gardens may include hedge plants.
Solar panels can lower your power bill and are environmentally friendly. Solar cells absorb light rays from the sun and convert them into energy. Solar cells are unlike any other kind of cell because they don’t require a constant flow of power to generate energy as most other cells do. They only need sun rays, which means that once it’s been made solar panels can produce even more energy than they took in. 
Solar panels are expensive. But why pay money when you can make your own for way less? In this video, you will learn how to build a solar panel out of aluminum cans.
Baking soda neutralizes the ph in the soil and nothing will grow there. Use baking soda around all of the edges of flower beds to keep the grass and weeds from growing into beds. Just sprinkle it onto the soil so that it covers it lightly. Do this twice a year – spring and fall.
Don’t worry about the grass and weeds growing into your beds.
This is a very old gardening trick that my grandmother taught me when we moved to our new house. Since she was born in 1917, you know it has been around for quite a while!
The baking soda will actually burn many of the weeds and grasses (including crabgrass) so they won’t even come back..
It can also help keep ants out of planters since they don’t like soil with high ph…sprinkle some baking soda around the base of planters to discourage them from coming up through the drainage holes..
Place a layer of mulch on top or sprinkle more baking powder if necessary after rain and watering
Just wanted to share this information with you all. It is very old and has been around for many years .
A medicine wheel garden is a Native American tradition of creating circular gardens that are built according to astrological and environmental placement. This type of garden typically contains herbs, food crops, flowers, trees, shrubs and seeds from their traditional use in Native American remedies.
The basic design of a medicine wheel garden follows the native idea that the center circle represents the individual. The four other circles represent an equal division of space into North, South, East and West categories. In many ways this method is similar to astrology where one half is defined by the four cardinal points while each other half shares traits with its corresponding astrological sign (i.e., Cancer would be represented in both a North section and a West section). Each quadrant in the garden contains specific plants that are associated with different aspects of life. These associations reflect what each plant was used for in traditional medicine, their astrology signs and the time of year they need to be planted.
To create a medicine wheel garden one must consider the cardinal points, what direction it will face, where to place water features (if desired) and where to locate your path to walk around the medallion. Distance is not important when it comes to this type of design because you can plant closer or further apart depending on how much room you have available.
Deciding which plants to use is an essential part of making a medicine wheel garden. Native Americans typically chose various types of berries, shrubs, flowers and trees that were typically associated with the area. This allowed for a good diet and medicine as well as vibrant colors to delight their senses.
Because this idea is not native to other parts of the world, one does not have to follow Native American tradition when making a medicine wheel garden. You can choose any plants you desire or even combine other garden ideas such as vertical gardening or other Native American designs such as a butterfly garden.
Did you know that cornmeal is birth control for weeds? Sprinkle it on your garden and it will keep weed seeds from germinating and growing into full blown weeds.
The use of gluten cornmeal in gardens can prevent weed seeds from sprouting without harming your other plants, shrubs, and trees.
This is a perfect example of a Japanese garden. In Japan, they like to “bring the outdoors in”. They often have gardens, either in the house, or right outside a window or door, or a large opening, like in this picture. This is a way to enjoy the natural world, even when you can’t go outside.
Many Japanese gardens have a pond with fish and lotuses, and a tea house in the middle. The garden might have hills and valleys, or rocks and trees. There are many different kinds of gardens in Japan, but they all have one thing in common: they seek to imitate nature.
Besides this garden, I really love the wood floors. They give a clean, sleek, earthy look, and the furnishings don’t distract from the garden.
My dream garden! A beautiful front yard cottage garden, with shades of purple, violet, and lilac.
