10 easy tweaks
How to change your garden from Plain Jane to Va-Va-Va-Voom!
By Donna Evans
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Teresa Buchanan of Lockwoods.
Photo by Jim Bush. |
1. Maximize your annualization.
Sometimes with the focus on perennials we forget we can get great impact with annuals.
“Get two or three flats of annuals and pack them together in your garden for a burst of color,” says Eric Page, president of Woodstream Nurseries, Inc. “How many you need will depend on the size of your yard; just remember to plant them close together and stick with one color theme to get a dramatic effect.”
Use your annuals where there are gaps in your perennial garden, says Teresa Buchanan, garden center manager at Lockwood’s Greenhouses. “Mix annuals in with perennials so that when the perennials are finished blooming you have color. Your perennial garden is also a good place to put your bulbs for early spring color,” Buchanan says.
Exotic plants such as bananas and Australian tree ferns can also be thought of as annuals. If you don’t expect these plants to winter over and you plant them in the ground it will amaze you how quickly they’ll grow, Buchanan adds.
2. Make a statement with mulch.
Mulches come in so many different colors, textures, and materials that you can now use them as your personal signature. From shredded hardwood to pine bark and various colors of stone, Page advises you use mulch for contrast and color. “Be consistent—don’t mix and match too much—but you’ll see that just mulching makes your beds much richer and elegant looking,” Buchanan advises.
3. Look for late bloomers.
“Shop late in the season,” says Buchanan. “I know that might sound like bad advice coming from a garden center, but most people go early and buy what’s in bloom. “In late July, August, and September the late bloomers are at their best. If you want color throughout the summer and fall, that’s the time to buy to fill in the gaps left when everything else has finished blooming.”
Buchanan suggests Japanese anemones, which come in bright pinks and whites and have beautiful foliage before they bloom; shade-loving toad lilies with their orchid-like blooms and tendency to spread out and provide ground coverage; and chelone (turtlehead), which takes to shade or sun.
4. Get your garden in focus.
Just like your indoor rooms, your outdoor room or garden, needs a focal point. There are many ways to accomplish this. Page says: “The focal point can be a statue, bird bath, a piece of outdoor artwork, or a specimen tree or shrub with colorful leaves or flowers. It should be something that suits your style, but draws the viewer’s attention.”
5. Head down the garden path.
And to get to the focal point, provide something to walk on, suggests Buchanan. “Create a destination and have the garden flow to that destination,” she says. “Create paths with mulch, pea gravel, or flagstones. You’ll also find these really help with maintenance because you’ll have something to walk on to get in to water and weed.”
6. Go a little “potty.”
Great ceramic pots have become a standard part of garden décor, used mainly to house container gardens. But you don’t have to use just the whole pot or limit the pottery’s role to container garden, according to Buchanan. “You can take shards of pottery—large, colorful shards, of course—and place them in spots that need a little extra color, or use them as a mulch, as stepping stones. Go ahead and get creative.”
7. Moving beyond lawn furniture and pink flamingos.
Outdoor art has become one of the newest trends. This art can take almost any form, from sculptures to large land- or flower-scapes that have been produced in much the way billboards are produced—so they can live outdoors for several years.
“You can hang an outdoor picture on your patio or on the tool shed, whatever suits your fancy. It adds color and interest,” Buchanan says. “You can also take inexpensive outdoor furniture and paint it a bright color that goes with your theme and strategically place it in your garden to create interest.”
8. Light the place up!
“Landscape lighting is a great way to highlight your focal point, different parts of the landscaping, or your house,” Page says. “It’s low-voltage so it doesn’t use a lot of electricity. You plug it into an outdoor plug and put it on a timer. Simple to do and very effective, and you can purchase outdoor lights at almost any home or garden store.”
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Eric Page of Woodstream.
Photo by Jim Bush. |
There’s no denying it; ponds are a lot of work. Take the easy out, and install one of the new tall fountains available at garden centers like Lockwood’s. “These are beautiful three-foot high ceramic vases that have a plastic unit at the bottom. You have to dig a hole that’s about eight inches square and deep, put the base in and cover it with some decorative stone, then plug it in,” Buchanan says. “That’s all there is to it—you have the sound and serenity of the flowing water.”
10. Take things to a higher level.
A simple way to get elevation is to add some decorative pillars or pedestals with baskets or ceramic container gardens on top. Or, if you are ready to do a little more work ...
“Install a small wall to create a change in the elevation. There are a number of options for wall materials from natural stone to tumbled Roman stone and brick,” Page says. “Then you backfill and plant and you’ve really made the landscape more interesting.”
Implement just one or two of these tips and your yard will go from ho-hum to best-of-show. In fact, it won’t be long before the green powers-that-be will be begging you to participate in your local Garden Walk.
Donna Evans-Deyermond is a freelance writer and public relations professional with a Va-va-va-voom garden. Not that she had anything to do with making it that way.
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