First Garden
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This first garden has a very modern and beautiful farmhouse and cottage type garden. I think that editing would be a good idea.
This first garden has a very modern and beautiful farmhouse and cottage type garden. I think that editing would be a good idea.
This is an aerial view from up above. Look down there and the first thing I see is all of this fine texture. She's got lots of gorgeous plants and lots of ferns. But it's all the same texture. So I would probably remove half of those ferns. Then add some more structure to it and maybe a little more light to it. There's this fabulous really large rock that I think should be shown more. This is a very interesting component of the garden.
Maybe something evergreen, like a variegated boxwood, because this is a very shady area and bring in some Black Mondo grass at the base of the rock, just to sort of make it pop. You have that contrast of black and white. And then the great thing about these maybe her ferns that she has here is that Black Stems. So then you're tying those colors together to black mondo grass with the black stems and then the contrast of the variegated boxwood.
And in a perfect world and this is possible, I would love to see an upwards spruce about a foot to the right. This is going to frame the house. So shifting that over to frame house and then opening up that center. It looks like in the top corner here an azalea or a rhododendron, and hydrangea. This one shrub, the other doesn't look very happy, but one quiet shrub would be sufficient there. And then eliminating some of these extras, actually all of the extras, just because they're not in proportion to the garden bed and the house.
And would add in some bold textures but I'm not suggesting all of this, this is just a picture of some different ideas. Bring in three of these. This is going to bring more light to it because it's a dark area and shade. The variegated boxwood. I feel like it could really use a focal point, something like a large urn or a large birdbath or some spheres. Some type of artwork that will be interesting to look at year round because they do see from inside the house. This is kind of a common room where they spend a lot of time. So they want it to look good year round. So something there to kind of anchor the space for the garden, bring in some larger plants, and also some light. So use the Black Honda. This is strong enough of an element to be the focal point. If you want something a little more modern, you'd go with the house. And I know the cottage is the garden, but you could still have a more modern sculpture. But just to give you some different ideas and then something like the Pulmonaria. This is one of my favorite Pulmonarias. It's a wonderful shade loving perennial. This one's called Diana Clare, and the reason I like it is because it's drought tolerant. It takes full shade, it's evergreen, and it blooms from March to May. So it's like what's not to love? And it brightens a shady spot and it's a nice long white leaf. So a little bit of irrigation.
You can put them together or you can group three together so there's a triangle. Then if it's long enough I'll have three here and then I'll come down here and add three. You have that repetition through the garden to help create unity.
This is an Ornamental Rhubarb (Rheum) on the bottom left. This is a beautiful plant, however the slugs like it. And it does require a little bit more water. And it's not evergreen, but the color of the new growth is so beautiful. When those leaves first come out in the spring it's got flowers but some cut them off because it is about the foliage. That ornamental rhubarb is pretty versatile. We're going to have to water. Probably 2 hours of direct sun but fine in total shade. And I have a friend who has one of the beautiful spires, a lot of like a lot of leaves.
Suggested Plants:
- Fatsia Spider’s Web
- Variegated Boxwood
- Diana Clare Pulmonaria
- Rheum (Ornamental Rhubarb)
- Black Mondo Grass
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