good fences make good gardens

Fences work hard, keeping pets and kids in the yard or out of the street and letting visitors know where to go and not to go. But even though fences are a useful part of the landscape, you want them to look good. If your fence complements the look of the garden, your whole yard will be a traffic stopper.

For casual gardens, a wooden picket fence is perfect. Wood has an inviting, friendly look to it that, with proper care, ages gracefully. You can get ready-made panels from your local home improvement center in a variety of styles. Or for a truly original fence, make your own pickets.

KEEP IT LOOKING GOOD — You’ll need to apply a coat of paint or water sealant every few years. To keep rust stains from marring the appearance and joints from weakening, spend the extra money on specially treated wood screws for outdoor use.

SAME LOOK, DIFFERENT STUFF — Composite wood is made from a blend of recycled plastic and sawdust. It’s more expensive but usually needs less maintenance. You’ll still need to use pressure-treated wood for posts and crosspieces. And buy composite deck screws. Regular screws scar the composite’s surface.

No space is too small for a garden, even if it’s just a small grouping of containers on your deck. Check out our tips for turning little spots into beautiful gardens.

For even more help creating your own sumptuous small garden, see Great Gardens: Solutions for Small Spaces, Vol. 2 at right!

Photo courtesy of Don Bolak
Click on the photo to see a larger image.

designing fall gardens

Fall can be an incredible time in a garden. Here are some techniques for creating stunning fall displays.

PLANT DRAMATIC CONTRASTS — Do you have lots of trees with yellow fall foliage in your neighborhood? For contrast, put plants in your garden that have red, orange and purple fall color, like the Virginia sweetspire to the far right in the photo. Want a dramatic texture contrast? Pair a bold-foliage plant, such as the bergenia in the foreground of the photo, with a plant with finer foliage, like the sweetspire.

When you step into a garden, color is often the first thing you notice. Texture contrast is usually second. But to keep your garden interesting all of the time, you also need to include a variety of contrasting plant shapes and sizes.

LAYER BEDS AND BORDERS — Many late-season plants aren’t at their best in spring. So layer the plants. In other words, plant early bloomers, such as Shasta daisies and delphiniums, behind medium-height perennials, like tall sedums, which bloom much later in the season. And let fall asters or tall phlox billow over the vacant spot left when you cut off the spent stems of spring-flowering perennials.

Layering plants is easy in an island bed or wide border. In a 3-ft.-wide bed, it’s difficult, but doable. Rather than having a lot of different plants, select three to five autumn plants of different textures and heights that you like.

PLAN FOR MULTI-SEASON APPEAL — Choose plants, such as the bergenia, that have a strong presence all year. It sends up clusters of pink or white flowers in spring, followed by bold, glossy foliage that turns red in fall and remains through the winter. Rely on plants like this, which have interesting foliage as well as flowers, as long-term visual anchors. You’ll find even simple things, like the bright-green foliage of artemisia, looks terrific when almost everything else is brown.

For more great ideas for designing fall gardens, check out Autumn GardenScapes, Vol. 2 at right!

Click on the photo to see a larger image.

light up your garden

Remember how you hated to go when your mom called you inside as it got dark? With landscape lighting, you can stay outside and “play” in your garden a lot longer!

Garden lighting can illuminate a patio for entertaining, showcase a dramatic plant or highlight a path for safe walking. With lights, you get a completely different look in your garden after dark — and they make your home safer, too.

But before you go out and plop a bunch of lights into your flower beds, take time to decide what you need. Too many lights, or the wrong kind, might make your garden look like a carnival instead of a peaceful retreat. And poorly placed ones can annoy the neighbors or keep you awake at night. So let’s walk through your garden and figure out a lighting plan like the pros do.

DESIGN FIRST, INSTALL SECOND — Start by sketching out your yard on graph paper. This will make it easier to see where you need lights, without being distracted by whatever’s blooming at the time. When your sketch is done, here are three important things to consider as you decide where lights should go:

   Think about how you use your yard. Do you entertain outside? Do you sit on your deck in the evening? Are you worried about safety? On your sketch, mark where you like to sit, or dark areas that could use illumination.

   Pick one to three focal points to highlight. Too many focal points will be distracting. You might choose a specimen tree, an arbor or a special statue or sculpture.

   Figure out where you walk. What are your most traveled paths through the garden? Make sure those areas will be well-lighted.

Once you’ve marked all these points on your sketch, try out different looks in the garden with a flashlight. Get someone to hold the light while you see how it looks from different angles. Keep in mind you usually want to see the effect of the light, not the fixture or the light source itself.

Looking for attractive garden lighting? Check out the new Soji Modern Solar Lanterns at right!

metal ornaments in the garden

If you like the look of rusted metal ornaments in your garden, you’re in luck. Left unprotected, anything made of iron or steel will rust naturally when exposed to air and water. Copper, zinc and aluminum will corrode when exposed to the elements but things made from galvanized metal or stainless steel won’t rust at all.

Want to speed the process? Carefully spray a mixture of 1 cup each of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide, plus a teaspoon of salt, onto a steel or iron surface. Hose it off after an hour or so. You can also create a faux-rust on any paintable surface. Craft stores have a number of paints and solutions that’ll give your garden ornaments a rusty look.

Sometimes rust forms where you’d rather not have it, such as on chairs or handrails. In that case, remove it and apply a good protective paint, like Rust-Oleum^®, to keep the surface clean. Light rust can be removed by applying a runny paste of lemon juice and table salt and letting it set for five to 10 minutes. Scrub with sandpaper to remove.

And although rust in the soil won’t hurt your plants, some of the chemicals mentioned here may. So protect your plants and yourself when you use them.

What makes the perfect autumn garden? Well, color and lots of it, be it flowers, foliage, seeds or berries. Check out our tour of gardens that focus on the beauty of fall!

Check out even more fabulous fall ideas in Autumn GardenScapes, Vol. 2 at right!

Click on the photo for a larger image

easy access

Whether your garden is large or small, you need to be able to get into it without crushing plants, compacting soil and stepping on dormant bulbs or new transplants. Here are some ideas for working an access path into your garden design.

BIG AND BEAUTIFUL — Large gardens, like the one you see here, give you more options. One option is to make an access path through the garden. But if you have the room, why not place it in back? That way, you’re not walking on the soil in the growing area as much. And a path hidden by plants doesn’t have to look as good as the garden around it. Cover the soil with pea gravel, bark mulch, a few concrete steppers or even a board — whatever keeps your feet dry and doesn’t cost a lot.

SMALL STEPS — In a small cutting garden a few strategically placed steppers do the trick. Because they’re visible, choose something colorful or with a pattern that complements your garden style. Then they’ll not only be practical, they’ll be pretty, too.

Placing the entrance to the side makes it less conspicuous. A width of 2 to 3 ft. should provide enough room to work. After all, you might want to bring a load of compost in or haul a bunch of clippings out so you want your wheelbarrow to fit easily down the path, too.

Click on the photo for a larger image

small space…big splash

You don’t necessarily need a big space to make a big impact. But you can make your garden look larger without buying more land or moving to a larger property. Try these tips:

At first glance, the clematis-draped window in the photo appears to open into another room of the garden. But click on the photo and take a closer look — it’s a mirror! A well-placed (and clean) mirror is one way to create the illusion of space. (Birds are a lot less likely to fly into a small mirror or one that’s divided and not just one large expanse of glass.)

You can also try building a path that narrows as it moves away from your house. Or use progressively smaller plants toward the far edges of your garden. And in a narrow bed, plant fine-textured plants in front of those with coarser plants, making the bed seem deeper than it actually is. By forcing the perspective like this, you can “grow” your garden and create the illusion that it extends beyond its physical boundaries.

Click on illustration for plant list.

coral bells = good companions

Coral bells are versatile plants: They thrive in shade gardens and sunny spots alike. Although they’re not usually large plants, their color and texture give them real presence. With good-looking foliage that doesn’t go down with the flowers, coral bells just may be perfect companion plants. Here are a couple of ways to use these great perennials in your garden:

FLOWER POWER — Featuring two long bloomers: Coral bells and spiderwort, this planting takes part sun. The ground cover veronica blooms in spring before the other two get going but has nice-looking foliage all summer.

Click on illustration for plant list.

FUN WITH FOLIAGE — This coral bells combination features plants that will even take full shade. You may not get many blooms from your coral bells there, but its burgundy foliage echoes the burgundy veining in the Japanese painted fern. And the texture contrasts make for a beautiful partnership.

Click on the photo for this container plan.

deck railing
razzle-dazzle

Here’s a deck planting that really makes a great first impression. Garden Gate reader, Jennifer VanWagner, sent us photos of her deck railing container and we made it one of the featured designs in this year’s Container Challenge.

Tough and reliable annuals, such as geranium, licorice plant, lantana and calibrachoa, mean this exuberant planting doesn’t need any fuss. Click on the photo for the plan and plant list.

A self-watering container helps keep it looking good, too. Once the reservoir is full, plants have easy access to water for several days, which cuts down on garden chores. But you may still need to water daily during particularly long hot spells. The container on the railing is 9 in. wide and 39 in. long and is watered through a fill tube. You can get your own from a local garden center or from Gardener’s Supply at 888-833-1412.

Have a great container design? Take a photo and enter our Container Challenge!

Check out the four bonus container plans from the current issue at lower right.

Click on the photo for the container plan.

There’s more to beautiful containers than just the right planting and care. Design plays a role, too. Take this traditional container design, consisting of three types of plants: Tall spikes, lush fillers, and long trailers. No matter what size or shape your pot, this no-fail formula is sure to produce results!

AIM HIGH — The first type of plant that you’ll need is a spike. A “spike” could be an actual spike plant (these plants are found in the Cordyline or Dracaena families and are often just labeled “spike”), but it could also be any plant that adds height to your container. In the photo at right, that’s the snake plant. Ornamental grasses, New Zealand flax and tall snapdragons also make great spikes. A spike often functions as a focal point or attention-grabber, but it doesn’t have to. It can also provide a backdrop for a lovely filler.

As you build your container, play around with the position of the spike, as you see in the illustrations. Place it either in the center, with the other plants forming a ring around it, or toward the back of the pot, where it creates a sort of backdrop. For a twist, place the spike off to one side, and let fillers take over the other side.

MIDDLE MAGIC — Fillers are shorter than the spike and taller than the trailers and are vital to the container’s success. Fillers can play any role you’d like: Supporting actor to the star spike, or show-stopping diva. For a supporting role, make sure you choose fillers that have colors that complement the spike and foliage or flowers that don’t compete with it. If you want the diva, then look for lush, bold flowers like the yellow begonias in the photo, or brightly colored or variegated foliage. The most successful fillers have mounding or bushy habits, like lantana or impatiens. You can also look for spiky plants that stay small, like grape hyacinths, blue fescue or short snapdragons.

THE TRAILERS — Last, but certainly not least, are the trailers. These low-growers spill over the edge of the container and run along the sides, like the English ivy in the photo does. They help create a visual bridge between your pot and the rest of the planting.

With trailers, aim to keep it simple. Choose just one or two types of plants for the most impact. Plant the trailers right at the edge of your container. They can go all the way around the pot, or just spill over in one or two particular spots. For fuller, bushier plants, like bacopa, don’t be afraid to tilt them toward the rim when you plant them. You’ll get more edge coverage that way, and you’ll see more of the plant. By the middle of summer, don’t worry if you have to cut back or even pull out a trailer that’s taking over the container.

For more great tips on containers, get your copy of Containers Made Easy at right!

butterfly container garden

Want to bring in the butterflies? Create a garden using plants they love. The butterflies will flock to the “buffet” selection of flowers. And you’ll like the fact that many of the plants are easy-care, long-blooming perennials. Most any yard has a spot where you can tuck in a butterfly bed. If yours doesn’t, or you already have a big butterfly garden, but you’d like to draw a few winged visitors closer to the deck or patio, containers are the solution. That way you’ll be able to watch them up close and personal.

While butterflies will visit almost any flower looking for food, they are more attracted to some plants. Those are the ones to use in a container. You’ll want to choose flowers that have lots of nectar, a butterfly’s favorite food. That’s why we’ve included aster, lantana, purple coneflower and black-eyed Susan. Add a canna in the center for some height and bold texture. This guarantees your container will look good to both you and hungry butterflies!

Check out the plant list and planting plan for this container in our Web extra!

LOCATION: Sunken Gardens, Lincoln, NE

designing the front of your border

That small strip of plants that runs along the front of your border is prime real estate — it’s the first thing people will see when they glance at your garden. So you want to make sure it looks good. Luckily, that’s easy to do. Here are three easy-to-implement design ideas that will make your border’s edge the talk of the neighborhood.

Go uniform There’s something to be said for simplicity. One plant’s easy to care for (you can do all your deadheading at once!) and it provides a clean, classic look. This is the type of situation where annuals shine. Try a row of impatiens, begonias, petunias or zinnias for color that lasts well into fall. Choose a single color for a more formal look, or mix the colors for a playful bed.

Spike it! Most short, front-of-the-border plants tend to have spreading or mounding forms. They look nice and soothing, but there’s not much contrast. To change that, mix in a few spiky plants, like salvia, pineapple lily or even ornamental onion, and suddenly your edge has variety!

Play with height Not all of your front-of-the-border plants have to be small. It’s OK to add a few taller plants in with the mix as we’ve done here. Just make sure they don’t hide what’s growing behind them. Airy plants, like Korean feather reed grass, are fun to grow — they can get 4 ft. tall, but are so loose and light that you can see through them.

Learn more great garden design tips in our new softcover book, Ultimate Flowers for Sun and Shade. Find out how at right!

Orange is the color of sunsets and fresh citrus fruits. Because it really stands out, even at a distance, it can be hard to incorporate into the garden. Learn some design techniques that will make your neighbors “orange” with envy.

using balance in design

As one of the principles of design, balance is one of the building blocks of a beautiful garden. Balance is a pleasing-to-the-eye arrangement in which the visual weight of the different plants and hardscaping is in proportion.

Symmetrical balance mirrors elements on each side of a dividing line, like the identical groups of plants on each side of this birdbath. Use symmetry to create a formal look.

Asymmetrical balance is also organized and stable, but the visual weight of the elements looks more random. In the illustration at right, the tall evergreen and mounded shrubs are balanced with the airy, open perennials and the off-center birdbath on the left. Use asymmetrical balance to create casual landscapes.

For a great selection of beautiful garden designs, check out our downloadable garden plans at right!

create a private getaway

What’s the secret to creating privacy in a small back yard? It starts with getting in shape. And this has nothing to do with early morning workouts (unless you mean edging and deadheading!).

One of the most effective ways to create privacy is with large, sweeping beds. It may seem counterintuitive, but notice how breaking up the space with lots of curving gardens actually makes this back yard seem larger. Click on the photo to see how effective this is.

Curving lines, as well as raised beds and tall plants, partially obscure the view of the rest of the garden. You can’t see the whole thing from any one vantage point. This creates mystery and piques people’s curiosity about what lies around the bend.

designing with three’s company

With so many plants to choose from, selecting a combination that works can be tricky. The “three’s company” design technique can help you make decisions about what planting combinations work for you. Start by selecting a single plant as the foundation of your planting. Then decide how you want to organize your combination — by texture, color, plant shape or any combination of these three.

Using cut flowers and foliage, arrange different possible combinations in a vase. You may want to include four or five plants so you can remove those that don’t work. Don’t worry if you’ve combined sun and shade plants; this is just for inspiration. Live with the vase arrangement until you are satisfied with it.

Take the inspiration arrangement with you when you go shopping. Look for plants that are similar to those in the combination but that fit your garden’s cultural situation best. When you’re planting your new garden, you may find you need to add more plants to balance the design. Smaller plants are often needed in larger numbers, while larger plants will overwhelm the space with more than one plant. You can get lots more design tips in Great Gardens Solutions for Small Spaces at right.

bring out the bulbs

Why wait for summer to fill your containers? Beautiful blooms like the ‘Pink Pride’ daffodil, ‘Big Chief’ tulip and grape hyacinths here add a blast of spring color, and they’re so easy to grow. Fall’s the time to get started.

Fill a 1-gal. plastic nursery pot with soilless potting mix and bulbs. Planting bulbs in layers gives you a full look and lets you combine different kinds of bulbs. Usually bulbs need to be planted three times as deep as their height, but don’t worry about that here. Just place the largest bulbs, such as daffodils, in the bottom. Next, add medium-sized bulbs, like tulips, then plant the smallest bulbs, here, grape hyacinths, on top.

Set the pot in a dry-leaf-lined trench, water it well, cover it with a foot of leaves and mark the location. If you have squirrels, put wire mesh over this area to protect the bulbs.

As the tree buds start swelling in early spring, remove the top layer of leaves so you can keep an eye on the bulbs. When the first sprouts appear, move the nursery pot into your decorative container. Put a layer of soil in the container and set the nursery pot in so it’s level with the top rim. Then you can fill the rest of the container with soil. Fill in bare spots with pansies or other cool-weather flowers. You’ll get rave reviews on your beautiful spring display, and everyone will wonder how you got your container flowers to bloom so effortlessly.

When it comes to bold colors, nothing has the power to wow like chartreuse!

For even more great design ideas, check out the great softcover books at right!

using containers in borders

Containers aren’t just for porches, patios and decks — you can also put them in your perennial borders. Here are some tips to help you decide where to place the containers.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX — The soil often dictates which plants you grow in your garden, but if you want to grow something that doesn’t work, try a container. For example, you can plant a container of succulents and place it among moisture-loving plants. You can also move houseplants outside in summer and place them among perennials.

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT — In narrow areas, like along the side of a driveway, sidewalk or side of the house, hang baskets of colorful annuals to add height to a planting that might otherwise be too low. Place several shepherd’s hooks in the bed — the repetition will give the bed a sense of unity.