Saturday, May 30, 2009

No More Invasive Shrubs



It happened so easily. Perhaps you can relate to how invasive shrubs end up in your gardens. Here in my area, the landscapers use variegated privet a lot. When we built our house in 2005, I was so overwhelmed with the building process that I didn't select the shrubs and trees.

For another year, I didn't pay attention to what had been planted. One day, I found out that we had the variegated privet that is on the invasive list - meaning that if it gets loose in the wild (which it will do), it can crowd out native species. We decided to keep the shrubs trimmed so that they wouldn't flower and set seeds.

Recently, Grumpy Gardener wrote about Five Awful Plants for the Front of Your House. There was the reminder again about invasive variegated privet. I showed the story to my husband. We knew that we really needed to go ahead and pull all of the privet from our gardens. My husband set about doing that immediately. The task was easier than he thought.


By pulling the invasive shrubs along the east foundation of our house, we had room for a garden bench by the waterfall. We widened the stepping stone pathway between the waterfall patio and the lower dining patio in the fragrance garden. I planted two urns and put on each end of the bench. We now have another nice place to sit by the waterfall.

In the garden bed along the east side of the house, we added a variety of salvia greggii, agastache, lavender and gaillardia. Since the fragrance garden already has an abundance of fragrant blooms, I focused on adding fragrant, touchable foliage plants and used the gaillardia for the shape of the blooms and long bloom time. The butterfly ginger remains in the original location.

I never realized how much sun this space received during the day until I focused on what to plant there. I took a few days to make sure of the conditions. In the summer, it has sunshine from sunrise until 2:00 pm in the afternoon. Right now, the planting is sparse as I bought small pots to save on cost. In another year, the perennials will fill in the space and it we'll have fragrant foliage along with the fragrant flowering shrubs and trees in our fragrance garden. We've had a lot of rain this week and the plants have already started growing!


After pulling the rest of the privet out of the garden beds in front, we planted more sun-loving perennials like salvia and sowed annual seeds to keep the cost down.

The project wasn't as expensive as we had thought if we don't think about the original cost of the fifteen privet located all around our property. We probably spent around $150 (we got a metal bench on sale locally for $50) to clear our conscious and create nice new garden areas.

It feels good to do the right thing.



Story and photos by Freda Cameron; Location: home garden; May 2009

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Beautiful built-ins

I've lived in quite a few old houses and one thing I love about them are the built-in features. Bookcases, desks, window seats - they add so much charm and personality. How about you? What's your feeling on built-ins?

A dreamy day bed/window seat - oh the hours I could spend there
via My Home Ideas

...a little girl's paradise...
via LKS Design


serene office - my desk is never that clean though - as I use it to work on... :)

I love this room. The curtains hung lower ads a lot of dimension to the room I think...










via Decor Pad

via High Fashion Home Blog

Larkspur Blooms from Seeds


To say that I love these annual larkspur flowers is an understatement! The range of colors, the height and width of the larkspur is easy to use in several garden locations.

I planted a mix of Larkspur 'Galilee Blue' and Giant Imperial 'Lilac Spire' in a random pattern in October 2008. The seeds sprouted up during winter and the seedlings really began to show some height in late March 2009.

Larkspur 'Carmine King' seeds were also sown in October, but those are just now beginning to bloom and are much shorter, about knee-high. I don't know if the height is associated with the variety or with the location in my garden. The color of deep pink blends harmonically with spirea 'Neon Flash', but I also sowed the seeds all along the outside of the cottage garden fence. The Knock Out® Roses 'Radrazz' are inside the cottage garden fence, so I attempted to work with the deep magenta color scheme. Since I'm not getting the height/bloom yet, I can't provide feedback on whether or not I'll use this color again.



I am using the larkspur in both the deer resistant garden and the cottage garden. In both locations, the larkspur is used for color until my peak summer bloom season. The narrow width of the larkspur makes it easy to use between the larger perennials and shrubs. I did get a bit close to some of the perennials as they have filled out, but it doesn't seem to matter how close the larkspur is to the other plants.

Larkspur is deer and rabbit resistant. Although a rabbit sampled a few of the seedlings (all parts are supposed to be poisonous), the plants bounced back and bloomed.

Sowing the seeds was simple. I just pressed them into good garden soil in October while I was planting fall bulbs. I am so pleased with the results that I will sow more seed again this autumn.

Story and photos by Freda Cameron; Location: home garden; May 2009

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Awesome treatments for your walls

Don't want to hang art or wallpaper, but just a coat of paint too boring for you? Well, Jill recently introduced me to her unique take on walls and I was impressed. She is also a talented interior designer. Check out her graphic murals...

Of her process, she says:
"The murals started a number of years ago when I had a short-term loft rental in Tribeca (NYC). I had these massive white walls and didn't want to spend a fortune on art since I'd be moving out in 6 months, so I painted the murals directly on the walls. Then other people started wanting them, too. All of my murals are painted, but there are different techniques. The geometric ones like the yellow octagons I work out in Autocad first to get the dimensions and spacing just right; then I use a laser level to tape it off. It can take days to do the taping for one of these, but then the paint just gets rolled on so that part happens pretty quickly. For the figural ones like the birds in trees, I work out the design on paper or in the computer in small scale first, then project it onto the wall and trace with a pencil. Then I hand paint all the outlines and fill them in, often needing 4 coats of paint to get the nice crisp opaque look I like---these are the most labor-intensive of the murals. I'm currently working up wallpaper designs based on the murals, which will be available on www.wallpaperstogo.com sometime in the next few months."

I think her murals are really tasteful, and are simple enough you wouldn't get tired of looking at them after awhile.





I think I'd pick this one - maybe in a high gloss cool gray over the same color in matte.
Which is your fav?

Go to Jill Crawford's website to see more!

Some of her interior design:


Two different but beautiful beach homes

Granted, I focused on waterfront homes yesterday, but it's a hard thing to get too much of - so why not some more? The first home focuses on preserving the funky personality of original beach cottages, while the second home is modern in design - but constructed from reclaimed materials...which is closer to your aesthetic?








via Coastal Living









via Notebook