Let it snow...

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

 - Sammy Cahn

Last week I used a Shakespearean quote about not wanting roses in December and what did I cut and bring inside yesterday??  ROSES!  I live in NORTHeast Pennsylvania for crying out loud and it's balmy and warm outside - puts a damper on my Christmas cheer, I gotta tell ya!

(probably just lost twenty readers due to that little rant - sorry)

Anyway, happy December 6th!  As per request, I'm jotting this down quickly before I head out to decorate a client's home: another little 'How To' - Christmas swags!  







Your first step is to determine the size swag you want.  Mine were going under an outside light, so I didn't want them huge.  Here I chose a solid branch and trimmed it to the size I wanted.













Then I began to wire other like sized branches to the top (please excuse the tired manicure - there are just not enough hours in the day this time of year).  After a few branches are added, you have your swag base.










Next I wire or hot glue the other types of greenery I want in my sway.  For this one, I chose holly, variegated holly and juniper.

Then I tie a ribbon around the top, making sure to tie it over the wires to cover them.  Once that is done, I cut off the excess branches at the top and trim the overall piece to make sure it looks good.

Then hang and enjoy!  Good luck with this one - I'd love to see pictures of some you have made.

Where to begin

"At Christmas I no more desire a rose

Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth; 

~ William Shakespear

It is officially Christmas time (at least it is in my book and because I'm the author of this blog, I guess that is that)!  I spent the last five days decking the halls (and lobbies and atriums and meeting rooms) of various hotels which was fun and interesting.  But today I got to begin decorating my residential clients' houses...ahhh....such love cannot be described.   I have had several requests for tutorials on what I do - which is a bit puzzling to me because nothing I do is so spectacular that anyone couldn't do it - but I decided to be bold and expose myself...don't go there.
 

Here I have a 'mixed green' wreath with a few pine cones thrown in for good measure that I purchased at a local greenhouse.  It's nice...just...nice.  But it's a good base.

I'm not wild about the placement or size of these pine cones - in my opinion, they lack signfigance placed this way.  So I cut them off the wreath and put them aside for later.

Although this is a mixed green wreath, it's not mixed enough for me.  So I popped out to my back yard and cut off a few bits of boxwood and cyprus, made some bundles then glued them into my wreath.

Note:  many people prefer to wire everything to their wreaths.  I find this limits exact placement and angle and takes forever.

And viola!  A very mixed greens wreath!

I took one and a half of these awesome silver picks, cut them up and strategically placed (hot glued) them around to give the wreath an icy, blingy kind of look. 











The finished product:  I added back the pine cones, tied on a bow, glued on a gold, glass pine cone ornament and a few more silver twigs to tie it all together.  Pretty easy.  You can add you own colors, twigs, greens and bows to make it reflect you - it's very, very easy.

The last lovely smile...

“Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.”

William Cullen Bryant

...and also my favorite time of year (although if you live on the US East Coast, it's been a pretty soggy,dreary autumn).  However, as much as I want to draw out the color and fragrance and delicious vibe of the season, I have to move on to the next.  So today's blog will be my last, lovely salute to this lovely smile.

This is a centerpiece I threw together for an outside table. As you can see, there is a myriad of different gourds which provide color, texture and visual interest ( I LOVE the bumpy green one!), some mini mums and cabbages which I popped into small pots and bittersweet vine. To give the height and structure needed for this space, I used my client's cake stand as a prop. Add some tall fall candles and it's balanced, colorful and cozy.





I took the same theme inside to the home's fireplace mantle. It is amazing the difference a few well placed and well colored gourds make. Again, I used the bittersweet and grapevine to add a pop of color and substance.











I wanted to hang something at the kitchen entrance to dress it up, so I made this from hydrangea (grown on the property), bittersweet, grapevine, feathers and ribbon. Simple and pretty.

























One of my favorite things to do at the end of summer is to remove all the tired flowers from the containers and window boxes and reinvent them for fall. Here I used this gorgeous purple cabbage as the focal point then surrounded it with peppers, miniature mums, small white cabbages, and bittersweet vine. To give it a bit more height and fun, I put the lighted twigs in the back. So this arrangement looks good during the day and has a lovely, soft glow at night




Last, but certainly not least, are the fabulous cornstalk pillars. I LOVED making these (although they were physically pain to do). I put them at the entrance to the property and they were really welcoming. For smaller properties, one would work, but here, three was just right. Part of the fun was getting all the tiny pumpkins to encircle the pillars - a local boy had grown them to make money for his college fund: I bought him out so it was doubly good.






This is just a sampling of what you can do to celebrate Autumn. I had such fun with every project.

Back in the Saddle

Hello, Hello, Hello, my blogging friends!  I am back from my annual Field Hockey Mom break.  The season is over, the girls are alive and I have a bit more of my life back.  I hope I haven't lost everyone in the interim!

It's now November, all the fall gorgeousness is beginning to wane and my garden season is pretty much at an end for this year (with the exception of a few things I need to tie up, cut back and rake off).  I always get a bit sad and grumpy about now too, BUT I'm taking lots of Vitamin D and I'm focusing on the fact that it is also holiday staging time!  That always perks me up.

I have a new facebook page for the Cottage Gardener,  The-Cottage-Gardener, where I've been showing my stuff a bit.  I'm actually already posting Christmas pictures, but I will start here with my fall stuff. 

This is the mantle in the barn of one of my clients.  The stone work itself is so gorgeous, I wanted to make sure I wasn't competing with it but complimenting it.  As you can see, it is primarily neutral in tone.  With the exception of the shutter on the left and the live elements (pumpkins, flowers, corn, ect), everything I used in this project was a 'found' object.  I used some beat up old wooded candle sticks, an old window screen, two round cake plates, an old tin and a couple old tool boxes.  The grapevine I took from another project and the bittersweet vine I pulled off the the trees in a forest near my house.

I love the unexpectedness of the blue/green shutter against all the rustic fall color here.

I find the bittersweet vine needs the structure of the grapevine to give it the substance it needs - it can get lost on its own.

And below is a closer look at what I call my pumpkin topiary (although there isn't a pumpkin in the bunch).  I love stacking them to add height, color and texture.  I love this one.

Making things beautiful doesn't have to be expensive.  Dig around your garage or basement and hit your local junk shops for fun things to use.  You'll be surprised at how lovely you can make something.

Enjoy!

My Secret Love

Hydrangea...my secret love (or not so secret if you spend any time listening to me drone on and on about gardening).  There are so many varieties and hybrids with their own charm and allure - I find myself unable to resist them.  This summer, in Northeast PA, our hydrangea have been out of control, so I am going to walk you by a few of my favorites.

 This heart-shaped love is a Nikko Blue.  These bushes do well in partial shade, bloom on 'old wood' so should be pruned as soon as the blooms die.

 

For the novice and/or lazy gardeners, the Endless Summer is a great bet for you.  Depending upon your soil PH, it will bloom blue or pink (or both) and all summer long.  It isn't picky about what kind of wood it will bloom upon the following year, so you can cut away to your heart's content.  I have planted many, many of these and am astonished at the variation in color.  Look how these are shades of both blue and pink on a single flower.  Love these!

Not quite as showy, but very romantic and a nice addition to any garden, is the Oak Leaf hydrangea.  The leaves are shaped like an...oak leaf...and the flowers are similar to the Pee Gee (but smaller) and give a great show of color from white to pink to red to brown. I LOVE using these flowers in my arrangements.  An added bonus is that the leaves of this bush turn a purple to red color in the fall.  How cool is that?

The Annabelle Hydrangea is also a beauty in any garden.  The flowers begin a lime green, mature to white and back to green as the summer progresses.   (Once they've turned their final green, they can be dried and used all winter)  I've used these as hedges and as one single bush in a spot that needed a pick me up.

My Favorite Plant of the Year for 2011 is the gorgeous, unique plant commonly called the Blue Lacecap Variegated Hydrangea.  I planted it everywhere this year!!  The leaves are so unique because of the variegation of color so they stand out among all the other green bushes in the garden.  Don't you just love them!?  The flowers are lacecap so they also add a little something different from the other kids.  It likes shade but can take a bit of sunshine without wilting.

Now for the Queen of the Garden (and my personal all time favorite): the Pee Gee Hydrangea.  I can't say enough about this flower.  You can buy it as a bush or, my personal favorite, as a tree.  I guarantee you will LOVE it.  The huge, cone shaped flowers begin white and gradually mature into a deep rose - at any time you can cut and dry them and they will be gorgeous all winter long (these are the hydrangea you normally see on wreaths and other dried flower arrangements).  The only pruning you need is to cut off all the old flowers and prune the tree for the next season.

This is just a small sampling of this wonderful flower - my garden lover.  I encourage you to buy and plant them; you won't regret it.

Graciousness

I was contacted recently by a lovely woman with a lovely home who needed her somewhat unlovely garden to reflect her personality and style. After touring her home and garden area and having her chat with me about some of her likes and dislikes, I had an idea of what to do for her.  The fact that this was a bit of a departure for me (it wasn't a farm), gave me fresh perspective.  I'll show you a few before and after shots.

These hosta were in great shape, but had overstayed their welcome.  They had no personality, served no real purpose and were wasted here. I felt they could be used in other spots where they would pop.








 
We removed the hosta and put in two Endless Summer and one Variegated Lacecap Hydrangea.  They are colorful and soft in this space. The look is clean and elegant.

 The outside edge of the sidewalk looked unfinished and the owner was concerned someone might trip and fall off of it.  So we brought it up to grade, added a boxwood we rescued from obscurity on her property, planted three red barberry bushes and placed this table on the edge to cap it off.

 

I love the way this all flows together and looks finished.

This back fence had a few lilac pieces that had refused to die and...nothing else.  But what a great backdrop!  So ~ we dug out the lilac, transplanted two lilies and two of those uprooted hosta, added two Double Knockout rose bushes and centered it all with a gorgeous Pee Gee hydrangea tree ~ one of my favorite things to plant; it's simply beautiful.







Sorry for the crummy picture, I think I got a sweat drop on the lens;  but you get the idea.

 This space suffered from the same fate as the hosta - overgrown and boring. But again, the white wall was too delicious to resist as a blank canvas for color and texture.  Because it gets the most sun and you can see it so well from the deck, I decided to make this space the focal point of the new garden area.  We planted two deep purple Butterfly Bushes, two Limelight Hydrangea, two Black-eyed Susans, two Wave Petunias, one Lavender, added two of the transplanted hosta - 




and the jewel of it
all - a Double Knockout rose topiary to tie in the knockouts I planted against the fence.  It's full of color, has great cut flowers and is very low maintenance.  I can't wait for it to dig down and really root into it's full blown glory.




 

Last but not least: the deck.  I only have one set of pictures to show, but the area surrounding the deck was also fairly worn out.  Patrick and I were able to re-purpose this boxwood, move the hosta over and transplant the additional hostas behind the deck mixed in with the fern that was already doing a fine job.

This was a fun little project with wonderful clients.  I think their property now reflects the graciousness and loveliness of the couple themselves.

Fabulous Boxes

 

Today I want to talk to you about garden accessories.  Just like a great dress can be set apart by a beautiful necklace; a wonderful garden can be upped a notch by a few fun window boxes or pots or mirrors or...let your imagination fill in the rest.

For Windy Hallow Farm, I felt the house itself needed to join the party with flowers at the windows.  Not all of them, just four actually.  But as I was considering my options and budget limitations, I realized I'd have to think a bit out of the box (no pun intended) to get a unique look that fit the overall feel of property.  I didn't want the typical iron with coco liner, or something I could find at local garden stores, but I knew I couldn't afford the beautiful boxes I saw online.  So...one day I had an epiphany!  The owners had a very talented man, Mike Rogers, doing some odd jobs around the house and I saw that he was a skilled wood worker.  So I approached him about making a few boxes out of the barn wood I found on the property.  What was really fabulous about this wood, was the iron work still on it.  I asked Mike to cut the wood in such a way to have the hardware showing.  He did an outstanding job!  Each box is unique and gorgeous and it lends more of the farmy feel to the home itself.

 This show stopper is my favorite, so I put it at the front entrance.  Isn't it great?! 

 

  

If you look closely, you can see the handle on this box.  It is on the porch side of the house and adds a great focal point over the small table and pots I have placed there.

Although you can't see the hardware, this one is adorable as well.  It's a bit smaller and the window is higher than the others, so it really stands out on the side of the property.

I know most of us don't have beautiful, weathered barn wood sitting around our property, but if you think hard, you can find all kinds of ways to have something unique for your own home.

More Wind from the Hollow Farm

Here are a few more before-after pictures of Windy Hallow Farm.  The front yard was full of weeds, overgrown shrubs and plants and old, broken slabs of stone for a forgotten pathway.  Although, grass hasn't been planted yet, you can see the improvement already.

The previous own had filled the peremiter of the house with these stones; once we began the project, the excavator realized the stones had been put in about two feet too high, so it all had to be dug out and regraded to prevent rotting of the foundation. It was a dirty job, but sadly necessary.  Bluck.  I was covered with rock dirt for days.













To distract the eye away from this meter and to soften the angles of the house, we curved the sidewalk out and around the entire front.  In this garden area,I added a dwarf Japanese Maple for height and color.  Although it's difficult to see, there is a huge spirea in the corner which I salvaged from another spot on the property. Then I planted double knock out roses, a viburnum, delphinium, rudbeckia, and dark red echinacia.

This beautiful hosta was also salvaged from the property.  It is perfect nestled in this curve.













As you can see, this side of the house was in need of serious attention.  To keep costs down, I was able to grab these two huge boxwoods and this spirea.  When it becomes available, I am going to plant a winterberry bush in the space between the boxwood and spirea.

. 

This is around the corner and shows the flow of the garden.  Again, I have double knock out roses, daisies and hydrangea.  It is a fairly low maintenance garden and suits the farm.

Next up: Window boxes!