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.

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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!

Windy Hollow Farm

Once again, I have neglected my blog, but it's raining today, so I am allowing myself to sit in front of the computer and play.  Yea!

I wanted to begin showing some pics of a new project we've been working on.  This farm is a diamond in the rough and has been a blast to design.  The goal was to completely reinvent the personality around the perimeter of the home, make the front entrance obvious (there are two entry ways), create a fairly low maintenance farm garden, design an outdoor eating/living area and rethink the parking.  We divided these into phases and have completed phase one.  I'm going to put up a few pictures to give you an idea of where we are in the process.

This is a picture of the side porch. It had great possibilites, but needed some imagination to make it an inviting space for the family.  I loved the pew and the firewood rack was necessary, so they were staying.  Then I began rummaging through the owner's home, and barn, and went to a local antique dealer; this is the result.

I found this adorable table in the owner's family room...with a TV on top of it.   Thankfully she was great about re-purposing it for the porch. The old clay pots, I grabbed at a Strawberry Festival in Falmouth, MA when I was on vacation, and the rest of the containers I found at www.oldeengineworks.com - my very favorite antique mall (by the way, thank you to my right hand man, Patrick, for pointing out that the really cool bucket I thought was for sifting millet or something is actually a minnow bucket and he has one just like it in his garage that I could have had for free) .

The side view picture shows an old buggy bench seat that I also sneaked out of the house (but it was full of jackets, so no on noticed).  Because I was able to use quite a few pieces the owners already had, the cost of this porch transformation was kept quite low.

Once the door has been repainted, the porch will be finished.  I'm really excited to post more about this project.