During the long, dreary, winter months, it is fun to dream about creating new spring gardens. I have done this for years. One year, I planned a succulent garden, another time it was a rose garden, or a climbing, trailing garden with many arbors, arches and trellises. A few years ago I created a landscaped ...
A cottage garden is often viewed as a sunny location, filled with annual flowers, perennial flowers, shrubs, vines or herbs. What about shaded landscapes? I am in the process of expanding my cottage garden. Half of my yard is in sun and half the yard is in full shade to partial shade. I need to ...
Natural terracotta is absolutely beautiful. The rich, reddish natural clay hue evokes thoughts of southwestern style or cottage gardens that include enormous terracotta planters filled with beautiful flowers and trailing vines. No matter the style, bring this striking color into the home when decorating, and embellish the room in natural terracotta. Create a welcoming earth-tone ...
For the flower gardening enthusiast, an English garden is a view of landscaping heaven. With little or no grass, the yard is an abundance of flowers sometimes tall enough to hide a precocious child. Varying height blooms of reds, yellow, blue, pink, lavender or orange create a rainbow color explosion. To augment the landscape design, ...
As a true cottage gardener, I plant edibles in and amongst the flowering plants. One of my favorite things to plant in my cottage garden are ornamental peppers. With fruits in shades of white, yellow, orange, red and deep purple, these plants add a splash of color to any landscape. Some, like “Bouquet” and even ...
Have you been looking for a tall, easy-to-care-for, fragrant perennial to add to your cottage garden, herb garden or perennial border? One that you may want to consider is the Anise Hyssop (Agastache Foeniculum). This beautiful plant sends up spiky purple flowers and has a lovely anise, or licorice, aroma that attracts bees, butterflies and ...
Poultices are similar to compresses, except the whole herb is applied, rather than a liquid extract, providing effective first aid treatment. Poultices are simple herbal preparations that can be prepared at home. Moist, hot herbs are pasted onto the skin to give soothing, healing relief from minor wounds or painful muscles. Fresh, dried or powdered ...
While taking a walk through the tree lined streets in our city, I remember coming across a flower that I could not stop looking at for its unique shape and gorgeous salmon and white color petals. It was a flower that I knew I had to have however I was not sure what it was ...
In order to get the best bulbs to plant in the fall for spring flowers, you should be planning in the summer. You want to pick bulbs for your particular region, climate and soil. Don’t do what I did and try to plant all the wrong bulbs in my Florida garden. I soon learned that ...
Valerian (Valeriana officinalis, also known as Garden Heliotrope and not to be confused with Red Valerian, which is Centranthus ruber) is a plant that is both an herb and an ornamental. A tall (three to five feet) perennial, it’s a great cottage garden or wild garden plant. The leaves are medium green and deeply divided, ...
