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PRETTY PLANTS AND LANDSCAPE TIPS

by Donna | Feb 9, 2017 | Garden Decoration, Landscaping Tips, PLANTS & DESIGN, THE LATEST | 0 comments

Be Inspired- Blossom into a full-grown gardener

Carol spent more time getting her garden ready for the garden tour than most of us spend on our yards all year long. Gardening and decorating her garden is her passion.

Carol added Sedum angelina to a blue pot in a shadow box frame antiqued and hung on her shed with other tiny finery.

And her garden decoration entertains family, friends and visitors of all kinds. Last year Carol spent days getting the garden ready with little decorations and pots filled with tiny plants and small displays to entertain and delight visitors to the Mount Arrowsmith Rhododendron Society spring fundraising garden tour. I didn’t see it after the event but I am thinking Carol put away most of the decor items. It would have been too much to mow around and keep the tiny pots watered and fluffed all summer.

A cotoneaster branch squeezes out through a gap in the fence to entertain walkers down a back alley in Qualicum Beach. The fence is so old it has lichens growing on it.

Not everyone has the time Carol has to decorate her garden but even if you just enjoy a single pot on your patio or a single plant growing through your fence, the garden is a place of fun, entertainment, refuge and delight. Enjoy these images of the year just past and remember to grow what you love. It will reward you in pleasure!

Carol has a way of combining texture and colour in her garden. Here she has a barberry shrub (Berberis) over an Angelina sedum groundcover placed beside a grey granite rock.

Not everyone has to grow a garden to appreciate a garden. 4-yr old Rupert stopped to smell the hyacinth flowers he spotted when walking through town this spring

If you love food – grow it. If you love colour – use it with flair. If you like a continuous bounty of blooms then buy something new at the garden center each month so that your completed garden contains a continuous bounty in every season. “Whatever you are, be a good one” is my favourite Abraham Lincoln quote and I think it applies to gardeners. At what seems like the end of the gardening season I found a new reason to plant additional trees next year. Trees with berries and interesting foliage for Christmas displays. I am not sure why but I haven’t specifically planted for Christmas harvest before.

Early spring blooms like daffodils need to be fall planted to burst into bloom in spring unless you buy the potted plants - an expensive and not always satisfactory effort. The good news about daffodils is the deer do not like them so they have a good chance of blooming while the tulips are nipped off their stems nearby.

Be inspired and blossom into a full-grown gardener. And whatever you grow, I hope it’s a good one.

Bergenia is a hardy perennial from zone 2 through 8. It's value is in its early spring blooms that are beautiful to look at but also provide early bees with pollen and nectar so they don't starve. If you are expanding your garden beyond the veggie patch consider adding a Bergenia for early spring colour.

A smart pot (Fabric Bag brand) hanging outside my house with a collection of succulents does not need much water in summer. Thisis easy care and suits my personal style!