Designing Fall Vignettes

Heart-shaped, golden leaves of a katsura tree in fall

Is the fall interest in your garden limited to the decaying foliage of summer perennials? That can often be the case without some advance planning. Here are a few ideas to help you create vignettes that truly celebrate the season rather than apologize for their demise. Temper The Fire The temptation is to focus on…

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Unexpected Color Echoes

Repetition of color in a garden is an easy way to bring a sense of cohesion to a design and is often called a 'color echo'. When designing 'foliage first' this color echo may be between a leaf and a flower or even between two or more different leaves, yet there are many more adventurous…

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Woodland Garden Updates – Ideas Needed!

This spring has seen some major changes in our woodland border – the long-overdue removal of three large Bradford pear trees. We inherited them and used them as a starting point for this entire border, underplanting with Japanese maples, adding columnar Swedish aspens and planting the banks of our seasonal stream with moisture loving favorites.…

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Flowers & Foliage – My Favorite, Easy-Care Shrubs

Here in the Pacific Northwest the ubiquitous rhododendron are doing their thing with oversized, luscious blooms in every shade from purest white to deepest purple. They are positively seductive – until suddenly they're not. The sad reality is that a garden filled with these has only a limited season of interest, after which there's just…

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