Attract Attention with Two Strong Shapes
Visitors are always surprised when they see my perennial border. The colors are lovely-mostly pastels, silvers, grays, and greens-but it's not the colors that most people respond to. Rising like punctuation marks, spires and globes create a flow ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
A Room with a View
The large window in my home office looks out onto a deep backyard, where weeping willows and majestic sequoias in adjacent properties extend the view so that my back garden looks much bigger than its actual size. This panorama, unfortunately, is ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
Inspired Design: Living Lightly on the Land
Maybe it's the optimist in me, but I feel as though we've reached a tipping point with regard to the public's awareness and acceptance of our responsibility to do something about global warming. Former Vice President Al Gore's documentary, One ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
A Garden Story in Three Parts
It's a woodland story-you know that right away-but the rest is a mystery. Do you hear water? Music? Mozart perhaps? Some laughing far away? You are beginning chapter one of the story of a garden, on a lake, in Alabama. I consider my garden just ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
The Value of Voluptous Curves
I'll admit it. When I have a hard time convincing a client to let me create the sweeping arcs, spirals, and semicircles I love, I simply say, "I'd like to create some curves-voluptuous curves." Slowly, a smile appears across her-or his-face. [... more]
Fine Gardening |
Not Your Average Moon Garden
When we built an addition to our 18th-century clapboard house and I looked out our new bedroom window, I recognized an opportunity to create a garden viewed from above that would offer cheer in every season and extend visual interest into the ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
House & Garden
As more and more people are seeing the wisdom of turning their outdoors into usable space, the phrase "outdoor rooms" has become part of our language. With a background in plant science and extension education, Wesley Rouse has been creating ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
Plants with Personality
Garden design is far more than just choosing appropriate plants for the site and properly spacing them in well-prepared soil. It's about creating an energy or mood that makes the owner or visitor feel comfortable and connected to the ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
Cottage Garden with a Twist
When I bought my house, it had a prosaic yard but no garden. The front was graced by a mature spruce on the north side, and a 20-foot-deep swath of level lawn ended in a steep slope to the street, making mowing difficult. I was lucky that my ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
How to Create an Inspiring Garden
Frank Cabot's renown as a plantsman dates back many decades. Known for his passion for alpine and woodland plants, especially primroses, Cabot has introduced several plants into cultivation. He also founded The Garden Conservancy, a nonprofit ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
A Lush Garden on the Rocks
A site located on a bedrock ledge was transformed into a thriving garden by creating sequences of planting pockets. The authors linked their growing areas to form a continuous series of beds. When we bought a cabin in the woods, we were thrilled ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
Patterns Within a Garden
It would not be overstatement to say that Ryan Gainey is often considered a legend in the horticultural world. Gardens he's designed throughout the United States and in France have received much recognition, and he has mentored many of Atlanta's ... [... more]
Fine Gardening |
