many of you know, i’m a bit of a sucker when it comes to house plants. i wouldn’t say it’s a jungle in here, but i love decorating with unusual plants. it brings a sense of the outdoors inside, freshens up the space and gives a good punch of color to the decor. little did i know, the benefits to keeping a few house plants are immense! after doing a little research, here are a few of my favorite benefits.

- plants can help fight colds: indoor plants have been shown to reduce cold-related illnesses by more than 30% (wow!)- mainly due to their effect of increasing humidity levels and decreasing dust (a whole different favorite benefit!).

- plants help to remove airborne contaminants: as we breathe the same air again and again (potentially inhaling harmful substances that are trapped inside), indoor plants help to remove pollutants including, VOCs, formaldehyde and more!

- plants can just flat-out make you happy: keeping plants inside can reduce stress and contribute to a feeling of well-being, making you calmer and more optimistic. studies have even shown that patients who face a garden view in their hospital rooms often recover more quickly than those facing a wall.

- plants can help to decrease your blood pressure: people with plants in their homes have less stress, which directly contributes to a lower blood pressure.

- plants can offer healing treatments: some indoor plants, like aloe, can be applied to skin and offer pain relief.

- plants can prevent allergies: exposing children to plants early in life can help them build a tolerance and immunity to that allergen. it basically works like a custom allergy shot, naturally.

- plants can make your brain work better: potted plants and flowers can improve your idea generation, mood, and more (i recommend having some right next to your creative work space!).

- plants provide clean air: in addition to filtering chemicals, plants also put out clean air, improving the air quality around them, ahhhh.

- plants help to clear congestion: eucalyptus especially can help clear phlegm and congestion from your system (eucalyptus is often found in congestion remedies, as well).

- plants are natural humidifiers: save some money and instead of buying a humidifier machine, just bring in a plant or two!

to see more of my indoor plants, you can read about how i made my diy terrariums, how i like to plot my planters and yes, how i even went a little plant crazy.

for further juicy reads on the benefits of having indoor plants, here are a few nifty articles: health benefits to house plants, eliminate indoor pollutants, benefits to indoor plants, nasa research of plants, green plant benefits and the best plants for improving indoor air quality.

wrap up: {benefits} {flowers} {garden} {greens} {house} {indoor} {plants} {potted} {wintry greens}

wooden cherry buttons | block 7 mini house | wooden branch pendant | natural zen garden desk organizer

from karolin felix dream + the next 2 people to order (to make her first 20 sales) receive 15% off by entering “MagicOfTheForest” at checkout!

wrap up: {blocks} {desk} {fariytale} {garden} {karolin felix} {land} {organizer} {wooden} {zen}

well i’m not sure about everything, but these two things sure do make me happy. because of our moving, i haven’t been gardening as much as i like this year, but my fingers still yearn to be in the dirt. i have a little plot planned out and i’m ready to get started on a little veggie garden any time now. how is you garden growing?

{image: the sweet life found via elizabeth fink}

wrap up: {art} {books} {garden} {library}

i stumbled across the diy for this wine box salad garden yesterday (via llh designs, found on the style files) and fell in love- what a brilliant idea! i’m a big believer in square foot gardening as it is, so using pre-made wooden boxes just makes the whole thing easier from the start. and the fact that they are wine boxes covered in french just makes them all the more lovely. i wonder where linsey got these from? were they free? maybe she’ll pop over and let us know!

just think, no weeds, fresh greens (or any veggie for that matter), and a small place to tend to. sounds like the perfect garden to me! visit llh designs for the full how to and happy gardening!

wrap up: {diy} {garden} {plant} {project} {salad greens} {square foot gardening} {summer} {wine boxes}

Hello!  I came across this amazing cottage garden and just had to share the photos with you all.  I thought these would be wonderfully inspirational for those of us who love the cottage garden look…which is all about creating layers of bloom and foliage.

Cottage gardens can very easily become messy and overgrown.  Avoid this by choosing a unified color palette, using larger shrubs to create structure and by practicing good pruning, deadheading and dividing practices. I have to be honest – cottage gardens are hard to successfully design.  They can take years of playing with plant combinations, color and structure.  If you are a fan of this look I highly recommend spending a good amount of time critically looking at inspiration photos.  Take the gardens apart and see what makes them successful.

Hardscaping makes a huge difference in cottage garden design.  Incorporating trellises, benches, arbors, fences and pathways brings focus and structure to the garden, and can help contain the rambunctious nature of the plants!

This photograph shows some of the garden’s structural accents.  Statuary, a large arbor, the fence in the back of the garden, even the mature evergreens and trees – they all contribute to the garden structure.  Also notice the placement of the statue in front of the arbor, tying the two garden beds together.

Do you notice that large ball of light in the far left corner of the picture? See how it balances out the white of the statue while drawing the eye to that corner of the garden?  Here’s a close up of what’s going on over there…

This planting incorporates two of my favorite plants, the peony and the ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ variegated willow.  The ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ deserves a place in all gardens that have the room for it...great color, structure and texture.

This is just dreamy…give me a hammock, some lemonade and a good book and I’ll happily spend many an afternoon in this backyard!

All photos from http://www.edelbrandbrennerei.at/page8.php

wrap up: {flowers} {garden} {gardening} {organic gardening}

Hello!  Since Bonnie is in the midst of moving mayhem (big supportive hug to her)  I’m going to step up the gardening posts for a few weeks.  This is a great time to get out in the garden and play (and work…today is a fun post, but soon there will be the fall garden chores post…). Over the next week I’m going to share a series of posts on how I improve gardens, from a design point of view.  Today I am going to focus on adding color and texture to the garden.

This is the time of year when I step back and take a look at the gardens in my life.  As a landscape designer this is my favorite time of year.  Usually projects I began working on last year or in the Spring have begun to manifest, and I can take a cold look at my ideas and make some tweaks here and there.  Here is a comforting fact:  Most garden designs undergo some tweaking once they are in the ground.  My favorite way to design a garden is to pick the plants, bring them to the site  and then play with grouping them together before planting. Obviously this is not conducive to most client’s garden, but it works wonderfully for friends and family. It drives some people bonkers, but it’s a major part of my process…and one of the ways I tap into my creativity.

My professional focus right now is on improving established gardens.  Fall is a great time of year to plant perennials, trees and shrubs.  The weather is cooler, the plants are cheaper and I’ve seen the garden for at least a season so I know what is working and what is missing.  I step back and question the garden…with the first question being:

1. Was there enough color and texture in the garden?

I always look to see if I can use a plants with good foliage color instead of relying on flowers alone. My favorite manifestation of this idea comes from the garden of  Margaret Roach.  This underplanting is just remarkable.  Who needs flowers when foliage does such a great job! Her story on how the planting came together is a great read…I really cannot wait for her new book to come out!

Do you see the texture in the plants?  The long draping, yellow blades of the Hakonechola macra ‘All Gold’ , the glossy round leaves of the European Ginger, the softer rounded leaves of the Hosta ‘June”(…notice the continuation of the yellow color on the interior stripes of the hosta), then the sharper and softly pointed purple fronds of the Japanese painted ferns. Do you see the way the ferns, hosta and Hakonechola all seem to be bursting out of the ground…creating movement and moving the eye around the garden?  And what about those two little yellow punctuation marks created by the “Lime Rickey” heuchera!  That’s pizzaz!

On a much larger scale, this garden designed by Piet Oudolf is another gorgeous example of color and texture working together to create a dynamic and interesting garden:

Here we have large drifts of plantings undulating and moving the eye through.  I look at this garden and can feel it.  Do you get what I mean by that? That’s what I want in my gardens…feeling and movement, color and texture, scent and tactile moments…..a full sensory experience.  I know those large pink echinaceas have spiky centers that are hard to the touch…but the oat grass to the left is a soft and fuzzy plant that dances in the breeze.  This is a garden that would never be still and would never become boring.

Here are two more Piet Oudolf gardens to take inspiration from:

Allium Gladiator (those large purple balls) are one of my favorite plants…but I can’t help but want to take a whack at them with a baseball bat….too much tee-ball in my youth perhaps??!!

Piet Oudolf creates rivers and ponds of plants...can you see these in the photos above?  What else do you notice about his design?  Do you see the similarities of structure, even though the plants are so different?  Could you see these gardens in a smaller space or do you think they need the large expanses of space to be successful?  What do you find appealing about these gardens?  How can you translate that into your own gardens?

Whenever I look at gardens, be it live or in photos, I ask myself a ton of questions…this is how I sharpen my own aesthetic and design skills.  A good garden design is something to be studied and examined and picked apart….and enjoyed!

Do you have favorite designers you take inspiration from?  Or favorite plants to add color or texture to your garden?

wrap up: {flowers} {garden} {gardening} {organic gardening}

Blink, blink…where did summer go??!!  It’s been sweater weather here in CT for the past few days…cold, wet and generally lousy.  I know the sun will come out and the temperatures will rise again, but the summer drought and heat wave have passed and I’m thinking of  Autumn, which is a HUGE planting season for us.  We plant perennials, trees, shrubs and bulbs.  We prepare gardens for winter and create garden beds for next year’s  gardens.  September and October are incredibly busy gardening months – so if you think we are almost done here…think again my friends!

I just finished placing huge bulb orders…looking at the thousands of bulbs we will be planting this Fall makes my heart sing, but my knees ache! Bulb planting is done here in October – but for the best selection we order well before that.

My first priority is ordering garlic bulbs.  I absolutely love fresh garlic and I think several beds devoted to growing garlic is ideal.  Of course I’m not alone in this love of garlic – so order fast…many varieties are already sold out!

Here are our sources for organic garlic seeds:

• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
• Fedco Seeds
• Seed Savers Exchange
• Johnny’s Selected Seeds
• 2 Sisters Organic Garlic
• Filaree Farm

If you are new to growing garlic, try a variety pack and taste test the garlic next year.  Alternately, 2 Sister’s has a great page called “How to Choose Your Favorite Garlic Variety”

Seed Saver’s has a great garlic growing guide.  In a nutshell – garlic likes nutrient rich soil (add lots of organic matter to the garden bed now so it will be ready for planting in about 6 weeks), softneck varieties are better in milder climates and hardneck varieties do better in colder climates, each individual bulb of the clove is planted and it’s pretty darn easy.

I will create a bulb planting tutorial post closer to the time of planting – so don’t worry too much about how to plant garlic.  Just order yourself some bulbs and we will all have garlic breath together next summer!!!

Of course Spring flower bulbs are also on my mind!

Daffodil ‘Replete’ Daffodil ‘Erlicheer’

Double Daffodil ‘White Lion’ Daffodil ‘Acropolis’

Double Flowering Tulip ‘Ice Wonder’ Double Flowering Tulip ‘Abigail’

Tulip ‘Rai’ Double Flowering Tulip ‘Eternal Flame’

Be sure to buy a good mixture of early, mid and late blooming bulbs.  Check the description and note when the bulb is going to bloom and buy accordingly.   Breck’s has some good instructions and tips to choosing which bulbs to plant.

Remember to also notice the height of the flower – you want to buy flowers of differing heights, different bloom times and that complement each other color wise.

Bulbs look best when planted in drifts of several hundred – for maximum impact buy a long flowering collection of daffodils and naturalize areas of your garden. You’ll be so glad you did come Spring!

I use tulips in the front of the garden bed where I can enjoy their fleeting beauty.  I try not spend too much on tulip bulbs, since they rarely come back each year.  Of course I am seduced by the tulips each and every year and swoon each Spring when these beauties bloom.

This year I am planting bulbs in my cut flower beds – I loathe cutting from the garden, but I always want some indoors as well…this is my compromise.

Here are some of our bulb suppliers – take a look and order your bulbs soon…I promise they will be sold out before you know it.  Bulbs ship at the correct planting time for your zone – so don’t hesitate!

Van Bourgondien – reputable and reliable sellers with a great inventory and some sweet specials.

Breck’s - classic and established bulb company.  Has some beautiful bulb collections.

Van Egelen – we buy most of our bulbs through this company, which is Connecticut based.  We have never had a problem and their shipping and customer service is excellent.  Their bulbs are large and healthy and produce great flowers.  They offer “wholesale” pricing for large quantity of bulbs…and although it is not as cheap as true wholesale, I am happy to pay more for their high quality.

White Flower Farm – another Connecticut based company I am happy to order from.  Again, their prices can be higher than others, but their quality is superb and their pre-designed bulb collections are classics.  I am trying their Darwin Hybrid Tulips – they say they bloom for 5 years…that would be lovely and save my poor knees from annual tulip planting!

Hope you have fun browsing and buying bulbs for next year!

Caroline Finnegan owns Ladybug Landscaping, a full service organic landscaping company. based in CT. She is a NOFA accredited landcare professional and when not designing gardens can be found rearranging her furniture or out at a flea market finding new goodies. She almost always has dirt under her nails.

wrap up: {eco friendly} {garden} {organic gardening} {seasonal}

{chamomile}

there’s just nothing like using freshly picked herbs in the kitchen.  i cherish them dearly and they make our dishes so delectable, savory and often times more beautifully presented. most culinary herbs are easy to grow indoors and make it easy to pick from your own mini herb garden year round!  you can plant them in individual pots, or in one container easy to move around.  most herbs are easily germinated from seed but are often very affordable as starters at your local hardware store or nursery.

{sneak peek from sfgirlbybay}

best herbs for the kitchen:

basil: sweet, fragrant leaves that are commonly used in sauces, pesto, salads and italian dishes.  an easy grower that produces in the summer and fall and needs maximum sunlight.

chives: a member of the onion family; best used in potatoes, salads and on fish.

dill: used in many asian and mediterranean dishes, dill has aromatic fern like scrumptious tops.

mint: fresh and clean herb, best used in drinks, salads and sweet dishes.

oregano: often used in italian dishes, tomato sauces and on veggies.  easy to grow with many health benefits.

parsley: usually used uncooked and as a garnish; has a very mild flavor.

rosemary: woody and fragrant, best used on potatoes, bread or vegetables (my favorite!).

sage: has a slightly peppery flavor, often used in meats or in italian dishes.

thyme: a basic ingredient in numerous cuisines, an essential and aromatic herb to grow.

{::herbs::}

growing tips: most herbs prefer sunny locations, either outside or in a south facing window. make sure the bottom of your pot or planting area has a drainage hole, as herbs prefer well drained soil. make sure that each herb has a depth 7-9 inches for root growth. consider keeping invasive herbs such as mint, lemon balm and peppermint growing separately so as not to overcrowd the others.

here’s my latest project and how i made my mini kitchen herb garden! i ran across this old tool box on a vintage hunt recently, and couldn’t wait to get home and plant it up.

after drilling a few holes in the bottom for proper drainage, i filled her with good organic potting soil and planted my sage, rosemary, basil, oregano and dill. i also added an aloe plant, a cactus and a succulent at the end, just to spruce it up  a bit.

i think this is my all time favorite garden project! i love the tool box because i can easily move into the sunshine, and then indoors for the winter.  happy planting!

wrap up: {culinary} {garden} {herbs} {indoor} {kitchen} {plant}