Plant For Your Audience

 Garden Views, Gardening, Goals, Homemaking, Planning  No Responses »
Apr 262017
 

lion flower planter collage

As I begin to tackle the blank canvas called our new back yard, this is one aspect I was keenly aware of.  Seeing this post which I had previously shared, reminded me of some key elements to consider.

Our yard is surrounded by two story homes with NO privacy between them currently.  There is no need for boring sight blocking plantings, they can be colorful and interesting with a bit of planning.  This might also solve the problem of planting next to fences – raise the plants above the shade cast by a corner fence.

The planter above is one I came across while on a walk one afternoon.  The planter is actually so tall, I had to told my arms all the way up to get the picture on the right.  I did not even know which flowers were in it till I lowered my camera to look.

“Why would they put these up so high?!  No one can even see the flowers to appreciate them.”

After giving this some though I realized that I was not the audience the gardeners were going for.  Surrounding this spot are tall buildings.  From their vantage point, the planters are spots of bright colors on the green canvas.

The same thought can, and should, go into plantings you do at home or office.

  • Who is going to be seeing the plants?
  • From where will they be looking?
  • Will they be moving or standing relatively still?
  • Where is the light coming from?

The planter above is surrounded by bushes.  If the gardeners had put it at ground level, it would have been hard to see.  Placed above the bushes it is hard to miss.

  • Are there other planting nearby to interfere with the line of sight needed?  Or which could visually drowned out the planting?

Even though I could not see the flowers, the planter itself caught my attention.  Such a bold piece screams to be looked at.

  • How will your planter play into your design?  Will it blend in or be a focal point of its own?

After taking time to think about this design in the landscape, I appreciate it even more than I did before.  Sometimes you need to think outside (or above in this case) the box when looking to add to your garden.

Have you done something particular, such as placing a planter in a non-traditional spot, in your garden?  Why did you make the final decision?  How have other’s perceived it?

 

Plant For Your Audience

 Garden Views, Gardening, Goals, Homemaking, Planning  No Responses »
Jun 242014
 

lion flower planter collageThe planter above is one I came across while on a walk one afternoon.  The planter is actually so tall, I had to told my arms all the way up to get the picture on the right.  I did not even know which flowers were in it till I lowered my camera to look.

“Why would they put these up so high?!  No one can even see the flowers to appreciate them.”

After giving this some though I realized that I was not the audience the gardeners were going for.  Surrounding this spot are tall buildings.  From their vantage point, the planters are spots of bright colors on the green canvas.

The same thought can, and should, go into plantings you do at home or office.

  • Who is going to be seeing the plants?
  • From where will they be looking?
  • Will they be moving or standing relatively still?
  • Where is the light coming from?

The planter above is surrounded by bushes.  If the gardeners had put it at ground level, it would have been hard to see.  Placed above the bushes it is hard to miss.

  • Are there other planting nearby to interfere with the line of sight needed?  Or which could visually drowned out the planting?

Even though I could not see the flowers, the planter itself caught my attention.  Such a bold piece screams to be looked at.

  • How will your planter play into your design?  Will it blend in or be a focal point of its own?

After taking time to think about this design in the landscape, I appreciate it even more than I did before.  Sometimes you need to think outside (or above in this case) the box when looking to add to your garden.

Have you done something particular, such as placing a planter in a non-traditional spot, in your garden?  Why did you make the final decision?  How have other’s perceived it?

 

Planted too early?

 Garden Views, Gardening, Goals, Yearly Garden Goals  No Responses »
Apr 182014
 

trench in garden for onions

We have had several warm days of late – 60’s and 70’s.  The evenings have been cool, but usually above freezing.  Usually.

row to plant onion sets

A month or so ago a local farm store has onions sets on sale for $.99 per pound.  I picked up about 2 lbs.  Now, 2 pounds may not seem like a lot, but onion sets are not large.  This equated to a few hundred.

I knew it was too early to plant them, but I also knew that if the weather warmed up before most people thought it would then I would be ready.  If these were planted too early and didn’t come up, then I was only out $2.  It was worth the risk for me.

planted row of onion sets

Saturday of last week was a nice day, in the 70’s.  The day before I had put the fencing up around the beds and sprinkled Deer Scram around, to help keep out rabbits and possibly squirrels.

I had a few minutes to do something with the garden, so chose to plant the onions sets.

It was a little early, I knew I was running a risk of still having cold weather.  The tipping point was knowing that if I didn’t do something with these, they would mold in the bag and I would lose them all anyway.  At least if they were planted, I had some chance of getting a return.

In the end, over 400 were planted.  (I lost count after 350, but know that I planted more than 50 after that.)

Sunday it rained, nice summer-ish type showers.  Still warm.

Monday it rained and was cooling off.

Monday night … it snowed.

We are not talking feet of snow, but enough to still be on the roof tops the next morning and put a layer of precipitation to be removed when I got in the car to leave.

The cold lasted at least one more day.

Will these survive to come up or will they have frozen into onion-set-popsicles?  Only time will tell.

I knew I was being antsy planting so early, but I knew the risk and was willing to take it.  Sometimes it pays off, and others become lessons to remember in the future.

******************

On a more positive note, the strawberry plants are looking good.  I only lost one, and that was to a squirrel last fall I think.  Pesky rodents like to plant buckeyes in my raised beds.  The more I get to know them, the less I like them.  (Squirrels that is, not necessarily buckeye trees.)

Weekly Goals – May 6, 2012

 Goals, Uncategorized, Weekly Garden Goals  1 Response »
May 062012
 

Previous Goals:

1. Remove volunteer seedlings from other two beds

2. Start rest of cucumber seeds

3. Pull more weeds from main front flower bed

I think I formed a plan to deal with my front flower bed.  This meant that there was no reason to do #3 as it would be like washing your old clothes before throwing them away.  We’ll see if the new plan is approved by the “Home Improvement Committee”.  So far half the Committee likes the idea.

 

New Goals:

1. Transplant lettuce plants (a neighbor started more than she needed and wanted to think these out)

2. Start digging up plants from the main flower bed, which I want to keep.  (I know it is the wrong time of year to do this for most of them.  However, now is when I feel motivated and am okay with a season of poor blooms.)

3. Clear off a section in my basement’s “crawl space” for garage sale items.

4. Declutter 7 things each day.  Put either in the trash, on a “free” table in front of my house, or in the garage sale section.

5. Hang my bicycle storage system.  Inflate my bike tires, then hang it up.  (Yes, I will be using it, but the goal right now is to just get it off the garage floor.)

 

Last week went well  and I think this week will go okay too, so I’m giving myself a few more official (i.e. public) goals.  Last week I really did try to get rid of hot spots around the house, which led me to realize I had no place for items that I want to sell in a garage sale.  I’m hoping having a designated place will allow me to declutter more areas of the house.  Now, I know FLY Lady says to just get rid of it.  That is usually what I do.  This time however, I felt like there is enough items to justify having a sale.  We’ll see if it all adds up to that or if I’ll just offer it to a local group doing a garage sale to make money.