Container Gardening... Keep it Simple

Last week, my mom helped me spruce up our 2 pots by our front door.  I've let go of most of our gardening and weeding this season, but I just had to get these fixed up.  I couldn't let people come to our house and be greeted by 2 pots of dead rosemary bushes!  :P

So here they are... new and improved.  I kept things simple this year and love how they turned out.  For the first time, I just stuck to one accent color, purple.  One of the things I've been learning about gardening the last few years is to resist the temptation to buy one or 2 of everything and start plomping down everything single flower that I like.  (But there's so much that I like!)  It makes for a scattered, uncohesive look.  I've tried to limit my plants to whites and purples.  It makes it slightly easier to shop and it really does make a garden feel put together when there's a common color or 2 to tie everything together.

Here's one of my purple beauties in the garden, my clematis.  For some reason, she just loves this spot next to the fence!  I also have lots of lavender and my alliums just finished blooming.

I'm always looking for one large plant that will anchor my pots.  I can save money by just changing out seasonal annuals.  This year, I'm trying out 2 jasmines.  They have an incredible fragrance and I'm hoping they'll stay with me through the winter and will work for many seasons.  I've also kept things simple with traditional pansies, petunias, snap dragons and no container is complete (in my humble opinion) without some gorgeous, bright green sweet potato vine cascading down the side.

Hope this helps you go to the nursery with a little more focus and confidence in building your own beautiful, summer containers!

Lastly, today's the last day to enter the Savory Sweet Life Cookbook Giveaway!  I'm so proud of Alice and excited to be part of her book launch this week!

TO ENTER TO WIN:

1. Be a US resident

2. Just go to Facebook and like Savory Sweet Life's Facebook page.

3. Post a comment to my original post here, about a recipe you've tried or would love to try.

I've heard from some people that they've had trouble leaving comments.  So if you're having trouble,go ahead and send me a comment to picketfencedesign@gmail.com and I'll happily include you in the giveaway!

One lucky winner will be drawn on Friday!

 

IKEA Fridays - Meet Persika and Farm

So all this week, I've been writing about fall decorations and Halloween party ideas.  I wanted my IKEA post this week to stick with this theme so I'm going to start with this inspiration photo.



(image from hgtv.com)


Isn't it lovely?  Like I mentioned on Monday, using natural twigs, leaves and branches are great way to add a touch of fall to your decor.  Check out that white vase.  A white vase is so versatile because it goes with any holiday, event or season and because it's solid, you can put together an arrangement and not have to worry about how the stems/branches look at bottom of the vase.  It makes it much easier to put an arrangment together.  Here are 2 great vases from IKEA.

Meet Persika.  It has a similar shape to the vase in our inspiration photo and I love how this modern shape will look with some rustic branches.  I think the contrast is striking.

Meet Farm.  Aren't these great?  Can you imagine them all grouped together with some small twigs tucked in?  Understated and beautiful.  I'll need to pick these up on my next trip!

Roses and Hydrangeas

September is a great time to get deals on plants and flowers.  You'll have to be patient as most of them won't be blooming until next year, but you'll get some great deals.  Many of you probably have more experience than me as I'm a newbie gardener having only had a garden for 2 years.  But, I've been able to enjoy the fruits of my garden already!  Gardening is so therapeutic and there's so many life lessons to be learned along the way.  Another reason I love to garden is that I love to have fresh flowers at home.  With my own garden, I can get them for FREE!  One of my simple joys is going out to my garden, cutting flowers and greenery, and thinking of ways to arrange and display them.

 

Here are 2 of my favorites.  If you have a sunny spot, I recommend roses.  I've planted English Roses mostly from David Austin.  I love roses that have full blooms that almost look like peonies (my most favorite flower).  Roses are great, because they are so generous with their blooms. They just keep blooming and blooming!

If you have a shady spot, go for Hydrangeas.  These are old fashioned, full and have also generous blooming season.  I particularly like varieties with white and lavender flowers.  At first, I was only familliar with the ball, mophead type Hydrangea.  Now, I've learned about lacecaps and oakleaf hydrangeas.  I'm loving the oakleafs and just planted 2 this year.  Hopefully we'll get some blooms next year!   You can click here for more information on hydrangeas.   

Here's another great resource that I stumbled across a couple of years ago.  Like anything else for the home, plants are an investment.  The information here helped me narrow down what I wanted to put in my garden. 

Here are some more photos of bouquets I've been able to make this summer with flowers from my garden.  I hope this inspires you for next year.  :)