First makeover of the day…..I love this makeover because not only does the garden get a re-think, but the house itself it also vastly improved with a change of siding and the addition of an arbour.

Gone are the ‘foundation plantings’ in favor of a much more interesting and sophisticated front garden that looks to focus on leaf texture and shades of green and white.

And in the back….I am relieved to see that the bubble window is gone and I really like the way the mural inside the house adds to ambiance in the garden.

This garden was created by designer Dan Davis in Michigan and I found it and some of the pictures over at design*sponge.

Have a before & after you’d like to share on studio ‘g’? Email right here with your images.

I simply adore the utter simplicity of this town garden designed by Brita von Shoenaich.  I love that all the plants die back to nothing allowing the clean lines of the steps to shine through in the winter and the bulbs to take center stage in the spring.

I have to admit, I am beside myself for words to describe how much I truly enjoy this design….what do you think?  Do you like as much as I do? why?

My rain barrels are from the local Pepsi bottling facility — they came smelling strongly of Mt. Dew, but they were cheap (6 fit in a truck and they cost me <i think> 3$ each) and once I added the spigot and painted them dark green, the total cost was less than 15$ each.  These beauties are considerably more expensive, but I can attest that they are much nicer….you wouldn’t find mine front and center next to my front door.

Hero 365 is excitingly  re-inventing familiar products as extraordinary everyday objects .

“Made in North America using recyclable materials, shipping flat packed, and encouraging better habits in everyday living – HERO 365 objects create an elegantly utilitarian lifestyle for the sustainable modernist.” – Hero 365.

And this drying rack is pretty exciting too.

I am wishing that garden centers local to me had a bit more to offer.  It seems to me that there is a strong garden lifestyle trend that would likely support garden centers that are a bit more like the beautiful Zetas in Stockholm Sweden.

It’s a garden center with a cafe serving beautiful local food and coffee, established in-ground gardens to revel in, style, and ambiance, ambiance, ambiance.

Image from Lantliv.

Image from tidsmastarinnan.

Victoria Skoglund and her husband own and operate Zeta gardens in southern Stockholm, Sweden.   It is a destination garden center full of interesting ideas and products and seems nice to visit even if just for a grand day out.   I haven’t been to Terrian yet, but I think it is in the same vein as Zeta’s and I am excited to see that perhaps garden retailers are recognizing that they need to be a bit more style trendy and that spaces filled with plants and glorious greenery, attractively displayed, are actually quite valuable.  People want to be in these types of places, so while they are hanging around, give them a reason to hang around a bit longer and serve them some food or a nice drink they can carry with them as they explore.

image by erik boralv

I find it interesting too that such a place exists in Sweden.  I have been to Sweden and there are two things I can tell you….they have enormous and vicious mosquitos and as we all know – it is a place of long winters and short growing seasons.   These are two common complaints I hear from clients when they are considering spending money on an outdoor living area.  New Englanders simply do not lead the outdoor living lifestyle I grew up with in Denver and the #1 reason is bugs, seconded by comfort of being in the garden (it can be quite humid).   New Englanders seem to prefer screened porches (often precariously and hideously tacked on to the sides of otherwise beautiful homes).  I personally find it frustrating so I am inspired by Zeta’s take on the subject.  They look at popular vacation places like Italy and France and have the same lament….so what do they advocate for recreating the outdoor living garden experience in somewhat garden hostile Sweden?

1. Lanthorns, pots and urns, 2. Odd couple at the market garden, 3. Interesting mixture, 4. All wood

…To build shelters and partition the garden into rooms.  It is one of the best ways to extend the season. Building walls inside the garden create better micro-climates that can allow users to control the environment.   A simple fan in a more confined place can provide just enough air movement to keep things cool and fresh and divert pesky bugs away (mosquitos don’t like even the slightest wind).  Walls and simple shelters can create a lot of ambiance and I think this is what is a good garden is all about…..

You may have noticed that new badge over on the right — it is for a new and exciting blogging adventure that I am involved with.  The Garden Designers Roundtable (GRDT) is a group of 20 Landscape Designers who also maintain blogs on the subject.  We have banded together to hopefully bring you a regular dose of garden inspiration from around the country (+ England) and the blogoshere.   Our schedule of topics is varied and interesting and each month about half of us will be tackling the topic.  I happen to be officially sitting this month (our first) out….but all the other posts are going live today.  Here is the line up all around the topic of foliage.

• Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA »
• Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA »
• Debbie Roberts : Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT »
• Ivette Soler : The Germinatrix : Los Angeles, CA »
• Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO
• Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX »
• Rebecca Sweet : Gossip in the Garden : Los Altos, CA »
• Shirley Bovshow : Eden Makers : Los Angeles, CA »

If you are interested in following our group more closely, you can become a fan of our facebook page and even participate in deciding what some of our upcoming subjects will be. We all hope you will find our roundtable useful and interesting.

And speaking of foliage…(this is my homage to foliage in honor of today’s Garden Designers Roundtable kick off)…I came across these awesome Leaf Magnets by Richard Hutton today— they are plastic (hopefully recycled?!?) and I have already emailed the company responsible for making them to see if I can get my hands on a few sets (they don’t seem readily available)….I am hoping I can turn my ugly black filing cabinet next to my desk into an interesting  indoor bush….maybe in late september…I can slowly introduce a few yellows and reds in honor of the season….

Are you excited for spring?….there are buds everywhere and I am going out to make a long overdue early prune of my forsythia bushes to bring inside for forcing. Did you know that Forsythia comes in other colors besides just yellow? You can look at your local nursery for white and pink flowering forsythia as well. I don’t have any, but am thinking about adding some to further brighten my spring landscape.

1. Abeliophyllum distichum, 2. white forsythia, 3. Kiss me and you will see how important I am., 4. Farewell My Winter Suit, 5. Abeliophyllum distichum, 6. Abeliophyllum distichum ‘Roseum’, 7. Abeliophyllum distichum 02, 8. Abeliophyllum distichum 01, 9. Forsythia – Yellow Bells, 10. Yellow Forsythia

I have some forsythia that came with the garden (i.e. I didn’t plant it). I haven’t properly managed it in recent years and it has continued to grow out of control and needs to be rejuvenated because it doesn’t bloom as much as it should. I am planning to prune out about a third of the old branches as soon as it is done flowering as well as cutting back the height. I am hoping that if I do this again and again each spring that I will be able to encourage a healthier more floriferous stand. Have you done this? any tips?