Posts

Showing posts with the label mass planting

Getting to know Coleus - Edged Leaf vs Veined Leaf Sun vs Shade - March 2024

Image
Resist the lure of the big box nursery store.  That's something that I'm trying to live-by this Spring.  And, something I'll need to remind myself when it comes to containers.  The past few years, I've picked up some bedding annuals from the orange big box store.  Same with some of the plants that go into our various containers.  One of those has been coleus.  I've used it in containers - but not as a bedding plant where I've installed it as an annual in mass.   Here's a post about our large, rectangular front porch container from the 2021 season that includes some two-toned coleus .   Over the years, I've admired coleus as a bedding plant in some municipal applications (like in large, island beds in Downtown Downers Grove) where they've planted one variety in mass.   I also have come back a few times to this garden tour on the S&K Greenhouse YouTube Channel where Justin (the S&K Nursery guy) visits the home garden of Bruce Duncan .  Justin a

More (Mass) Layered Boxwoods - Priority Area #2 - IB2DWs Extended - February 2023

Image
Yesterday, I posted an inspiration photo of a mass planting of sculpted boxwoods planted in a three-tiered system and talked about how I could use them under the pair of Lindens in our backyard.   I haven't really done a mass (greater than 10) planting of shrubs, but I've been nosing back through the archives of Deb Silver's Dirt Simple blog for inspiration and notice that she's a big believer (and user) of mass plantings of evergreen shrubs.  Like in this post where she features A LOT of boxwoods in various beds and talks this way about their use : A restricted palette of plants, and a massed planting can be both both classical and contemporary in feeling. I really like that idea of using a mass planting with a limited number of plants and colors to be both classical and contemporary at the same time.   I've failed to put my desired garden style into words overall - I'm not a cottage gardener.  I'm not a Japanese Gardener.  I'm not a minimal gardener.