Curb Appeal

I've been asked to give talks next spring to 3 different garden clubs! I'm going to do it on the subject of  "Curb Appeal" and will be keeping my eye out for the qualities I look for ... repetition or unity, variety or contrast, focal point, and surprise. Perhaps you can help me with this. I have my regular haunts, but maybe there are areas that I don't see. So, contact me if you have any suggestions or want to participate!
Thanks, Jeannie

A Cottage Garden Makeover

This yard and house had a lot of unrealized charm, reminding me of a small, funky beach house. The house was in the middle of a total remodel, the yard would come next. In our initial interview the owner said her yard was a disaster! When I said cottage garden, she knew we were on the same page.

She loved plants, but didn't know how to put them together, so sometimes winded up with a hodgepodge of ill-sorted garden beds. There was also a tendency to bring all the activity up to the small house, with the result that it had a crowded feeling.

And then, there was this deep relatively unused yard.

The design we came up with utilizes the entire property, framing the living space with a picket fence and arches in the front (goodby escallonia hedge) and a generous perennial border that runs the entire perimeter. The borders closer to the house are also widened, with the result there's a more relaxed, less congested feeling. More room for cottage flowers ... iris, hollyhocks, California poppies, daylilies. She'll also have veg beds for her 3 grandchildren and herself, and can take pride in doing her part for river-friendly landscaping by reducing her lawn by 50%.

This garden will be installed by the owner, an enthusiastic, hard-working woman who just needed a bit of help to get a plan for her garden's future.

The Evolution Of A Too-Shady, Overgrown Back Yard

The homeowner and I have been working for the last year and a half to make her garden more conducive to flowering plants.

BEFORE: Overgrown, nondescript shrubs fill the raised brick planter ...

An unloved, unused, squatty tool shed occupies the opposite corner,

and, a purple-leafed plum shelters it all...blocking out the sun so the crape myrtle in the foreground is stretching up to get a bit of light, and roses have some disease problems due to lack of their requisite 6 hours a day

AFTER: The shrubs are removed from the raised planter, which is now a rose garden. New trellises will be added and either some garden sculpture or a colorful low bubbler fountain as a focal point.

The plum tree has had it's lower limbs removed and the upper branches thined out to allow more light in. The garden is still cool with nice shade, but not so forbidding

The space formerly occupied by the toolshed awaits a sitting bench. It's always nice to have a place to go, someplace that beckons you. Even if you don't use it, there's pleasure in being invited...

Bringing Light and Color into a Neglected East Sac Back Yard

The ivy in this garden had been growing without check for decades! One day the homeowner's son said, "Mom, you have no color in your yard." She looked and found it was true and decided to do something about it!

Ivy was everywhere! On the fences, up the trees, taking over the lawn...

We took out the ivy, raised the shrubs, replaced the lawn and added light ...

and color with flowering shrubs,

... and the beginnings of a perennial border.

Not only was the garden transformed, the owner became more and more interested in the garden she discovered in her own back yard.