I really enjoy design, so I particularly enjoy this particular part of the show where we take photographs that you send in of your property and we look at ways that we can improve the landscaping.
Today, we have a viewer from Salinas, California named Karen sending in a photograph of her house and what Karen would really like is color and low maintenance. I think those are two great objectives to try to achieve. Let’s see what we can come up with.
Karen, what I like about your house is that it has a neutral color, so it’s a great background for any color theme. You got a red colored door, so what I’m thinking is let’s play with whites and pinks for your color theme and hopefully, that will be something that you’ll enjoy.
I think you’ve got an opportunity here to maybe create an entry here with a fence that might run across here. This could be just a low picket fence that would run to the corner. These would be pickets all along like this. You could put a gate here. Because you have your path, I would create a large or little stone pad here. It’s going to be a charming gate and wooden picket.
What you might do along this edge to give yourself some room to get out of the car is plant this in lavender. It’s a really easy perennial for you to grow there in Salinas. On this fence, what if we grew new dawn or white dawn if you wanted to go with a white theme.
Let’s move from this hardscape. This idea of a fence going here and I take the corner and go across the front of the house, put a gate at the entrance and then go right on over the other property lot.
I want to point out this. We got it nice over here. We want to try to block this. Let me come up with a couple of ideas there for you. I think screening is so important and what we can do there is simply do a hedge planting that would come across like this. What I would suggest is something that does very well in your area, oleander. You could go with a pink oleander, gorgeous flowers throughout the entire growing season or you could go with a white variety and then in the front, what I would do is use a low evergreen hedge or planting and make it all the same across there.
You mentioned you had trouble with azaleas, camellias; why don’t you try escallonia which blooms pink or you might even go with an Indian Hawthorne and then either side, you can do so well with those gorgeous tree ferns, do a pair of tree ferns on each side.
An opportunity you have Karen is to do a container her and a container here on either side and if we go with these pink theme, try that vista bubblegum pink petunia. It’s a knockout and you could just imagine those spilling over here and you get that good morning sun which would be perfect for them.
We’ve got our fence. We’ve got our roses. We’ve got lavender. We’ve got colorful shrubs here and here which will be perennial and then you might even accent this entry point here and maybe in front of the tree ferns with agapanthus. It’s a great perennial for you. I love the big giant blue flowers. In this case, if you want to go with the white and pink, you just might choose the white agapanthus. Anyway, those are some ideas and I hope they’re helpful to you Karen. Good luck with your project.
Would you like to see your home featured in a makeover like you just saw in the last segment? If so, just go to pallensmith.com/virtualmakeover and send me a photograph of your house. If your house I selected, it will be featured in the future episode of the Public Television Series, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home, distributed by American Public Television. Also, on my website, you’ll find great tips on gardening, recipes and videos. Just check out pallensmith.com.
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