Sweet Woodruff, Galium odoratum: “Woodland Galaxy”

The word “sweet” in its common name is a giveaway: Sweet woodruff is the galium to go for when looking to cover the ground with something sweet-natured. This low-growing perennial plant thrives in any soil but is not programmed to take over the earth. Instead, Galium odoratum will slowly spread its starry white flowers around sheltered, semi-shaded conditions. It is easily divided in spring or autumn if you want a more even cover.

Bearing a passing resemblance to its near-relation goosegrass or stickyweed (G. aparine), Galium odoratum is neither sticky nor a weed, but then, weeds mean different things to different people. It thrives in that difficult-to-solve, darkish part of the garden where a gently spreading, delicate-looking plant would probably be most welcome.

Sweet woodruff is undeniably pretty, with small white flowers that would complement a silver and white scheme in a town courtyard, with moisture and reasonable drainage. Too much sun will scorch the leaves, which are arranged in narrow whorls around the stems.

Cheat Sheet

• Attractive to pollinators through its small white flowers and scented foliage, sweet woodruff is a useful addition to an evergreen shade garden.
• Sweet woodruff is native to Europe, while gaining some popularity in the United States (where it is hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9). It is closely related to the wildflower lady’s bedstraw (Galium verum), which covers English grassland with yellow flowers. They are both “bedstraws” and smell of freshly cut hay when dried (and when mattresses were stuffed with straw, these names made perfect sense).
• Fortunately, this sweet-scented woodruff is not interesting to deer.

Keep It Alive

• Galium odoratum spreads through underground rhizomes but is easily stopped in its tracks or rerouted by lifting shallow clumps, then dividing and replanting them.
• Before art directing this ground cover, wait a couple years so that it can settle in and gather strength.
• In a “woodland” situation, the ground will ideally be damp. In dry shade, water in sweet woodruff during its first year and allow it to slowly adjust. Its presence will help combat evaporation from the soil.

Ground covers are a gardener’s secret weapon. See more ideas in Ground Covers to Plant Between Pavers and more tips in Sweet Woodruff: A Field Guide. And explore more of our curated guides to Ground Covers 101, for design and planting tips for shade lovers like Coral Bells, succulents including Echeverias and Stonecrops, and creepers such as Thyme.

Waiting for spring can make you as antsy as waiting for Christmas when you were a kid. Will it ever get here? And then it arrives suddenly…and there’s no more luxurious time to scheme or dream.

We think of winter as a gift—precious time to prepare for spring. Barb Pierson, nursery manager at White Flower Farm in Connecticut, has 10 essential tips to prepare a garden for spring. We’re on it.

Photography by Sara Barrett for Gardenista, except where noted.

1. See what’s not there.

When trees are bare and plants are dormant is the best time to study a garden’s underpinnings. “In the winter, you can see what’s missing. Are there areas where you need screening because you suddenly you notice the air conditioning unit that looks horrible?” asks Pierson.

2. Add trellises, tuteurs, and supports.

Pierson’s favorite is a white pyramid tuteur (visible in background above). See more ideas in 10 Easy Pieces: Garden Tuteurs, A Glamorous Trellis to Reflect Sunlight, and DIY Bean Trellis.

3. Help your hardscape.

4. Plant trees and shrubs.

Some ideas to consider: spring-flowering dogwoods, trees with Colorful Fall Foliage, and replacing a fence with a Hedge.

5. Place your order.

After you decide how to fill the holes, place an early order to get the best selection and prices on both specimen trees and hardscape elements.

“Last year I waited too long and for my own garden I couldn’t get the white tuteur before we sold out,” says Pierson. “I like it because it looks clean and actually becomes part of the garden design.”

6. Buy seeds.

“I like to direct-sow in spring, but it’s very important to order now or you won’t get what you want,” Pierson says. “One of my favorite vendors is Renee’s Garden. I’m ordering all my cosmos, zinnias, and sunflowers now.”

The secret to sowing seeds directly into the ground? “Raised beds are the answer because you’ll be sowing into nice, light, fluffy potting soil. If you don’t have air in soil, you’ll have problems.”

For more of our favorite sources for seeds, see Ask the Expert: 7 Tips to Grow Cut Flowers and 10 Easy Pieces: Heirloom Seeds for Spring.

7. Rehab your tools.

Now is the season when you have time to clean, oil, and repair tools. Do it. “I was just down in my basement last night to take stock, to look at my scissors and pruners and what needs to be sharpened,” says Pierson. “My gloves are a disaster; the middle finger always goes out. Anything I need to replace for the coming season, I’ll do now because I’ll get better price and availability.”

8. Prune judiciously.

9. Weed with enthusiasm.

10. Mulch for moisture.

See more pre-spring cleanup ideas tips for growing Perennials, Annuals, and Edibles in our curated Garden Design 101 guides. And if you’re taking advantage of one of the last weekends of winter to do some armchair gardening, see:

• Mulch: Monthly Garden Tip for March
• 10 Things Your Landscape Architect Wishes You Knew (But Is Too Polite to Say)
• 10 Best Garden Design Trends for 2018
• 9 Ideas to Steal from Britain’s Up-and-Coming Garden Designers

I’ve killed every succulent I’ve ever attempted to grow. Things start off well enough, but a few weeks after I bring one into my home, it starts to look spindly and sad before it gives up and dies. Despite hearing time and again about how foolproof succulents can be, I’ve never had luck. I have a hunch that I’m not the only one. Fellow succulents killers, are you out there?

Distraught about my inability to nurture a succulent in my tiny New York apartment, I took advantage of a recent trip to San Francisco to head to that city’s gardening mecca, Flora Grubb Gardens, to ask for advice: Why are my succulents dying, and how can I keep them alive?

N.B.: See our favorite hardy varieties in 10 Easy Pieces: Best Succulents.

Photography by Erin Boyle, except where noted.

1. Don’t overwater.

If you live in a wetter climate, let plants dry out thoroughly between waterings (those pillowy leaves hold moisture to use when they’re growing in the desert).

2. Let the sun shine.

3. Conduct experiments.

4. Go green.

5. Embrace old faithful.

Above: Varieties in the Crassula genus are a dependable option. A Crassula “Gollum” Jade is available from Mountain Crest Gardens for $3.95.

6. Get agave and aloe.

7. Know your colors.

8. Provide breathing space.

9. Plant in unglazed pots.

What else? Any other tips for the succulent killers among us? See more tips and container-plant design ideas for our favorite succulents:

• Succulents & Cacti 101: A Field Guide to Growing, Care & Design
• Succulents: 8 Tips to Help Your Favorite Indoor Plants Survive Winter
• 11 Ways to Keep Houseplants Happy in Winter
• Required Reading: Success with Succulents
• Echeverias 101: A Field Guide to Growing, Care & Design
• Houseplants 101: A Primer

Crocus, Crocus: “The Early Riser”

What will heaven look like when we get there? Emily Dickinson predicted a springtime Resurrection, with “the feet of people walking home” amid clumps of crocuses. We’ll be in sandals.

We love the autumn version–Crocus sativus–too. Named for the ancient Hebrew word for “saffron,” Crocus sativus produces the spice; each flower has the red threadlike stigmas you pay for so dearly at the market (it takes nearly 4,000 flowers to produce an ounce of saffron).

Cheat Sheet:

• Perennial: Grows from bulb-like corms.
• Hardy: Zones 6-8 (and 9 in the West).
• Pair it with plants that can live in snow, such as winter jasmine or snowdrops.

Keep It Alive:

• If overeager buds appear in January, cover with milk cartons to protect from cold.
• Partial to full sun.
• Water in fall if beds are very dry.

If you want to harvest your own saffron, pick Crocus sativus flowers on a sunny day and then let the stigmas dry before using them in recipes.

N.B.: For more about spring flowers, our Garden Design 101 guides including our primer on Bulbs & Tubers 101 can help answer your questions:

• Looking to plant bulbs? See Tulips 101, Daffodils 101, and Grape Hyacinths 101.
• For something to complement crocuses in an arrangement, try Hellebore 101 and Ranunculus 101.
• Forcing bulbs? See 10 Easy Pieces: Bulb Vases.

Remember when gardens were outdoors instead of on Instagram? Maybe we can compromise. I spent a couple of hours on the sofa flipping through photos (#itsajob), the modern way to travel around the world to look at beautiful gardens and houseplant collections, and came up with a bunch of ideas we should be stealing for own gardens. This means getting off the couch, of course, but I feel like I can do it if I take my phone along in case of emergency photo op.

Here are 10 ideas for indoor and outdoor gardens to steal from Instagram—for planting, repotting, painting, and putting pretty branches on the mantel.

Glossy Greenery

You can create a romantic tropical jungle in a corner, like this one in the Sheffield, England, hair salon of @kojoandlee_hair, by grouping houseplants with glossy, shiny foliage and different leaf shapes to play off each other. Suggested: bird-of-paradise, monstera, and to create a focal point, an attention hog with variegated leaves such as the Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’, shown at right; a starter plant in a four-inch pot is $17 from Plant Lust.

Perennials in Pots

For some reason, tropical plants are most likely to be treated as houseplant. But let us not overlook flowering perennials. In a garden bed you may need to mass them to make a statement. But coral bells blooming in a container is unexpected and eye-catching. Plant it in the garden, transplant to a pot when it blooms, and then—back outdoors until next year.

Trying to choose a flowering perennials to bring indoors? See our curated guide to Perennials 101 or choose a Heuchera cultivar with help from Coral Bells: A Field Guide.

Black Facades

We featured the Soot House a few months back; see more at Curb Appeal: A Classic New England Color Palette on Spruce Head in Maine.

Winter Flowers

Feathery witch hazel branches flower in late winter, when you need them most. See more at Witch Hazel: A Field Guide and find planting and design tips for more of our favorite winter-flowering shrubs at Viburnum: A Field Guide and Mahonia: A Field Guide.

Foraged Florals

See more of florist Sophia Moreno-Bunge’s adventures in Florist in Residence: My Two Months at Villa Lena In Tuscany. Foraged flowers can have the benefit of looking simultaneously wild and tamed in a vase.

Tropical Backdrops

Oversize foliage, ferns, and fronds are a dramatic foil for a tailored, controlled landscape. If you live in a warm climate, see our design guides for Tropical Plants 101, including Palms, Tree Ferns, or Proteas.

No-Mow Lawns

For alternatives to turf grass, see Fields of Green: 5 Favorite Lawn Substitutes and Hardscaping 101: Ground Covers to Plant Between Pavers.

Smudged Outlines

See more of her work at Shopper’s Diary: The Little Shop of Flowers in Tokyo and be inspired by the possibilities of flowering smoke bush to create a soft, textural cloud in a garden. See tips for growing the shrub and integrating it into a garden design at Smoke Bush: A Field Guide.

Layered Color

See more of the design duo’s work at The Guild: A Glamorous New Emporium in SoHo from Roman & Williams on Remodelista.

For tips on how to take a multilayer approach to adding color in a landscape, see Alexa’s post on 10 Garden Ideas to Steal from the Dutch Masters.

Secret Spots

Vines, climbers, and a shady corner in the shelter of a tree is a good location for a secluded shed, greenhouse, or other outbuilding. Creating a distant destination will make even the smallest garden feel spacious. Explore more of Maria’s garden at Garden Visit: At Home with Maria Dremo Sundström in Sweden.

See more garden ideas to steal:

• 10 Best Garden Design Trends for 2018
• 10 Garden Ideas to Steal from the Modernists
• 11 Ways to Add Curb Appeal for Under $100

Is a portable greenhouse the best weapon in a spring garden? My friend Kate, who grew up in Wisconsin where the growing season is very short, recommends germinating seeds in a mini greenhouse on a trolley that you can move to follow the sun. “My brother has one he wheels around his garden,” she says.

Here in northern California, Kate’s last crop of sunflower seeds mysteriously failed to germinate in the ground (“I even soaked them,” she said). This spring, she has a new plan: Planting sunflower seeds in a controlled environment, in little plug pots in a portable greenhouse to make sure they stay warm, get enough water, and bask in several hours of direct sunlight even in March.

Another thing to know about portable greenhouses? They’re adorable. Here are 10 to consider this spring.

• Hardscaping 101: Cold Frames
• The Bell Jar: Terracotta Garden Cloches
• 10 Easy Pieces: Cold Frame Greenhouses

Quince is often the first sign of spring at the flower market. I breathe a deep sigh of relief upon the first sighting. You can’t go wrong with a large glass vase full of these architectural blossoms in any room. But I wanted to go beyond the obvious and play with quince as art, by using one stem at a time, pairing it with an unexpected curry-colored vase, and floating a mass of blossoms in a modern frosted bowl. Think wabi-sabi.

Photography and styling by Chelsea Fuss.

The sheer scale of quince demands that these branches be the star of the show. Even one stem in a small vase will offer an unexpected play on scale, and a surprise to a corner of a room. Adding quince to a color-saturated, angular ceramic piece brings out the bright coral of the petals and lines of the branch.

When bringing quince inside, trim the stems at an angle, and cut upwards into the stem to make sure the branch can absorb as much water as possible. You can remove the dying blossoms to encourage new ones to open, or enjoy their beautiful decay on the stem.

Use vases that have different shapes and sizes to create a display with visual interest. The colors here work together but each vase offers a contrast, even if ever so slightly, of texture, color, and shape.

The branches offer interesting architectural lines and, when paired with a mass of blossoms, create a quintessential spring flower arrangement.

Make a grouping of vases, or use a large twig on its own for an artful, textured, display.

A bowl of quince blossoms is a quick and easy flower arrangement that will bring spring indoors.

A simple bowl of quince blossoms showcases the gorgeous pale pink and coral petals.

Pairing a tall branch with a smaller vase is an elegant surprise and enables you to appreciate the scale of the branches. It makes a statement here in a corner of my country cottage.

Find out how to grow your own in our design guide to Flowering Quince 101 and see more of our favorite spring-flowering shrubs including Forsythia and Witch Hazel in our curated guide to Shrubs 101 .

See more of Chelsea’s arrangements in our Rethinking Flowers series:

• Kalanchoe: Rethinking a Kitschy Houseplant
• Wild Violets: Rethinking Eliza Doolittle’s Favorite Flower
• Rethinking Acacia: Summery Branches to Brighten a Winter Table

When a young couple found an aging, one-bedroom cottage for sale on the east side of Seattle’s desirable Capitol Hill neighborhood, they looked past its flaws and instead at its generous, 4,800-square-foot lot—and began to imagine making a permanent home there.

First, the flaws: The couple required three bedrooms, not one, and wanted an “efficient, low-maintenance, and modern” house. The pair also missed the courtyard-style homes of their native South Africa, and prioritized indoor-outdoor flow above almost all else. Last, the lot was flanked by multiunit rental buildings (with heavy foot traffic) on both sides, and was sited on a busy arterial street with a city bus line.

The pair engaged Shed Architecture & Design to reinvent the narrow lot, so they replaced the cottage with a 2,450-square-foot, three-bedroom home with a concrete terraced front garden and privacy features at every turn. Concrete walls in front and a detached garage at back block views of the house from passersby. On the sides, which face the rental buildings, windows were added only where needed, and a concrete wall and cedar fence shield the backyard from prying eyes. The planting scheme, developed by Williamson Landscape Architecture, was designed to reference South Africa by “evoking California native shrub land, but with plants that thrive in the Pacific Northwest,” says Shed architect Thomas Schaer. Let’s take a closer look.

Photography by Rafael Soldi, courtesy of Shed Architecture & Design.

The clients “miss living in a warm climate,” says Schaer, which motivated their desire for California-style plantings. The landscape architect used low-water plants where possible.

“Creating comfortable outdoor spaces with free-flowing connections to the interior living areas was paramount,” Schaer says.

“The front terrace provides a nice position from which to survey the streetscape, while its wall shields those seated on the terrace from pedestrians below,” Schaer says.

Due to the rental properties on either side, the house is designed for interaction with the outdoors only on its ends—both the front and back walls have floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors.

The clients love to cook and they entertain frequently; the kitchen opens immediately onto the back patio for easy outdoor entertaining in good weather.

“The back deck surface feels great underfoot, and the concrete bench provides seating for a long outdoor table,” says Schaer. “The tall concrete wall extends the kitchen outward, soaks up and reflects the sun, and walls off the neighboring apartment building.”

For more elegant privacy solutions, see:

• Architect Visit: A Stylish Garden Shed with a Secret
• In Carmel-by-the-Sea, a Quietly Elegant Cottage with Vintage Appeal
• Ideas to Steal: 5 Clever Twists on Room Dividers

The little black fence is our new must-have accessory for curb appeal. We’ve long been admirers of the clean, simple lines of hog wire fences, so it’s only natural that we’ve fallen hard for the dark elegance of black wire fencing.

Did we mention that black wire fences are easy on the budget? Whether you buy standalone panels or 150-foot-long rolls, you can expect to pay less than for a typical picket, panel, or woven fence.

How best to describe the black wire fence of your dreams? Whether you call it cattle fencing, wire mesh, hog wire, or just plain stylish, here are 10 options to consider.

Wire Mesh Rolls

Wire Mesh Fence Panels

If you’re designing a new fence, installing an upgrade, or planning a repair to existing panels, see more tips and inspiration in our curated guide to Fences 101, including Hog Wire Fences, Picket Fences, and Woven Fences. For more ideas, see:

• Architects’ Secrets: 10 Ideas to Create Privacy in the Garden
• 10 Easy Pieces: Wooden Garden Gates
• Garden Hacks: 10 Ideas for Privacy Screens
• Garden Gate Design: 10 Iron Entryways with Curb Appeal

Too many people ignore curb appeal until it’s time to move. Then they spruce up the place for the next residents. How does this make sense? Every time you come home, the sight of your front door should give you the sort of euphoric endorphin rush that long-distance runners feel when they stop.

Adding curb appeal doesn’t have to be expensive. Take it one step at a time: Here are 11 ways to add instant curb appeal for $100 or less.

New House Numbers

House numbers are one of the first things to catch the eye—first-time visitors are looking for them to confirm they’re at the right address—and should set a tone for what to expect indoors as well as out. The spare, slim lines of Hillman Group 5-In Satin House Numbers (above) hint at the modern interior that lies beyond the traditional facade; $5.98 per number at Lowe’s.

Uniform Color

Architect Mark Reilly also updated the facade by changing the entry stairs and porch from brick to Brazilian black slate and by painting the building’s trim and body the same color. The paint is gray by Benjamin Moore. For more of our favorite gray exterior paints, see Shades of Gray: Architects’ 10 Top Paint Picks.

Well-Kept Gutters

Nothing says “Boo Radley lives here” like clogged gutters full of soggy leaves and the odd bit of twigs. Don’t be shy about attempting this housecleaning chore yourself. Make it pleasant by using the the World’s Loveliest Gutter Shovel, your oldest pair of waterproof garden gloves, and a bucket to fill with water to flush out the downspout.

For more tips on installing and caring for gutters, see Hardscaping 101: Rain Gutters.

Coat Hooks

If you have a mudroom or covered entryway, you can turn it a welcoming extension of your home with hooks for coats, jackets, and dog leashes. Hanging fabric instantly softens the look of a space (think: curtains).

A New Porch Light

It’s hard to go wrong with a black matte ceiling light, a versatile style that complements both modern and traditional facades. We recently rounded up our favorites, including several under $100, in 10 Easy Pieces: Black Porch Ceiling Lights. Check out more of our favorites in 10 Easy Pieces: Classic Ceiling Porch Lights.

A New Doormat

A Sailor’s Oblong Rope Doormat is $66 from Trout and Mathilda via Etsy.

Matching Planters

Flank your entryway with matching potted plants (as above) to create symmetry.

A Colorful Door

Think of your front door as jewelry for your house. It can be a little flashier than the rest of the outfit the facade is wearing. A strong color that complements wall and trim paint colors can be pleasing. (To get the look of the bright blue door above, paint color consultant Eve Ashcraft recommends Benjamin Moore’s Starry Night Blue paint in Advance Satin Finish.)

For more color ideas, see 5 Favorites: British Front Doors with Style.

A New Mailbox

If your mailbox is rusty or dented, consider replacing it with a long-lasting aluminum or steel model. See our favorites in 10 Easy Pieces: Slim Mailboxes and 10 Easy Pieces: Indestructible Mailboxes.

A Well-Behaved Hedge

Overgrown bushes that block your front windows are not a good look. Ever. Period. Shrubs should frame your windows but never hide them (unless you’re on the run from the law).

Do you live in a climate where rosemary is a perennial? You too can have an herb hedge. For more on growing and caring for rosemary, see our recent Field Guide: Rosemary. For other climates, see our Shrubs Design Guide for more ideas.

Fence Post Caps

Sparkling Windows

Washing the windows will improve the view from within as well as from the curb. Are you wondering if you can wait until spring? If your windows have cobwebs, a visible layer of dust, or dirt on the sills, you can’t. Get out there and get the job done on the next sunny autumn day. Use our all-natural cleaner with The Secret Ingredient to Make Windows Shine Bright Like a Diamond.

Window Boxes

A window box is the fastest way to add color to your facade. Update the plantings year round and you can change the look every season. Wondering where to start? For more about choosing, installing, and maintaining a window box, see Hardscaping 101: Window Boxes.

If you are inspired to spruce things up a bit, see our archives for more Curb Appeal posts and check out our curated design guides to Exteriors & Facades, Exterior Hardware, and Pavers. And on Remodelista, see Outdoors: House Numbers from A Short Walk in Cornwall.

Dead Nettles, Lamium: “Colorful Carpet”

I need to start with some honesty. Dead nettle is one of those plants that almost has everything going for it, until it doesn’t. The promise is that Lamiums are fast-growing perennial ground cover or container plants that brighten partly sunny spots and produce charming flowers. The reality is that this hardy opportunist, if left unchecked, can become unsightly and sometimes invasive.

Please keep reading to learn about this plant with a cautionary tale.

There are about 50 Lamium species in the mint family. Commonly called dead nettles because their leaves resemble stinging nettles with no ability to sting, this near-evergreen plant (in mild climates) is a low creeper; some cultivars become randomly mounded. As members of the mint family, these plants have square stems, toothy-edged leaves, and a spreading habit (read: they can go crazy). Mainly grown for their two-toned leaves, which can be frosted or marked with splashes, Lamium also sometimes surprise you in late spring or summer with flowers that are relatively small, resembling snapdragons, and in colors ranging from white to pink to purple.

Now for the dark side. There is an aggressive variety, Lamium galeobdolon ‘Variegatum’, and if you turn your back it will creep and dominate every unoccupied garden space and be a nightmare to remove. The only way to get rid of it is to diligently dig out its rhizomes. Don’t be fooled by the attractive, silver-streaked leaves and cute yellow flowers. This variety truly lives up to its invasive, mint-family reputation.

And then there’s the other types such as L. maculatum ‘Orchid Frost’, which at first boast stunning silver leaves and sweet two-lipped flowers. But then brutish slugs and snails can infiltrate and turn your plant into a mass of riddled holes or worse, a pile of mush. Prepare for the inevitable invasion by applying a pet- and wildlife-safe bait such as Sluggo ($12.16 for 2 1/2 pounds of pellets from Amazon).

Another thing to know is that although most fair best in moist conditions, dead nettles also will grow in dry shade. They do not, however, thrive in poorly drained or compacted soil and many types suffer from wintry wet soils with crown or stem rot. On the other end of the weather spectrum, in hot climates the leaves may get brown and crispy; this is when you can happily cut back the plant to stimulate new fresh growth.

Cheat Sheet

• Dead nettles create a unique tapestry beneath small trees or among plants that can stand up to the competition. Can be invasive in fertile, moist soils.
• Lamium’s attractive foliage provides interest even when flowers are not in bloom.
• Relatively fine-textured foliage combines well with plants that have large leaves such as hostas for textural contrast, and with dark-leaved plants such as burgundy-colored coral bells. Other good companions are hydrangeas, hellebores, and ferns.
• Deer resistant.

Keep It Alive

• Grow the quick-growing ground cover in moist but well-drained soil in partial or full shade. Tip: Varieties with silver leaves often need more light to maintain their color. Don’t plant near smaller plants or they may be overtaken. Dig out rhizomes to keep in bounds.
• Dead nettles are hardy perennials in USDA growing zones 4 to 10.
• Prune or shear lamium back after the first bloom to promote compact growth.
• Slugs, snails, mildew, and leaf spot are common.

If you’re looking for ground cover—to fill a shady spot, to grow under a tree, or to burst into flower in August when everything else is drooping—see our new curated design guide to Ground Covers 101, which covers Dead Nettles 101 as well as our other favorites, including Bugleweed, Coral Bells, Lungwort, and Lilyturf. For more inspiration and tips, see:

• Hardscaping 101: Ground Covers to Plant Between Pavers
• 10 Best Garden Design Trends for 2018
• Fields of Green: 5 Favorite Lawn Substitutes
• 10 Easy Pieces: The Most Magical Mosses
• Unconventional Wisdom: 8 Revolutionary Ideas for Your Garden from Thomas Rainer

Soon after graduating from college, winemaker Rosemary Cakebread and her husband, Bruce, planted a tiny cabernet sauvignon vineyard in St. Helena, California. Three decades later, after a small expansion (they bought the property next door), Rosemary’s organic vineyard, Gallica, is located on what she calls “two gravelly acres” and produces 1,000 cases of much-sought-after wine each year.

That’s the short version of the story. In the longer version, Rosemary worked her way up from early cellar jobs to a winemaking position at Spottswoode Vineyard before founding Gallica. Meanwhile, Bruce joined Cakebread Cellars and over the decades the family business grew exponentially, earning international accolades for its wines.

By the time the couple was ready to transform their two gravelly acres into a modern headquarters—and new garden—for Gallica, they had learned “exactly where the sun rises on the property and exactly where it sets,” she says. To take advantage of the site’s setting and the property’s 360-degree views of the surrounding Napa Valley, the Cakesbreads built a strategically oriented barn and guesthouse. Let’s take a tour.

Photography by Mimi Giboin.

A dry creek serves a dual purpose: It directs the flow of rainwater and creates a striking visual element in the landscape. In the background a redwood tree, which was on the site when the Cakebreads bought the land, is the property’s tallest tree.

The property also has another, larger house but “every time we come over to the guesthouse, we think maybe some day we’ll come to live in this smaller setting,” says Rosemary. The barn houses her office and equipment for the vineyard.

Landscape architect Jonathan Plant created an environmentally friendly garden with low-water plants (which thrive in the dry Napa climate) and Raul Hurtado Landscaping oversaw the garden’s construction and planting.

“We made our little creek bed to make a place for the rainwater to go,” says Cakebread. “In 2017, when we had a lot of rainfall, we learned that it works well.”

Landscape lights are Tiki Path Lights by WAC Lighting. “We bought those ourselves,” Rosemary says. “We’ve lived on the property for a long time, so we knew how we would be coming and going, especially at night.”

If you’re designing a low-water landscape or want to make an existing landscape more environmentally friendly, start with our curated Hardscape 101 guides for Decks & Patios, Gravel Gardens, and Succulents & Cacti 101. For more of our favorite drought-tolerant gardens, see:

• Unconventional Wisdom: 8 Revolutionary Ideas for Your Garden from Thomas Rainer
• 10 Best Garden Design Trends for 2018
• Garden Visit: A 1950s Ranch-Style House Goes Modern in Northern California
• Expert Advice: 11 Tips for Gravel Garden Design

Nothing concludes a satisfying stint in the yard like neatly wrapping up the hose. But a tranquil afternoon of gardening can deteriorate into a sweaty wrestling match if you have to manhandle 100 feet of synthetic rubber onto a hose holder. With a manually rewinding hose reel, a few turns of the crank zips the hose back into place like Lady (or the Tramp) sucking in a spaghetti strand. For durability and style, choose a metal version, like the 11 fine specimens below.

Don’t need a crank? See other tricks for detangling garden hoses:

• Glamour in the Garden: Haute Couture Hoses from Sweden
• 20 Gardenista Favorites to Source on Amazon
• 10 Easy Pieces: Hose Hangers, from High to Low
• Outfit your hose as well; see 5 Favorites: Garden Hose Taps.

Anyone who has seen a hellebore in a garden understands why these charming flowers have recently surged in popularity to become a sought-after ingredient in bridal bouquets, a must-have perennial in a shady bed, and the darlings of Instagram.

With sweetly nodding heads, moody colors, and their willingness to bloom in winter when everything around them looks like dead sticks, hellebores are fairly perfect. With one exception. They make terrible cut flowers. Notorious for drooping, wilting, sulking, and otherwise behaving terribly, many hellebores last less than 24 hours indoors. This is unacceptable.

Are there ways to help hellebores last longer in a vase? The other day I decided to find out, conducting an experiment with flowers I cut from my own garden. Here’s what I learned.

Photography by Mimi Giboin for Gardenista.

Which hellebores last longest as cut flowers?

The conventional wisdom is that the greatest predictor of a hellebore’s life span is its stage of development at the time you cut it. Many growers and florists say a mature flower—one with a visible seed pod that has dropped its stamens—will last longer.

Can conventional wisdom be trusted? I headed outdoors, where a patch of mixed hellebores bloom in a shady spot near the front door. My plan was to cut both immature and mature specimens of every variety of Helleborus in my garden.

How do you know if a hellebore is mature or immature?

Even after a flower finishes blooming, the sepals will stay on the stalk and continue to “bloom,” which is why hellebores are prized for having a long season of color.

Will some Helleborus cultivars last longer?

To try to answer that question, I cut as many different cultivars of hellebores as were blooming.

A note about hellebores: There are nearly two dozen species—and of those, many cultivars—and I wish I had more types growing in my garden. I want them all, really. There are double-flowered hellebores, for instance, unspeakably beautiful, which I might want most. There are speckled hellebores and striped hellebores and white hellebores delicately edged in purple.

But my tests were limited to a small selection in my garden—all cultivars commonly sold in northern California. For a world-class collection (including 82 of its own hybrids), browse Ashwood Nurseries in the United Kingdom. In the US, Virginia-based Pine Knot Farms has a large selection of hellebores.

How do you condition cut flowers?

After I took the cut flowers indoors, the next step was to prepare them for their new home: vases.

Before florists arrange flowers, they condition the plant material. The general rules for conditioning are (1) strip leaves off the bottom two-thirds of a stem (so you don’t have errant leaves rotting underwater in a vase); (2) make a fresh, angled cut at the bottom of each stem to make it easier for flowers to drink water, and (3) leave flowers in a cool, dark place (in clean water) for a few hours or overnight to acclimatize them.

For special cases—and hellebores fall into this category—there is lots of advice about extra steps one could take before arranging them. Some florists stick pins in their stems. Others swear by the boiling water method, in which each stem is dipped into a hot pot for 30 seconds to “seal” it. Still others recommend a further step to take; after dipping them in water “slit them carefully right up their length, almost to the flower head at the top,” suggests UK-based gardening writer Robin Fox Lane. “Then, stand the slit stems in cold water right up to the flower and leave them overnight.”

I guess I could do all that. Once. But I am hoping to regularly bring hellebores inside to arrange as cut flowers, without having to dedicate hours to fussing with them. So I followed general guidelines but skipped the boiling and the slitting.

What tips are there to make hellebores last longer?

First, to summarize the variables for this experiment:

• I cut both immature and mature flowers to compare their staying power.
• I cut a variety of cultivars.
• I followed general guidelines for conditioning flowers but skipped the extra steps (no boiling water, no slit stems).

And I discovered…

The hellebore that lasted the longest in a vase was ‘Merlin’. The deeper the shade of purple, the longer it lasted.

In this instance, the specific cultivar was a better predictor of longevity than the stage of development of the flowers. Would this be true across the board if I could test every hellebore in the world? I only wish I could.

To see more hellebores in action, see our Garden Design 101 guide to Hellebores. And browse our archives:

• Gardening 101: Hellebore.
• 5 Favorites: Hardworking Hellebores that Bloom in the Snow.
• DIY: Seasonal Bouquet for Valentine’s Day.

If anyone other than my friend Amy Lindburg wanted to buy a Victorian two-flat in San Francisco in “almost original condition” with knob-and-tube electrical wiring and no central heat, I would have pointed out that the situation could easily become the sort of costly nightmare not seen since Mr. Blandings built his dream house.

But anyone who knows Amy knows she is extremely effective. And daring. She was a hardware engineer at Apple at a time when there were practically no female engineers anywhere. She’ll take her family on a two-week trip to eastern Europe without booking a hotel room until the day she arrives (and has never had any problems). When she says she is going to do anything—from playing the French horn in the local orchestra to shipping virtual computer environments ahead of schedule—you can consider it done.

So when Amy said she was going to buy a house in extreme vintage condition, remodel it, and live on the top floor with her three children, I had no doubt the project would be a huge success. (Wait until you see the kitchen on Remodelista.) Painting the facade the deepest, darkest shade of blue was a risk. Here’s how it turned out.

Photography by Daniel Dent for Gardenista, except where noted.

It seems obvious now, this elegant paint palette. But when Amy bought the house a little more than a year ago, the facade’s future was less clear…

Before

The conventional wisdom is that if you want something to appear bigger, paint it a light color. But in this case, the off-white, two-story house looks diminished, almost as if it’s shrugging in defeat between its two taller neighbors.

The problem with paint swatches? They all look alike.

Amy bought samples of each of the five blue paints so she could paint large swaths of color directly on the facade of the house.

It was clear to Amy that a single dark color for body and trim would would unify the facade and give it a stronger presence. She also decided to paint the building’s lower-level details—including the garage doors, entryway doors, front stairs, and fence—a glossy black to ground the house.

After

And the winner is … Polo Blue. Depending on the time of day and the ratio of sunlight to fog (this is San Francisco, after all), Amy’s house can appear to be nearly black, navy blue, or a deep jewel tone—as on the winter afternoon when this photo was shot.

To emphasize the rich tones of the paint palette, Amy added warm gold and brass accents:

If you’re considering a paint job, see our curated guide to Exteriors & Facades 101, including Black Magic: Architects’ 8 Top Paint Picks. And see more of our favorite Before & After projects:

• Before & After: A Modern Townhouse Garden in Brooklyn
• Before & After: Fresh Paint and New Scandinavian Style for a Sunroom
• Before & After: An “Ugly Duckling” Landscape Transformed, in NY’s Hudson Valley

The yearbook at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, is called The Ivy, named after the ivy-covered buildings on the quadrangle. When I arrived there for my junior year, the fustian towers had been recently stripped of their evergreen vines; a pity since they must have been built with ivy in mind. College gothic is nothing without ivy.

Although ivy continues to be treated with hostility, a study carried out between Oxford University and English Heritage in 2010 found that Hedera helix provides a thermal covering for walls and can be useful in protecting old buildings. The host needs to be strong, and the ivy kept in check but otherwise, complete removal is no longer urgently advised (to say nothing of its benefits to wildlife for food and shelter). If you are planting ivy, though, we suggest that you choose one of the more interesting varieties.

Photography by Britt Willoughby Dyer for Gardenista.

Hedera helix ‘Tripod’

Choose exaggeratedly long and pointed-leaf ivy, as seen in Irish hedgerows or German fairytales. They draw attention from a frankly not very beautiful wall, while moving in unpredictable directions. Hedera helix ‘Tripod’ is not a thug.

Ivy lives symbiotically with trees in sheltered conditions, like a hedgerow or woodland. It has its roots planted firmly in the ground and is not a parasite. Aesthetically, a dark blob blurring the lines of a good deciduous tree might not be your cup of tea, however. Overgrown ivy in a canopy is unhelpful in winter, adding to wind resistance and the possibility of the tree coming down. A balanced approach is needed; cut woody monsters at the stem, while making amends by planting controllable ivy over doorways and along sturdy walls. There are hundreds to choose from, many slow-growing.

Ivy’s benefits for wildlife outweigh its drawbacks in a garden. As pollinators begin to run out of food in autumn and early winter, the sputnik flowers of mature ivy are rich in pollen and nectar. On a warm day, ivy seems to buzz, a magnet for the ivy bee and more. Later, dark berries with a high fat content are beneficial to thrushes and blackbirds, who don’t join in with the smaller birds on hanging feeders. The “mess” of leaves provides excellent cover for invertebrates, some of which are eaten by birds. Ivy feeds specific and rare creatures such as golden hoverfly, holly blue butterfly, and swallow-tailed moth.

For the benefits of shaggy gardens, see Can We Please Be Less Fanatically Tidy?

Hedera helix ‘Carolina Crinkle’

Hedera helix ‘Tussie Mussie’

Ivy ‘Tussie Mussie’ looks as though it belongs in an Edwardian glasshouse. It benefits from being displayed as a specimen, on a columnar support, rather than being expected to cover a vertical flat plane.

Hedera helix ‘Golden Curl’

Hedera algeriensis ‘Gloire de Marengo’

Algerian ivy has more restrained coloring and a good arrow-heart shape; it would form an elegant backdrop in an urban garden. It holds an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society and is fairly vigorous, reaching a height of about 10 feet.

Hedera helix ‘Parsley Crested’

Hedera maroccana ‘Spanish Canary’

Ivy is useful in containers when young. At this stage it is pliable, with fresh green growth, becoming mature and woody on reaching its full height or destination (it is at this stage that it gets into gear to flower as well). Hedera maroccana ‘Spanish Canary’ can be grown in a conservatory or outdoors with frost protection. Dangling or climbing, it is dramatic.

Ivy is an excellent houseplant, the best air purifier among the evergreens. A small version of the ivy shown here, with a confusingly similar name, is Hedera canariensis ‘Spanish Canary’.

Hedera colchica ‘Sulphur Heart’

Quick to cover walls or ground, self-clinging Persian ivy needs careful consideration before planting, as it will keep going up to about 16 feet.

Hedera helix ‘Smithii’

Hedera pastuchovii ‘Ann Ala’

Collected by botanist Roy Lancaster near the Caspian Sea and named after his guide, this dagger-shaped ivy is quite vigorous at 13 feet. Its unusual leaves would complement the textures of other evergreens such as ferns or pines.

Hedera helix ‘Saint Agnes’

Ivy is the plant favored by Bacchus, god of wine; it was invested with the power of preventing drunkenness. As a wreath, it adorned the heads of Romans who had attained intellectual or sporting prowess. All the more reason, surely, to bring it back to the college campus.

See more tips for growing and caring for ivies in Ivy: A Field Guide and more about our other favorite Vines & Climbers in Jasmine 101, Creeping Fig: A Field Guide, and Bougainvillea 101. For more ways to use vines and climbers in your garden, see:

• Alternatives to Ivy: Vertical Growers
• Gardening in Paradise: 10 Ideas to Steal from Key West
• The Ivy League: An Artist’s Welding Workshop Covered in Vines in Upstate NY

Finally, get more ideas on how to plant, grow, and care for various vines and climbers with our Vines & Climbers: A Field Guide.

When designing a garden for a client, I consider every piece in the puzzle: the homeowner, the location of the house, the architecture, the current landscape, the hardscape—and the driveway. While a driveway may seem like an unglamorous aspect of the overall design (on a par with say, drainage), a driveway actually is one of the most important elements in a landscape. Why? Not only is it used every day, but a driveway also is integral to creating curb appeal.

An attractive driveway will increase resale value if a homeowner ever wishes to sell—and in the meantime will welcome you home every day. When it comes to designing a driveway, one of the most important choices is the material underfoot (or in this case, under the wheels). Please keep reading to learn more about the most versatile paving materials and to figure out which is best for your driveway.

What are the best materials to pave a driveway?

The most common materials to pave a driveway are poured concrete, asphalt, pavers, and gravel. Which is right for you? Each material has pros and cons: All driveways age and deteriorate, and some show signs of needing a facelift sooner than others, depending on how harsh the elements are, how much use a driveway gets, and whether the job was done correctly in the first place. With that said, some pavement choices are better for certain climates, architectural styles, and budgets.

Always start your materials exploration by keeping your climate and your budget in mind. This will expedite your decision-making and keep you on track.

Poured Concrete

Concrete is made by mixing cement with various aggregates (sand, gravel, and rocks) with water and then allowing this mixture to cure. A favored sturdy and long-lasting material, concrete works well with most architectural styles because of its ability to be customized.

Concrete Driveways: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Concrete is durable and easy to maintain.
• Decorative options are available for concrete, including staining and stamping.
• Concrete can be cheaper than stone pavers (but is more expensive than asphalt).
• Contemporary houses routinely have concrete driveways as a design element to unify the space.
• Strong geometric shapes can be formed and poured for a custom, modern look.

Cons:

• Concrete requires proper site preparation and framing before pouring.
• Concrete can be disturbed or cracked by nearby tree roots.

Asphalt

An asphalt driveway is a combination of aggregate (sand, stone, and gravel) mixed with liquid asphalt cement (a petroleum product). While the mixture is hot and unbelievably stinky, it is delivered to your home and applied to a sub-grade. Asphalt is a very common choice, especially in snowy regions where snow removal is required or in situations with a tight budget.

Asphalt Driveways: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Asphalt is very economical.
• It is less susceptible than concrete to cracking from frost heaves.
• It makes snow removal easier.
• If damaged or worn, asphalt can be relayered.

Cons:

• Asphalt is a high-maintenance material because of its tendency to crack if not properly sealed.
• Needs to be routinely sealed, every three to five years.

Pavers

Pavers come in a variety of styles: cobblestone, brick, and precast concrete. Tip: Bricks are the least durable and cobblestones are the most durable. Concrete pavers can create a stronger driveway than poured concrete. If you want to create an old-world look, cobblestones are a good choice. However, if you own a brick home or already have brick walkways and patios, brick pavers will integrate better.

Pros:

• A variety of patterns, colors, and sizes of pavers are available.
• If one piece gets damaged it can be replaced individually, so you don’t have to repair an entire driveway.
• Concrete pavers are typically interlocking, which makes for speedy installation and a strong surface.

Cons:

• Cobblestones, in particular, make snow removal harder because of the unevenness.
• Pavers can be a pricier choice.
• Some patterns and designs can look dated over time.
• Disturbance from tree roots can be challenging to pavers.

Gravel

In general there are two types used: traditional gravel and crushed granite. Crushed granite is finer and more stable. In some areas—especially rural areas—traditional gravel driveways are economical and popular.

Gravel Driveways: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• A rainbow of different colors is available.
• Gravel requires minimal maintenance besides regrading and occasional weeding.
• Unlike solid materials such as asphalt or concrete, gravel (including decomposed granite) is more eco-friendly because its permeability encourages excess water to percolate back into the ground water supply.
• Gravel resists cracking or sinking.
• An option that is a more natural alternative to concrete and asphalt is to add a stabilizer to crushed granite to produce a more solid but still rustic surface. This additive is more expensive than loose crushed granite, but still less expensive than decorative concrete or pavers.

Cons:

• Scattered gravel can look messy and be a total nuisance.
• Additional gravel may be need as the material disperses or is removed by tires or water runoff, especially on slopes.
• Loose crushed granite also can be tracked indoors on shoes and can damage hardwood floors.
• If snow removal machinery is needed, some loose gravel may be removed during the process.

Is installing a driveway a DIY project?

Installing a driveway is best left to the pros, but you should be included in the design process. Doing research ahead of time regarding materials and finding reputable contractors is key. We hope the information provided here is a springboard to get you researching and designing.

If you’re embarking on a landscape projects, see our Hardscape 101 design guides, including Gravel 101. For more inspiration, see:

• Ask the Expert: 8 Ways to Add Pattern to a Landscape
• 10 Genius Garden Hacks with Concrete
• Hardscaping 101: Ribbon Driveways

So much of garden-making is in the long game. Waiting for plants to fill out and to reach their potential can take years. But for anyone with a bare patch of soil or a blank slate of a garden, it’s perfectly possible to create something not only beautiful but also low-maintenance and sometimes budget-friendly in just a few months. This is essentially the idea behind Lucy Bellamy’s new book, Brilliant & Wild: A Garden from Scratch in a Year–a simple guide for total beginners who want to achieve a wildlife friendly haven rich in color and form.

Photography by Jason Ingram, courtesy of Brilliant & Wild.

Bellamy’s book is chiefly inspired by the low-maintenance and long seasonal interest of the New Perennial Movement, whose chief proponents, including Dutch designer Piet Oudolf, create extraordinarily beautiful gardens and landscapes using naturalistic swathe or seemingly random matrices of contrasting or complementary plants.

Bellamy breaks it all down for the novice—a garden with less watering, less weeding, less work: what’s not to love? This isn’t an instant garden, exactly. Even these sorts of fast-growing perennials will fill out and multiply over time, but it’s definitely a garden of quick gratification and one that can work on almost any scale. The smallest backyard patch can be given over to a meadow of luscious perennials that will draw you outside or which you can admire from indoors.

A useful directory flags some of the best plants for this type of scheme, and to create a successful design it’s important to understand the different forms of each. Umbellifers (including the gorgeous Anthriscus ‘Ravenswing’ or the pincushion blooms of Astrantia); spikes (including colorful spears of Agastache, salvias, or Veronicastrum), or dots (the cheery bobble heads of Knautia, heleniums, or Echinops) are all listed within their groups.

For each plant, Bellamy includes a botanical profile with the best species to choose and details about how they grow, where they look best in the garden, and what other plants will make good companions.

By being very selective, Bellamy gives us a range of plants that will work with all the others in various combinations. With simple sketches, she shows us how to make the scheme work using groups, repetition, or simple matrix designs.

After you’ve cut it all back in late winter, you can make way for a succession of spring bulbs that will bring a joyous array of color to the garden before the perennials really get going in late spring.

For more of our favorite gardening books, see:

• The 10 Books Every Gardener Should Read
• Alexa’s Library: 9 Favorite Classic Garden Books
• And browse our Required Reading archives for more of our 2018 book reviews, including The Less Is More Garden and Designing with Palms.

Do they call it a “gut renovation” because it can be gut-wrenching? A kitchen remodel need not upset one’s equilibrium. This week the Remodelista editors tracked down new design trends (and checked in on some of their favorite go-to strategies). Here are five design ideas to explore for a kitchen remodel.

6 Cabinet Styles to Know

“Type ‘cabinet styles’ into Google Images (like we did) and you’ll get an array of glossy, dated-looking wood cabinets with ornate arches, louvered doors, some even with inset stained glass,” writes our contributor Barbara Peck. “We’ve narrowed down the options. As far as we’re concerned, these are the only six cabinet styles you need to know: glass-front, Shaker-style, beadboard, flat-front, plywood, and natural (that is, unfinished) wood.”

Custom Commercial-Style Refrigerators

Freestanding Storage

Ceiling-Mount Range Hoods

Ikea Cabinets with Custom Fronts

Handwritten letters may be an endangered species but a slim, elegant mail slot (or maybe you say “letter plate?”) will always be a stylish accessory for the well-dressed front door.

We’re rounded up 10 of our favorite mail slots—from classic styles to sleek, modern lozenges—in a variety of finishes for your consideration. Junk mailers, take note: If your bulky catalogs don’t fit through the door, it’s no accident.

Is the concept of “mail” old-fashioned? We hope not. Here are more of our favorite mailboxes to encourage handwritten letters, postcards, and the occasional love note:

• 10 Easy Pieces: Slim Mailboxes
• Curb Appeal: A Custom Mailbox with Style to Spare
• 10 Easy Pieces: Indestructible Mailboxes
• Thinking about upping your Curb Appeal game? See our curated Hardscape 101 design guides to Exterior Hardware 101, Pavers, and Exteriors & Facades.