A Better Fall for Gardening and Reading

Hello, we have a beautiful fall ahead of us here in the US and that means it’s the perfect time to work in the garden. Although for many of us it’s been summer like weather that has been perfect to work on the yard.

Since I started writing this newsletter, I’ve been reading other newsletters to see what they have to say. Hoping to get ideas about what people want to read about. Ninety-five percent of what I read feels beginner-oriented and dull.

“Planning ahead will save you time and money.” Of course. That’s true for almost everything. We know we’re supposed to plan ahead, but have you ever been to a garden center full of beautiful plants and flowers? Those have to come home with me. They aren’t meant to sit on tables or in crates, they belong in my yard. They need to be adopted. No, I didn’t plan a space or think about how hard they will be to maintain. I’ll make it work.

This is the fun of gardening. The stuff I talk about below is the practical side. Before you read it, remember that I get you. I know who you are. I understand that much of gardening is about how it makes you feel and the joy of spur-of-the-moment purchases. These tips are simply reminders, so don’t feel bad.

Most newsletters and blogs exist only to make money. Every word and every ad is there to sell, not to inform or entertain. I have made, let me count…………zero dollars…so far. I understand why people have started concentrating on Instagram reels. A good reel tells a story quickly and is more enjoyable than a flat, predictable newsletter trying to sell. I put a lot of work and thought in my signup because they say getting people to sign up is the hardest part. Turns out, the hardest part is keeping up with the incredible video content that is out there right now. So many fun and creative people.

Why I Started This Newsletter

I started this gardening newsletter to show the side of the grower and the garden center that most people never hear.

For 30 years I’ve listened to customers talk about what they wanted and how it worked out. I saw the problems and the results. As a grower and retailer, it’s not about what you want, it’s about what your customer wants. Your job is to grow a strong plant, offer quality products, and stay close enough to your customers to know what they’ll want next.

That could mean bringing in plants that match changing landscapes and lifestyles or staying ahead of new trends while still offering timeless favorites.

Today I’m sharing my own Design 101. It’s different from most garden design articles and it could apply to home design too. Here we go.

The First Thing You See

There’s a reason we talk about first impressions. When someone comes to your home or drives by, they use the landscape to judge who lives inside the home. Obviously not always true, but the chances of someone having a weedy and wild front yard and a spotless inside of their home are slim to none. They almost always have a pet too. I know this sounds judgmental because it is. But if it’s right 90% of the time, what is it?

Some people say you become blind to things you see every day. I agree for the most part but if you see something that bothers you, you can never unsee it.

If you see a part of your landscape every day and dislike it, it will bother you endlessly. That’s why one of the most important parts of your home landscape is what you see when you pull in or out of the driveway.

You don’t have to make it perfect, but you can’t get it wrong. When I work with a customer and they question anything in view as they pull in and out of their driveway, I want it fixed until it’s right. “It will be fine” isn’t enough.

I want every tree to stand straight, but the most important view is from the driveway and when you drive past the house. I want to smile every time I come home. I want to be proud as I pull in. A landscape should bring pleasure as you come home, not a reminder of what needs to be done. We have enough “needs to be done”.

Not everyone cares about this, and that’s fine. But if you’ve decided you want your front landscape to look great, start with what you see first. Start with what you care about first and then work on showcasing your yard to the masses.

(I just talked about ads and then throw one in immediately. I’m such a hypocrite)

Bring the View Inside

When I design a landscape, I focus on what you will see from key spots inside the house.
The kitchen window above the sink.
The chair where you watch TV.
The dining table.

These are the places where you spend the most daylight hours. Nothing is more satisfying than looking out those windows and seeing a beautiful garden or well-planned landscape.

Block What You Don’t Want to See

What you don’t see matters just as much. If you can’t afford a full hedge or a long privacy screen, invest in key sight lines. Four well-placed evergreens between your family room and the neighbor’s house can make all the difference. You can add the rest as your budget allows.

You want to enjoy the quiet of your backyard without pulling the blinds every time you want a little privacy to dance around like Tom Cruise in your underwear (maybe that’s just me).

Make It Easy to Care For

I like to have things that may require my attention or more frequent care, my garden beds, my special pots, right outside my kitchen window.
It might sound small, but it’s convenient to spot when a plant needs water or a little care. Not every layout allows for it, but when it works, you can enjoy the view and stay on top of the chores that keep it beautiful.

Sun, Shade, and House Direction

This might be late advice for most, but a house with a north-facing front and most of the high-use rooms on the south side, is ideal.

That setup means the house catches a lot of south sun in the winter.
“Doesn’t that make it too hot in the summer?”

Not if you plant wisely. The summer sun sits higher in the sky, so it doesn’t pour directly through south windows. A few well-placed trees create natural shade. In winter, when the leaves drop and the sun hangs lower, light comes in and warms the house.

It’s a double bonus: cooler in summer, bright and warm in winter. South windows also make it easier to grow indoor plants that love light.

This new home below is designed perfectly as described. The house faces east and today’s homes normally would put the living room on the back side of the facing west. Using the back side as privacy. Instead, the builder took advantage of the south sun and placed the main family room facing south with nice, big windows. Yes, there will be a home eventually next door but there is plenty of lot between them. Add a nice tree there and you have exactly what I described above. Cool summers with light and warm winters with light.

Distractions That Work

One of my favorite tricks for a “bad” section of the yard is what I call a distraction. People have used distractions for centuries to take your eye away from problems.

A distraction is something so striking that it pulls the eye away from what you’d rather not highlight. Every yard has a spot that isn’t perfect, maybe it’s between blooms, a little plain, or just needs more work.

Instant Color with Annuals

My go-to distraction is a bold pot filled with annuals. This year I used black pots.
Annuals are cheat codes if you water them well. They explode with color, fill in fast, and can turn a bland corner into a focal point almost overnight.

I keep a few pots that I move around the yard and drop into visually dead areas. All anyone sees is the pot. I use this more in the front yard because that’s what neighbors and visitors notice first.

Some might say it’s about caring too much what others think. Maybe. But I’ve run a nursery for decades and I do have a reputation to uphold. I can only lean on the “cobbler’s son has no shoes” excuse for so long. Especially now that I’m retired and can’t claim I’m too busy running the place.

You can’t see the pots this late in the season but there are 3 pots here. All filled with annuals. Gives it height and color and filled a dead spot that I haven’t decided what to do with. It looks full and nice despite it being neither if they were removed

I did the same by buying one GIANT mum and placing it on the corner. Tons of color and did nothing but put it on the ground . $20 takes my landscape all the way into winter with color and I didn’t have to use a shovel. Buying my way out of work.

Reliable Fillers

Another quick win for an area I know I won’t reach right away is canna.
They grow tall, bloom with bold color, and fill space fast. Just remember to plan for them in the spring when they’re easy to find. It’s one of the simplest and least expensive ways to add a big splash of beauty.

Calculated Maintenance

One of the first things I ask a customer isn’t how much they want to spend.
I ask how much maintenance they can do.

The answer is almost always the same: “as little as possible” or “none.”
Anyone with a good garden or landscape knows that’s not how it works.

What Planning Really Means

Good planning and the right plants lower maintenance and cost. That’s why so many articles preach “proper planning.” The problem is they rarely explain what that really means.

It means deciding what to plant, how much to plant, and how to care for it so it stays as beautiful as the day you planted it. Nothing is more frustrating than spending time and money only to watch a bed decline into something worse than when you started.

A well-edged bed with mulch and no plants still looks better than one with grass creeping in and half-dead shrubs. That’s the opposite of a distraction, it draws every eye to failure.

Right Plants, Right Scale

You’ll hear a lot about “going native,” which is fine, but what you really want are beds prepared with hardy plants that bloom well, cover space effectively, and fit your ability to maintain them.

Only install as much landscape as you can manage. Once the first section is established and requires less attention, add another.

Yes, there’s time and cost savings when you do everything at once, but you can still start smart:

• Define all the edges

• Plant the trees and anchor plants

• Leave open areas for future planting

Keep those spaces neatly mulched or rocked. It’s clean and attractive and gives you room to improve later, like buying a few quality pieces of furniture and leaving some rooms empty rather than filling the whole house with cheap pressboard.

_{From Ordinary Front to Extraordinary Back}

To me, there is nothing more spectacular than going into a backyard and being wowed. I recently went on a garden walk where the front yard was nice. Nothing out of the ordinary. Clean-edged beds, nicely maintained, but with ordinary plantings and variety. Then I reached the backyard and was flabbergasted. I realize it was peaked out for the garden walk, but even without that, it was a gardener’s paradise.

It did not have a ton of maintenance, yet it was full of perennials and specimen plants. Anchor plants had clearly been hand chosen to fit perfectly in the space. There was no dead space, so weeds had no place to grow. It was the kind of space everyone wants but few are willing to spend the money and time to create. Visiting the yard was inspiring and showed something anyone can do. I guarantee people often spend more than they had, yet the difference here was great plants and a great design.

A landscape designer can do that too and is usually the best place to start. But no designer can have every spot accounted for because that takes coming back to fill in or remove things that do not work. A landscape plan gets you good or great, but a plant lover doing it can make it breathtaking.

None of this is to disparage anyone’s landscape. It is simply a reminder that little things can make a big difference. Inch by inch, a garden is a cinch. Give yourself a success. Create a small section that you love and are proud of. Take it in, then expand on it.

Too often we see a beautiful garden and assume it has a full-time staff. Then we learn it is tended by an 80-year-old woman who spends a few hours on the weekend and 15 minutes a day during the week tidying up. The best gardens are created by people who love their garden.

Hopefully I can help with tips and inspiration to help you love yours.

A Picture is Worth a Hundred Words

As always, HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND and thanks for reading…..pass this on to a friend if you think they will enjoy it. We added a bunch of readers last week so thank you everyone for the forwards. I’ll keep at it if you keep reading.



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