Words for Wednesday

A Great Companion

Did you know Nasturtiums are a great companion plant? 

Their peppery leaves fend off insects from your garden. Nasturtiums deter cucumber beetles, bean beetles, wooly aphids, white flies, and squash vine borers.  Cabbage, cucumber, and tomatoes will benefit from planting Nasturtiums in a circle around each plant.

Nasturtiums are also edible.  The flowers can be used to add color to salads and leaves will add a nice peppery bite to salads. Seeds can be used like capers.

As an added bonus, Nasturtiums can grow in poor soil and only require sun and water.  

Shade Loving Annuals

Sun Loving Annuals

Provo Residence Front Yard Stacked Rock Water Feature

This remodeled yard has the sound of water in the front yard and the backyard. The homeowner tells us that they always have people stop and get out of their cars for a closer look at this stacked rock water feature. The water feature is surrounded by shrubs and perennials for a natural look. If you would like a closer look, please click on any of the photos to enlarge.

Parade of Homes-Lindon Residence

We landscaped this beautiful home show in 2003 for Magleby Companies. It is always fun to go back to the jobs we have completed years later to see how everything in the yard has matured.

The next two pictures show one of the front corners of the house. All of the plant material has matured and filled in very nicely.

The left side of this photo gives a view of the dry creek bed.

The dry creek bed runs in front of the home. Burning bushes are great for foundation plantings and the leaves turn red in the autumn.

Raised beds add height as well as layers to the landscape.

The wisteria softens the fenceline and looks great over the custom gate.

More views of the foundation plantings.

Here is a large landscape boulder surrounded by large cobble rock. Cobble is very cost effective, because it does not need to be replaced every few years, like shredded bark does.

Landscape boulders and Rose of Sharon shrubs were used along the fenceline.

More views of the dry creek bed.

The walkout basement area has rock slab steps with a rock wall. Creeping Jenny was used to fill in the spaces between the rocks.A small planting area with annual flowers and Oregon Grape, lines the bottom layer of the boulders to add some color.

More rock wall views.

This area is just behind the backyard gate. Creeping Jenny, hostas, dogwood, and spirea was used in this bed.

More wisteria lines the backyard fence, along with roses, and perennials.

Virginia Creeper and Kelsey Dogwood line the back wall.

Backyard side of the custom gate.

Example of our work

This homeowner wanted a French garden that include herb gardens, cobble walkways and a dog run. The style is very elegant and invites people to linger outside. The use of color in the plant materials really gives a pop to the yard. I like the use of planter beds as well as different sizes and heights of pots to keep the eye moving and not just at ground level.

Outdoor living spaces can really define an area as an extention of a home. Here are two different spaces that extend the home outside. One is attached to the home and the other is detached. Both create different feelings and views of the yard that help the family use the outdoors for an extended entertaining area.

Plant materials can help define different sections of a yard as well as provide a screen between neighbors. These trees will grow above the fence line and will give a soft screen that will also provide shade to the yard. The flowers below create a dividing line from the pool area to the archway of pear trees defining the new area in a colorful and beautiful way.

If you do not like the look of concrete then the use of a pavers can help give a hardscape area without the concrete look.