Category: Tropical Style

In the ever-changing leaves of oaks and maples into the harvesting of fall edibles, fall is a time of beauty and bounty. October is the month when all the hard work at the garden pays off, the natural world says farewell to some year with a bang of vibrant colour, and the weather is more gorgeous than it is going to be for the remainder of the year. Don’t miss it. Throw open these windows, choose long day walks and delight in the very last bounty of this yummy season!

Amy Renea

It’s the very end of this late-summer crop, so collect the bounty as you can. You may still have potatoes to crop if you planted a second batch in summertime. Mine have bloomed and are only beginning to turn brown. From the end of this month, they’ll be ready to pull out of the ground prior to a legitimate frost strikes.

Amy Renea

Hint: Together with the nights cold and the days hot and sunny, tomatoes and eggplants can endure under a blanket of burlap or other defense.

Produce a tabletop arrangement with the fall harvest

Jocelyn H. Chilvers

Seedpods are everywhere you look, and the following effects of blooming can be even more amazing than the blossoms.

Jocelyn H. Chilvers

Take pleasure in the beauty but make certain that you cut down any plants which may infest your garden with tens of thousands of unwanted plants. An area of Queen Anne’s lace seedpods is amazing to look at, but oh my, the havoc it will wreak on your summer garden next season!

Amy Renea

Still have blooms on pumpkin and gourd vines? Cut off them. At this point in the season, you want the fruit that’s already on the vine to ripen instead of fresh fruit developing. There isn’t time for fresh fruit to grow to adulthood, so give the existing pumpkins a increase by plucking those blossoms until they get started.

Amy Renea

Herbs are plentiful all fall, but they’ll disappear sooner than you can say “Jack” when frost comes knocking. Harvest mint, lemon balm (shown), rosemary and other people to keep them for winter. Dry the herbs, chop and freeze them or use them in soaps to get new herbs.

Amy Renea

Following your herbs possess dried, consider making your own tea mixes for winter. I blend stevia (shown) with numerous herbs for exceptional and cheap teas. So long as I have new herbs, though, I will brew up a batch every single day until my luck runs out.

Amy Renea

While you’re maintaining edibles, consider preserving a few blossoms too. Flat flowers like zinnias press nicely, while large bunches like hydrangeas dry well as big clumps.

D-CRAIN Design and Construction

Grasses are in all their glory in October. They seem best in drifts at which the end can ripple through them like water.

Wagner Hodgson

Trees will also be beginning to put on a display. At the beginning of the month, you’ll start to find the tiniest hint of colour.

Mid-October brings bolder and brighter screens which are as magical as they are spooky at the early-morning fog.

Obviously, the real show is in late October, when the trees wear a symphony of colour and move out in a blaze of glory. There is nothing better.

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At the tender age of 16 I had been introduced by my mom to the fan dancing — a dated, although a lot of unkind, variant of this striptease. She gave a running narrative as she broke her moves, known as, I suppose, by some maternal instinct to give me critical life skills I’d need as a grownup. The timing of her dancing tutorial was a little suspicious, but the lesson I learned has served me well.

Here is the takeaway piece from Mother’s fan dance instruction: It isn’t necessarily what you show that produces something sexy/alluring/compelling; it’s exactly what you do not show. When you get right down to it, the mere suggestion of something more to come really grabs your attention, doesn’t it? Surprisingly, this principle applies to a broad range of topics far beyond fan dancing.

Try this easy trick the next time that you would like to enthrall and engage your viewers: Don’t reveal the whole image in one glance — stimulate their imagination and draw them with a tantalizing glimpse of a part of this picture. Trust me, they’ll clamor for more.

Read on for examples of how to apply the theory to the business of landscape design.

Cary Bernstein Architect

I don’t know about you, but that framed partial view of the pool and slice of the distant mountains topped with a huge, clear skies makes me want to run out and see what lies beyond the limits of this window frame. I wonder what’s past the far side of the pool. I am compelled to go out and look over the edge.

Andrew Renn

The sumptuous curves of this garden draw you to the composition immediately. The enchanting arbor brings you into deeper and guarantees access to the garden which can be found in the distance. But without passing under that arch, crossing that threshold and rounding that last curve in the yard, you’ll never understand what’s back there.

ROOMS & BLOOMS

What lies beyond this garden gate? The glimpse of red foliage draws the attention to the garden, and the yard appears to lead beyond it to the left, inviting the viewer to research.

Margie Grace – Grace Design Associates

This”humble” door is utilized to present the viewer with a photo of the water component within the walled garden. The come-hither path brings the attention to the garden wall, throughout the door and to the garden, leading to we know not where.

Intriguing, right? (Not to belabor my point, but see the way you might think about this trick as the landscape design equivalent of a peep show?)

Shirley Bovshow

This is a joyous and beckoning path. I would like to pass through the arch, then skip down the stepstones, nip under that jacaranda tree and determine what’s back there!

Exteriorscapes llc

Here is another path you simply need to follow.The secret is to create a strong visual pull down the path without showing its own destination.

Don’t have a huge garden? Simply curve the trail beyond view to draw the eye down the path and create the illusion that there’s more garden to be discovered around the bend.

Margie Grace – Grace Design Associates

This proposal of a path invites a leisurely stroll in the woods.

Whether you heed the siren’s cry, only looking out the window and the trail gives a momentary respite from the workaday world.

Donna Lynn – Landscape Designer

Play to all the sensations to enchant your garden guests. Add a couple of aromatic plants, such as the stephanotis wrapped around this particular column. Perfume the atmosphere with a touch of orange blossom or lavender — only enough to make 1 wonder where that heavenly scent is coming out of and seek its origin.

Tip: Subtlety adds to the allure. Avoid overwhelming the senses with overpowering odor.

Aquascape

Add soothing sounds to your own garden — the murmur of trickling water, the cooing of doves, the distant notes of a wind chime — but visually downplay the origin of the sound, incorporating it in to plantings or tucking it just past the field of vision. You’ll find folks are drawn to audio.

Troy Rhone Garden Design

Look closely at this picture. It’s possible the whole composition is an illusion. Is that a glimpse of a secret garden throughout the”gate,” or is that a broken light door glazed with mirror reflecting the greenery along the edge of this path? Wonderful trick, eh?

(I adore the”protector” goats flanking the door/gate. They add a whimsical touch, making what could otherwise be an intimidating facade very approachable.)

Tongue in Cheek Antiques

Ahhh… The breezy curtains supply a peekaboo view of this intimate sitting area. I can envision myself in this setting savoring a summery vintage and good company on a sultry candlelit evening. Count me in!

More:
Garden Design Principles: Emphasis and Focal Points

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