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I have to say, it's a lot of fun for you to send me photographs of your landscape, and
for us to look at it and come up with some ideas that might improve it. Now, today, we
have an interesting case where, Vicky, who lives in Minneapolis, has just inherited a
farmhouse in Wisconsin. And it's really charming. Now, you can see, this house is set in a rural
landscape, which is really very beautiful and green. Vicky tells me that she loves peonies
and roses. She loves a cottage garden style, and she likes native perennials. And what
I would say with this classic farmhouse --from maybe 1900 to 1920-- I thinks she's got the
perfect setup for a cottage garden. It's really quite charming. Okay, the first thing I would
do, Vicky, is think about sort of reorganizing the front. We got a broad view here, so I
can show you: You see, these are arborvitae have gotten so large here, in front of the
house. So I think you may wanna take those away, because they're dwarfing the scale of
the house. So that would be something I would think about doing immediately. There are companies
that can move these trees --those are magnificent-- and they can be used in the landscape over
here, to frame the side. If you can transplant them without altering the foundation of your
house and without great expense, then I would try to save them. Otherwise, they probably
need to go. We'll talk a moment about substitution. This tree looks like --it's a little hard
to tell-- but it looks like a Honey Locust. And what I would tend to do is at least take
off this limb and this limb and this limb and really raise the shades, if you will,
to give this more of an open and expansive look. And then, hereālet's use a different
color so we can see it. Here, it looks like a Martin Box that could be restored. And it
looks just sort of randomly placed here, in the landscape. So if you can imagine us raising
the shades here, where you can see all up under this tree, up to something like that,
we're you can see that landscape beyond. These are gone, and these are gone. And the Martin
box gets shifted over. Then you open it up, and you can really see this classic American
cottage. And, by the way, I'm crazy about the standing seam roof, and that color of
green is really soft and beautiful. So that's it, let's take a closer look at this area
over here, and think about that cottage garden. So from here, we get a little better view
of the porch. And what I'd like to suggest, Vicky, is that it looks like --probably in
the 1950s-- the post was removed, and this wrought-iron fencing was put in or the rail
around the porch. What I'd like to see you do is come back and restore the wood posts
across the front of the house, like that. If you wanna leave the railing, you can. I
would paint it a really dark green, whatever the shutter color is here, it looks like it's
black, but a dark green or a green that would work with this green would be a little more
harmonic. We talked about taking down these and getting the scale of this much more, sort
of, low, like this. And I'm seeing, maybe, a mounding 'U' here. So let me just take away
this red, to avoid any confusion. So let's pretend like those big arborvitaes are gone.
And then, as a foundation planting, you could do a spirea. A little pink-flowering spirea
would be quite beautiful. And then here, on this corner, you could plant something like
Limelight Hydrangea, which blooms beautifully in the summer. It would be creamy white against
the house. It would be a lovely combination. Now, what I would like you to think about
for this garden: Right now, I see a little, small, round garden here. Why don't we eliminate
that and think about coming out from the house, perhaps, here, with a fence that would come
out, like this. You talked about wanting these perennials. And bring the fence along here,
and the another fence here. You actually have a cottage garden. A gate here, and a path
that would come across. And underplant this with fern. All under here, with fern along
the foundation. And I would lay some stones here, and have another gate coming out onto
this side that could come around to the front of the house, like that. This could be a picket
fence that comes all the way around onto the edge. And this backside over here, I would
think about a flowering crabapple. They do so well in your part of the world. And you
could even come up here to the front, and place a crabapple here. Within this garden,
now you have a contained area where you could come in and create a bed that does like this,
with a green lawn in the center. And then in this space around here, Vicky, is where
you could fill it with all kinds of those old fashioned Perennials that you love. This
would be a classic place for roses to spill over the fence. This would be a great place
for peonies, grouping them 5 and 6 clumps together. So big groups of peonies, perhaps
in each corner, like that. Fill it with roses, iris, phlox, so many of those great, old fashioned
plants. And then, also consider some of the native Perennials that you like so much, such
as Rudbeckia. Black-eyed Susans, in other words. Or purple cone flowers are excellent.
And then, there are so many beautiful ornamental grasses that would be fabulous in this contained
garden. You keep your path from the back door all the way over to the garage entry, but
this becomes just a little garden room off to the side. Charming place, Vicky. Good luck
with it. And tell your friends about subscribing to eHow Home.