Plant, like children, benefit from a little structure in their lives.  Look through landscape design magazines and you’ll see liberal use of all sorts of structural items:  wrought iron trellises or cedar lattices providing a backdrop for a garden bed ; obelisks or bamboo tee-pees creating an exclamation point in the landscape; huge ceramic pots planted into beds, with or without a plant inside.  These features provide a context for our landscaping, and a contrast of hard surfaces against the varied textures of foliage.  Is structure a missing element in your garden?  We can give you ideas!

Ann Nickerson, a local landscape designer, will be here to talk about designing a great front yard.  Whether you are interested in improving your street appeal; making it friendlier and safer; or just reflecting more of your own unique personality – Ann will have lots of suggestions for making your front yard functional and beautiful.

This is a free class and space is limited.  We are having a tremendous response to our classes this year and ask that you register!  Drop-ins are welcome, but cannot be assured seating.  Either call us at 503-649-4568, or email events@farmingtongardens.com. 

These are challenging times, we all know.  It is a good time to protect our assets and do what we can to maintain and even improve their value.  And for most of us, our most important asset is our home.  Not only is it the center of our family life, where we make our memories together and put down roots; it is  also a significant part of our financial picture.  So it only makes sense to not only look at your home’s livability, but also to keeping its value.  Every realtor will affirm that landscaping makes a difference – we’ve all heard of  ‘curb appeal’, right? 

We are addressing these timely issues in this upcoming class on real estate and landscaping.  Ron Phillips, our landscape designer at Farmington Gardens, will be here with Vicki Burr, a real estate broker, to give you ideas for improving the value of your property through smart, careful landscaping choices.  Whether you are spiffing your place up for immediate sale, or prudently looking down the road five or ten years, they will have some great suggestions.

Feel free to bring in a few enlarged photographs of your property, if you would Ron and Vicki’s specific suggestions.  It won’t be possible to provide full landscape plans during this short class time, but you will come away with their professional on-the-spot assessments.  (Ron, of course, is available for landscape design projects, by appointment.)

This is a free class – please call to register at 503-649-4568.

Due to the popularity of the do-it-yourself landscape design class we had earlier this month, we have asked Ann to come back to do it again!  Ann Nickerson, professional landscape designer, will talk about how to design a new garden space, or improve the one you’ve got.  She will cover all the basic principles you will need.  

This class is twice as long as our regular classes, in order to be as comprehensive as possible.  You will leave knowing how to create the garden of your dreams! 

Our classes can fill up quickly, so we recommend you register:  call 503-649-4568, or email us at events@farmingtongardens.com.

Summer annuals  can provide great filler for a mixed border – sometimes you need a little something to fill in the gaps while you allow woody perennials or shrubs to fill in.  Coleus can be just what the doctor ordered.  If you’ve not taken a look at all the new varieties of coleus, then you might be surprised with what you find.  No longer is coleus relegated to the shady corners of a garden - now we have plenty of new varieties that are bred to be tough enough to stand up to the sunniest locations.   And the wide selection of dramatic colors and textures provide tons of options when combining them with other plants.  And since they are annuals, you are not committing to a long-term relationship with them – you can pop in something different next year for a new look.   Coleus makes a wonderful filler for container gardens as well.

Fine Gardening has an excellent article on designing with coleus ~ check it out for four great suggestions on using coleus in the garden, as well as how to successfully grow it.  http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/designing-with-coleus.aspx

If your backyard (or front yard!) is clamoring for some love and attention, we’ve got just the class for you!  For you do-it-yourselfers, we are offering another opportunity to learn the basics of landscape design.  We have invited back professional landscape designer Ann Nickerson, who will give a double-length class this time.  The first hour, she will talk about the important design principles you should consider, as well as things like garden styles, functions of the space, making good plant selections, and how to deal with problem areas.  After taking a break, the second hour will be a little more hands-on:  Ann will show how to take graph paper to draw out your plans; how to measure a site; and how to lay out a site plan.  By the end of class and after talking with Ann about your garden space, you should leave here with concrete plans to make your garden dreams a reality!  This class is free, but since space is limited, please call to reserve your spot – 503-649-4568.