Episode 150: Design Rules of Thumb with Stacie Crooks

Kathy Sandel has shared her gardens with us before (More of Kathy’s Calabasas Garden, Kathy’s Garden Transformation in Sacramento), but today she’s sharing the garden she created for her daughter in Sacramento, California.

IKEA

Winter is, broadly speaking, the ideal time to prune most trees and shrubs.

Aloe has many benefits — it's a natural remedy for sunburn, promotes skin health, and aids in wound healing. Use it for hair care, acne treatment, and as a makeup remover. But that's not all, it's for improving digestion, soothing minor burns, and repelling insects. You can create homemade lip balms and hand sanitizers with its gel, too. With potential health advantages like blood pressure regulation and immune system boosting, aloe is a versatile plant. Read more below!

Flowering fiesta Bright Color

Transforming your barren, coastal home landscape into a seaside oasis can be an impossible task to imagine undertaking. The constant challenges of poor, sandy soil, shifting dunes, glaring sun, strong winds, and salt spray could be enough for many to throw in the trowel. Paying attention to the microdimates around your coastal nook can help you to create the perfect Etera Shoreline View garden. The plants in this Etera signature collection are adapted to survive in well-draining, droughty soils, but it is always wise to improve the soil with healthy topsoil and compost, as well as using additional drip irrigation while the plants are getting established. Mulching the garden with compost, seaweed, or other organic material will seal the soil against moisture loss and erosion and continue to improve your garden’s bloom. The Shoreline View collection will especially benefit in a position sheltered from the wind, such as nearby a fence, wall, or hedgerow, or on the leeward side of a sand dune. A combination of smart garden techniques and sturdy Etera Perennials that thrive in tough seaside conditions allows you to garden against all odds in the surf and spray of America’s coastal villages

Pressure treated wood is created by forcing chemical preservatives into the wood cells. These preservatives- creosote, pentachlorophenol and chromated copper arsenate salts – help make the wood resistant to decay by curbing fungus and insect attacks.

DAVID CULP is a self-professed Galanthophile, a lover and passionate, longtime collector of snowdrops in all their various incarnations. He’s also a host of the annual Galanthus Gala symposium, which happens the first weekend of March in Downingtown, PA, and virtually online, too, for those of us who want to join in without even leaving home, as I did last year, and will again this time around.

Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt must be doing something right—they are one of the few success stories from The Bachelor franchise, now happily married and living together in New York City.

During the winter months many plants reveal subtle patterns, fine details, and a new range of colors that help us to see familiar beds and borders with fresh eyes. This is an excellent time to get outside, evaluate your garden’s bones, and make some plans for spring planting. In this episode Danielle, Carol, and their guest will explore some of the plants that fly a bit under the radar in winter months, but certainly deserve more attention. Do you have any of these underappreciated wonders in your landscape? If not, you may want to start digging holes as soon as the ground thaws to ensure that some of these unsung heroes get some well-deserved garden real estate. Will any of these winter beauties make it onto your wish list this year?

As the new year begins, your front porch needs to be welcoming with full of color and balance.  During the winter months, our front porch containers were planted with Red Dogwood branches and custom glass reed art, but now Spring has arrived, and we need a new beginning.

In recent years, the concept of eco-friendly house extensions has gained significant traction among homeowners. This surge in interest is driven by a growing environmental consciousness and the evolving needs of families seeking sustainable, safe, and efficient living spaces.