Simple Details: July 2018

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

My Five Favorites - Garden Plants, Products & A Crazy Tip

Hey friends, hope you're having an awesome summer and taking advantage of
being outside. Anyone else love early mornings and late evenings on the patio? It's
time for another round of My Five Favorites and this month we're all about the garden,
sharing our most loved plants, products and tips for keeping it all looking good.
Be sure to check out my pals' favorites, too:

Kris @ Driven by Decor

Lisa @ Shine Your Light

Jennifer @ Dimples & Tangles

I know you'll love our guest this month, Kelly Elko, she has a great sense of humor
and check out her green thumb! On her blog she shares some great tips on growing beauties
like these hydrangeas! Kelly has an obsession with classic old homes, her IG feed is a
treat if you share in her fondness! :)

#1 - Faux Flowers

I know what you're thinking, but hear me out!
Last year we were having a group over for dinner and as luck would have it my
geraniums had just bloomed and I was left with a nice collection of pretty buds!
I noticed some colorful faux flowers at Hobby Lobby, I thought I could add to my pots
to give them a little dose of color. :)
My friend commented on how pretty my pots were and asked what type of flowers
I had in them! Hahaha!!
I brought them out again this year to show you guys - in these pots I have a
collection of geraniums, verbena, trailing sweet potato vine and faux gerber daisies.

There are only five faux flowers in each pot (I broke apart a larger bouquet) all the rest are the
real deal. I simply wove a bit of the foliage from the verbena through the faux flowers.

#2 - Creeping Jenny

When I was on a garden tour one of my favorite ground covers I saw over and over again
was Creeping Jenny. I was smitten with the contrast of the bright chartreuse color in the
gardens! When I researched it, it sounds like it can be grown anywhere (Zone 2-10) and will
tolerate varied conditions from sun to shade.

#3 - Boxwood

My all time favorite style for a classic landscape. This was another garden on the
same tour, it was a very small lot and packed with inspiration throughout. Their creative
boxwood hedge had me dying to go home and add more to our yard.

I have a ways to go, but ours are doing great, we have 18 of these larger boxwood
(2' x 2' x 2') along a long bed in our backyard and my little hedge around our birdbath is
filling in too.

#4 - Evergreens

Arborvitae can't be beat for architectural detail, reasonable price and color throughout
the winter. They're great against a fence, planted in pots on the patio, or in the garden
below the homeowner anchored four corners of their lot with symmetrical plantings around
a large arborvitae.

#5 - Jack's Classic Bloom Booster

The flowers in Vail, CO are stunning in the summer, it's a short getaway from Denver, and
we've always loved spending a long weekend there. One year I noticed the town's gardeners
tending to the flowers and asked if they had any special tips.
That was my first introduction to Jack's Classic Bloom Booster!
It's the best and I've never used anything else since then.