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How's your garden?

Do you enjoy watching things grow in your garden? Does color in your garden excite you? Do you relax in your garden at the end of a day at work? Do you enjoy making a positive contribution to your environment? Then you are among the majority of people who garden for its own sake, and enjoy it. You are our kind of gardener!

This newsletter will explore some of our personal attachments to our gardens.

It's hard to escape the media exposure of expanding our living areas into the great outdoors. From all of those cool kitchen gadgets and great rooms to those "How did they do that?" gardening segments, we are all enticed by them. Incorporating your patio, garden, porch, play area, or shady nook into your personal living space might seem like a daunting task, but it can be so simple. Choose something that you enjoy from your home and adapt it for outdoors, and you suddenly have a special place to relax and enjoy.

Color - one way that you can extend your living space is by using a color from your home's interior, your favorite room for instance, and repeat it outdoors. For instance, if your gathering room features lots of warm colors, then choose warm-colored plants that echo these colors. The deeply rust- and orange-colored leaves of Canna 'Tropicana' not only echo the color of tanned leather and mahogany, but its bright orange flowers create interest and contrast, as you might use a candle or piece of art. Accent with rich stone or wooden garden art or sculptures, and you've created something very special. Repeat the bright yellow-green colors of your child's room with the whimsical chartreuse colors of ornamental Sweet Potato vine, Creeping Jenny, 'Limelight' Dracaena and 'Gold Standard' Hosta to create a memorable play area. Sprinkle it with contrasting colors of fuchsia or black, and you can change a whimsical area into a stylish and trendy getaway.

Texture - smooth wood, cold stone, cushy grasses, spiky leaves - these are the textures of nature that create pleasure and interest. If you enjoy using stone surfaces in your home, repeat them outdoors not only for their durability but to extend their enjoyment. Change the walking surfaces in your garden from stone to turf to plants like 'Super Dwarf' Mondo Grass or Creeping Figwort (Mazus reptans), and you've re-created the same barefoot feelings as you would have walking from room to room in your home. Clinging or draping vines will change the texture of your outdoor fences, walls and vertical surfaces almost seasonally. Wisteria draping from a slatted roof creates shade during the spring & summer, but in the spring its blooms form a soft cloud of color and fragrance, lending serenity to passersby underneath. Plants like Virginia Creeper transform a bare fence to a cool, soft outdoor surface. Add color to your outdoor wallpaper with 'Tangerine Beauty' Crossvine.

Sound - softly clattering bamboo segments and running water, deep-toned wind chimes, and the sounds of nature are always satisfying and relaxing. Treat yourself to Piaceri di Vita, pleasures of life! No matter what you call it, we require peaceful surroundings and our own personal escape. A simple cushioned chair shared with summer cicada-song, a beach towel and a bubbling container water-garden, or just create your own sounds with ceiling fans and rustling palm leaves, these are necessary. Add your favorite foods and you've experienced something really special.

I hope that we've painted some peaceful images and sparked your imagination just a little bit. We've departed from our usual educational piece to this more personal treatise to entice you to experiment just a little bit. We think that when you do, you'll find that you can enlarge your sphere of influence and your personal living space, while enjoying your garden as you may not have imagined.

Enjoy your garden and have a great summer.

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