CREATING A HEAVY METAL THEME GARDEN

We have officially completed the five steps of creating a theme garden! Thanks for following along and giving great input the last few weeks.  

To finish up I've listed the five steps below with links to all the appropriate posts (for those that would like to see the whole process).  By early July I plan to pull this particular garden design into a short video to make it easier to see the entire process.  It will be available for free to those on my email list.  You can sign up here.

Below my summary  you'll see the second plan for my heavy metal garden.  As I mentioned before, there are hundreds of combinations and each one of us would come up with very different designs.  It's exciting thinking about all the possibilities!

HOW TO CREATE AN OUT-OF-THE-ORDINARY THEME GARDEN (SUMMARY):

1. Pick a theme 
2. Brainstorm
3. Research 
4. Translate ideas to physical form...including:

• color
• structure
• hardcapes
• furniture
• ornamentation
• plant materials

5. Create the plan

• Plan One
• Plan Two (see below!)

PLANT KEY

A. Juniperus scopulorum 'Wichita blue' (Wichita Blue Juniper)

B.  Alchemilla mollis ‘thriller’ (Lady's Mantle)

C. Lawn

D. Festuca glauca 'boulder blue' (Boulder Blue Fescue)

E. Yucca filamentosa ‘golden sword’ (Golden Sword Yucca)

F. Sedum spathulifolium ‘Cape Blanco’ (Cape Blanco Stonecrop)

G. Bluestone shard walkway

H. Rosa x ‘radsunny’ (Sunny Knock-Out Rose)

I. Stachys byzantina ‘Helen Von Stein’ (Lamb's Ears)

J. Yarrow x ‘moonshine’ (Moonshine Yarrow)

K. Panicum virgatum ‘heavy metal’ (Heavy Metal Switch Grass)

L. Forsythia viridissima var. koreana ‘kumson’ (Kumson Forsythia)

M. Peonia ‘bartzella’ (Bartzella Peony)

N. Drum fountain

O. Bluestone patio with flying v pergola overhead

DO YOU SEE HOW I INCORPORATED MY THEME ELEMENTS?

• Three interconnected circles, the lawn, patio and fountain represent drums, an interconnected chain, plus heavy metal's trifecta of speed, power and precision.
• Bluestone is used to incorporate our gray (silver!) color.
• The furniture incorporates our colors, plus are round like a drum.
• The pergola is shaped like a flying V guitar.
• There are a lot of sharp edges in the plants, pergola and entry walk, representing the edginess of heavy metal.
• All the plants are in our color palette (yellow and gray).
• Do you see any other connections to heavy metal?

Again, thank you for taking on this adventure with me.  I hope to develop another theme garden soon, but until then think about what garden theme you could develop in the midst of your backyard.

You can find out more about my free theme garden tutorial here.  Enjoy!

DESIGN WITH ME - CREATE THE PLAN

What?  Could this be true?!  We've finally reached the last step in the theme garden design process!  First a quick review of the five steps:

1. Pick a theme 
2. Brainstorm
3. Research 
4. Translate ideas to physical form 
5. Create the plan (woo-hoo! See below!)

CREATE THE PLAN
All those fabulous colors, hardscapes, furniture, garden ornaments, and plant materials will now merge to create a special space.

Just for fun I've made two garden plans.  One in this post and another that will follow in a day or two.  Of course, there are hundreds of possible combinations and I hope you have many other ideas to make your heavy metal garden special.

Some design hints...

Rather than just plopping elements into your garden, think about how you can create a nice space.

Make sure lawn, patios and bed spaces are all purposeful...not just leftover spaces.  They should all have strong shapes.

Most importantly, keep your design simple. Don’t try to incorporate all your ideas.  Focus on the ones that make the most sense for your garden.

 PLANT KEY

A. Panicum virgatum ‘heavy metal’ (Heavy Metal Switch Grass)

B. Peonia ‘bartzella’ (Bartzella Peony)

C. Concrete Patio (with stage lighting pattern)

D. Sedum spathulifolium ‘Cape Blanco’ (Cape Blanco Stonecrop)

E. Lawn

F. Yucca filamentosa ‘golden sword’ (Golden Sword Yucca)

G. Allium ‘hair’ (Hair Allium)

H. Drum Planters

I. Stachys byzantina ‘Helen Von Stein’ (Lamb's Ears)

J. Rosa x ‘radsunny’ (Sunny Knock-Out Rose)

K. Hypericum frondosum ‘sunburst’ (Sunburst St. John's Wort)

L. Yarrow x ‘moonshine’ (Moonshine Yarrow)

M. Alchemilla mollis ‘thriller’ (Lady's Mantle)

N. Corrugated Metal Fence

O. Magnolia acuminata ‘butterflies’ (Butterflies Magnolia)

P. Buxus sempervirens (Boxwood)

Q. Wood Patio

R. Forsythia viridissima var. koreana ‘kumson’ (Kumson Forsythia)

DO YOU SEE HOW I INCORPORATED MY THEME ELEMENTS?

• The rectangle patio represents music posters and the lines in the concrete represent stage light rays.
• The three patios are linked like a chain, plus represent heavy metal's trifecta of speed, power and precision.
• The furniture incorporates our colors, has a shiny heavy metal sparkle, plus the table is round like a drum.
• The planters are recycled drums.
• The fence is corrugated, shiny metal, plus includes our skull art in wrought iron.
• All the plants are in our color palette (yellow and gray with a hint of red from battle jackets).
• Everything is clean and simple reminiscent of late 1960s/early 1970s landscape style (when heavy metal was born).

Because there are so many options, I couldn't hold back from creating a totally different plan.  That will be posted in a couple of days.  

For those that have been following along and feel slightly overwhelmed with all these theme garden posts, I plan to pull them all together into one video tutorial. You can get the whole process in one swoop and hopefully be inspired to create your own theme garden.  I hope to have the tutorial complete by early July. The free tutorial will only be available to those on my mailing list initially.  If you'd like to sign up, just click here!

I'll see you in a couple of days when I reveal the second plan and give a summary of the whole process once again!

DESIGN WITH ME - TRANSLATE TO PLANTS

The last part of step four in our theme garden design process is choosing plant materials!  First a quick review of the five steps:

1. Pick a theme 
2. Brainstorm
3. Research 
4. Translate ideas to physical form (yes, we're still here, but almost done!)
5. Create the plan

PLANT MATERIALS
This is my favorite part...adding life to the garden.

Planting design is a special skill that should be tweaked over time. As you start, jump in, explore, move plants around, and always continue to tweak.  I'll talk about this more in a future post, but always consider the form, texture and color of plants (in that order).  Planting design is definitely a science and an art, but please don't let inexperience stop you from experimenting.  That's the best way to learn.

There are thousands of plants.  Having a theme and understanding your site will help whittle down your choices.  Please always consider your zone, whether the site is shady, sunny, wet or dry, plus soil quality.  

To choose plants that reflect your theme think about:

1. Were there any specific plants actually mentioned in our brainstorming and research lists?  There were not any mentioned in our lists, but someone did point out later that roses are often used as a symbol for heavy metal bands.

2.  Where there any shapes mentioned that could be reflected in plant materials?  We had circles, rectangles, and v-shapes. Are there plants with these strong shapes?

3. Choose plants based on our color palette.  Our color choices were black, gray and yellow (with possible punches of yellow and orange).  This is often the easiest plant path to follow.   

4. Choose plants that have cultivar names that reflect our theme.  In our case someone suggested Panicum virgatum 'heavy metal' (an ornamental grass) and Allium 'hair' (love it!).

I focused mostly on #3 and #4, plus #1 when making my partial list below.  I have a lot of yellow and gray plants, plus threw in some theme names....like moonshine, knock-out and thriller (from those big heavy metal after-parties).  I also considered textures, height, form, and bloom times.  I won't go into depth on planting design right now....that's a whole other series of posts.  

Below are just some plants that we can use for our heavy metal garden (mine is a sunny location).  There are many more possibilities, but I hope this will give you a good overview of how to start your own plant list.

Wow!  We finally finished step four!  Now onto the final step...create the plan!  I'm going back to the drawing board to whip up a design and will be back with you soon!

DESIGN WITH ME - TRANSLATE TO ORNAMENTATION

The next part of step four in our theme garden design process is choosing all the pretty extras!  First a quick review of the five steps:

1. Pick a theme 
2. Brainstorm
3. Research 
4. Translate ideas to physical form (yes, we're still here!)
5. Create the plan

ORNAMENTATION
Garden ornament is the frosting on the cake.

These are the details that make your space extra-special like lighting, containers, art, 
mirrors, banners, and fountains.

Please, please keep it simple.  Choose one or two special ornaments so that the final result is focused.  Too many items will make your space chaotic and ultimately uncomfortable. 

As with the other steps, take a look at our brainstorming and research lists to see if anything might inspire a fabulous selection of garden ornament.  This is what popped into my head:

Yes, it seems that I can make heavy metal "cute", though that is not my intent (I just can't control myself). I'm sure you can come up with many more ideas, but hopefully this shows you a good start.  I do want to stress again that's it's important to keep it simple.  You may have tons of ideas, but focus on the ones that best illustrate your theme (and are within your budget).

We are finally approaching the last part of step four....choosing plant materials!  This will take me a few days, but if you have any ideas for plants to get started, I'd love to hear them!

DESIGN WITH ME - TRANSLATE TO GARDEN FURNITURE

The next part of step four in our theme garden design process is choosing furniture!  First a quick review of the five steps:

1. Pick a theme 
2. Brainstorm
3. Research 
4. Translate ideas to physical form (yes, we're still here!)
5. Create the plan

FURNITURE
Now it’s time to dress up our space with some cozy furniture. This is a great way to extend your garden into something livable.

Using our lists as inspiration once again use the shapes, colors, and possible other words and objects to assist in the selection of chairs, benches, and tables.

Your furniture can be a little crazy or simply paint a traditional item one of your theme colors.

Looking back at our brainstorming and research lists I've compiled the words below to inspire my selection of garden furniture:

Of course, our colors: gray/silver, black and yellow/gold 
Plus, shiny metal, jeans, leather, drums, anvils, wrought iron, guitars, periodic table (grid), late 60s or early 70s style, chains.

Some possibilities for furniture inspired by these ideas might include:

I love the idea of wrought iron or shiny metal, so included a lot of ideas in that direction, but you can go any angle you wish.  Someone even had a great idea for concrete furniture (love this too!).

Next...we'll think about how to add some artsy details to our heavy metal garden.  Any thoughts?