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!