Trips to your local independent garden center can give you many ideas that are useful in your own yard or garden. This month we visit three garden centers and get inspired…
Donaroma’s Nursery and Landscape Services is on Martha’s Vineyard. (Hint: if you’re a garden lover, and you go to the Vineyard on vacation, there are several wonderful garden centers there so be sure to save time for your own safari when you’re on-island.) I thought that this display was brilliant – a garland of artificial flowers was placed around a cart and several boxwood shrubs put inside. You could do the same on a smaller scale with that old toy wagon in your garage, or even a whiskey barrel planter. The plants that are put inside can be switched out as needed.
I spied this old Easy washer at J. Franklin Styers in Pennsylvania. They are now Terrain, but still on Route 1 in Glen Mills. This tub shows how wonderfully vintage metal blends with plants. What do you have in your basement that could be filled with plants this summer?
Independent garden centers often have care sheets for many of the plants they sell. Ask!
This collection of blue pots reminds me that a grouping of containers that area all a similar color is always lovely on a deck, porch or patio. These were just some of the many pots that I saw at Russells Garden Center in Wayland.
Many forget that their window boxes and other containers can be filled with heart-lifting spring color early in the season. Most garden centers have potted bulbs early in the spring – find some that are just beginning to show color and plant them in your containers for a long-lasting spring display. The folks at Russells added pussy willows to this box which is a great vertical element.