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•Come to Tea An Elegant Garden Gathering
by: Debbie Rodgers
Perhaps nothing says garden party like having afternoon tea outdoors. It's a charming reminder of bygone days and childhood make-believe. Outdoor spaces of all kinds, including balconies, can be successfully adapted to a tea party.
Tea parties span generations and will be enjoyed by your most sophisticated women friends or all the giggling little girls of your acquaintance.
What makes an elegant tea party? Look at these factors.
Flowers
Plan to hold your tea party when...
•Closing Up Your Container Garden
by: Debbie Rodgers
All good things eventually come to an end and so summer is waning, even as autumn gives most of us a fresh start. I'll bet your summer container plantings aren't really benefiting, though, from the back to school-oh I love a clean notebook boost and aren't dying as gracefully as summer itself is. You're going to have to help them through this!
Saving Summer
I understand if you just can't bear the thought of waving good-bye to your wave petunias just yet. That's okay -...
•Luau Decorating with a Hawaiian Theme
by: Debbie Rodgers
Hawaii is a first choice travel destination with millions of people - and for good reason. Bring a little of that island feeling into your home, either indoors or in your outdoor living space. You can apply this theme to an elegant dinner party, a fun and funky luau, or anything in between.
1. First, look at the space itself, including floors, walls, roof or ceiling.
Texture
Think natural materials. Try bamboo matting on the floor. It's fairly inexpensive, very...
•Home for a Gnome
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by: Debbie Rodgers
Kitsch is defined by several dictionaries as relating to poor quality or gaudy art objects that appeal to “low-brow” taste. But in the garden, kitsch categorizes folksy or commercial art that’s viewed condescendingly by some, and with irony by others. It’s this irony (this stuff is so bad it’s good) that has made items such as pink flamingos and garden gnomes more widely popular in recent years.
Garden gnomes have long been popular in Europe, especially in the middle...
•The Perfect Porch Swing
by: Debbie Rodgers
There is a magical quality to porch swings. In his summertime classic Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury describes the ritual of the front-porch swing.
In the garage they found, dusted, and carried forth the howdah, as it were, for the quiet summer-night festivals, the swing chair which Grandpa chained to the porch-ceiling eyelets…they sat, smiling at each other, nodding, as they swung silently back and forth, back and forth.
Perhaps it is the soothing rhythm or the...
•Escape to Sunny Mexico at Home
by: Debbie Rodgers
Can't get away for a southern vacation this year? Don't despair -- plan a sunny Mexican style refresher for your patio décor and enjoy the festive atmosphere of a hacienda at home this summer.
As with every other decorating style, Mexican décor has its own basic elements.
Color
The predominant color in the sunny Mexican look is yellow -- bright, cheery and warm. If you're lucky enough to be working with an outdoor space that abuts a stucco house exterior,...
•Fountains of Refreshment
by: Debbie Rodgers
When hot, sticky days hit, try to use all your senses to keep cool. Sight and sound have amazing psychological effects, even when the thermometer soars.
One of the most cooling and relaxing sounds I know is that of a trickling spring. It relaxes my mind and helps my body unwind. In the city, it can drown out the sounds of the daily hustle and bustle of life, calming and refreshing the spirit. I also love the glinting, reflective surface of water. You can have the...
•Gardeners Contain Yourselves
by: Debbie Rodgers
Whether you live in a tiny city apartment or on a large country estate, gardening in containers is a way to add colour and the beauty of nature to your surroundings. The three main elements of creating successful containers gardens are:
Choosing the pots
Getting the right planting medium
Selecting the plants
In all of these elements, the key is to create a healthy growing environment for the plant roots. For a healthy root system, water must be able to pass...
•Come With Me To The Casbah
by: Debbie Rodgers
A ripe persimmon is a thing of beauty – sweet, succulent and an amazing shade of orange-red. Orange and red continue to be popular colors in decorating this year but 2004’s shades are softer and more vibrant, like ripe persimmons and pomegranates.
Don’t limit these jewel-tones to the inside of your house. They can be incorporated into a beautiful outdoor theme by using the rich and exotic influences of Morocco.
In countries such as Morocco, which line the balmy...
•What s Underfoot A Quick Guide to Patio Surfaces
What's Underfoot? A Quick Guide to Patio Surfaces
by: Debbie Rodgers
Patios and terraces have always been popular outdoor spaces. Whether a Parisian courtyard or a rooftop alcove, only porches and sunrooms beat out these paved (or semi-paved) retreats in a recent survey of my readers as the most ideal outside living space. Let's examine some of the wide variety of patio surfaces.
Patio Stones
Somteimes called flags or slabs, patio stones are flat square or rectangular blocks of pressed...
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