Divine Theatre

I believe that one of the secrets to making a patio or as in my case, a driveway, look like a secret garden, is to facilitate the use of perennial flowers, rather than annuals. I place them in iron and terracotta pots. Also a few shrubs here and there to give it an anchor. It feels more established. I typically purchase perennials when they are in bloom and keep them in the pots surrounding the seating area, then plant them when the blooms are spent. Lord knows I throw money around like I have it, but I find it difficult to spend money on flowers that die at the end of the season. Many people use folding lawn chairs in their driveways. Why not use the pretty stuff?? Really. Why not?

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This was my workout yesterday. These iron Medici urns are taller than me! I had to heave seven, 50 lb bags of mulch over my head into each one and two 40 lb bags of soil per planter. The trees are actually Phantom hydrangea standards. They are the kind of hydrangeas that have the conical, huge blooms that start out white but turn toward pink in the fall. I am so excited to see these bloom!
Our front yard is on a slope so I planted the taller specimen in the pot that sits lower on the slope and I also planted the shorter standard in the pot that's higher on the slope, a little lower in the pot, ( less soil) so they are level to the horizon. It fools the eye into believing that the pots sit level.
Now I just need to trim the boxwood parterre, yew and privet hedges!

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