Sure, many would love to improve their home, especially their outdoor space but it’s not so simple. Time, money, and other issues stop homeowners from improving their space. So, we’ve decided to list 3 projects that will take you (or us) under a day to complete from start to finish. That’s right, you can drastically improve the way your home looks in just a day.
Seasonal planters are a truly unique way to quickly and easily transform your home. When we assemble planters for our clients, we build the horticultural creations from scratch, combining seasonal selections of plants and flowers with the style of home and space where these planters are going. Of course, if you’re creating the planter yourself, yours will also be entirely unique. One important thing to consider aside from t
he aesthetic style of your home, is the amount of sun or shade that it gets – different plant and flowers will have difference tolerance to sun and shade. We have written before on the best plants and flowers to add to planters for different seasons, you can read that here and see a brief summary below: (please note, these choices were selected with Toronto and the GTA area in mind)
- Fall Planters – kale, pansies, mums, and purple fountain grasses, English Icy, eucalyptus, sage, pumpkins, gourd.
- Winter Planters – branches like cedar, white pine, balsam, spruce, magnolia leaves, dogwood, curly willow, and boxwood. You can also add berries and pinecones.
- Spring Planters – pansies, ivy, tulips, daffodils, pansies, hydrangea, campanula, pussywillows.
- Summer Planters – purple new guinea impatiens, white petunias, red million bells, mandaville, tuberous orange begonias, trailing ivy, geraniums, elephant’s ears.
Time commitment: 2-4 hours
Installing shrubs requires more planning and work than installing seasonal planters, but it’s still doable in under a day. First, you will need to consider the location of your outdoor space, understanding the amount of sun it gets, the portion of if you’d like to be covered with shrubs, integrate any future plans you have for landscaping into your design, and consider the hardiness zone of your space.
Our favorite shrubs include: lilacs, magnolias, pussy willow, corkscrew hazel, spirea, bigleaf hydrangea, and boxwood shrubs.
Our team would love to help you add shrubs to your space, or we can help you select and design the perfect shrubs for your space through our landscaping design services.
Annuals are plants that will brighten your yard for a single season, unlike perennials which return year after year. The season for most annuals in the Greater Toronto Area is usually from late spring to early fall.
Like with other outdoor endeavours, what you plant depends on where you plant it. You need to take into consideration how sunny an area is, its soil, and other surrounding plants. Below is a list of our top picks for sunny and shady areas:
Sunny areas:
- Geraniums
- Portulaca
- Zinnia
- Marigolds
- Snapdragons
Shady areas:
- Browallia
- Forget-me-not’s
- Coleus
- Fuchsia
Learn here about our top selections for both annuals and perennials.
