Virtual Makeover: New York Farm House

During each show, we try to spend a little time here in my design studio. It's a part of the show I really enjoy. It's when you send in photographs of your gardens, where you're looking for a little bit of help. A little inspiration to help you maybe get over a hump.

Today we have a beautiful little house in New York. Christine says, "Allen, I love my house, but I don't like the fact that it's not symmetrical." Well, you know, Christine, I think it's a charming American farmhouse and there's a difference between a place being symmetrical, which in this case the porch would come all the way across and the door would be centered and it being balanced.

One of the complaints that Christine has is that the door is not centered directly on the steps. Now, you can change the porch if you want, but what we can do is explore ways to maybe bring more balance to the property, rather than you reworking the entire front and replacing the porch and so forth. So, why don't we think about some things that we can do to restore some balance. Alright, let's get started.

One thing that we might look at would be just to add some shutters here and here. That would really bump up the charm factor. I like the fact that you've got a simple green and white theme going with the shutters on the under side of the porch like that. Carry the green over here.

I love your moon gate that you have over here, Christine. You might think about taking that really dark green and painting this dark green, so it recedes a little bit further back to the back.

Then what you might do is with the steps themselves, you can place a container right here on this side and not this side. And this could be filled with annuals. It could be a classic urn, filling it with something like Diamond Frost® Euphorbia, some really beautiful annual and then on this side, back in the corner, you might place another chair or some object that kind of throws the eye off and says, "Hey, you know, this thing really isn't asymmetrical." It feels more balanced.

Now, Id also look at the trees. Let's talk just a moment about some of the planting. This tree, if you will notice, Christine, has some damage. I can't tell exactly what variety that is. You have just planted this little pear. You indicated the city had. Since you like the pear, you might take this tree out and just put another pear in here. Now, remember these flowering pears don't live a long time. They can be very brittle. The limbs can break in high winds. So just think about that.

Now, you said you didn't like the slope of the lawn. You could take up your boxwoods and just do a low stone wall across your property like this right at the edge of the sidewalk and the same here. Pull the little boxwoods back here and here. And then make the inside of that garden, not lawn, but just as I said, garden. It'll be a great place to fill in with cosmos, all sorts of annuals. You have the cosmos here, but you could even grow roses on top of this fence, which will be beautiful.

Now, I am not so sure about this juniper on the corner. We might go with something that has a flowering quality to it. I could see a Yoshino cherry would be gorgeous in the spring. Right here, which would create more of canopy, so you need to think about that. Look under the canopy, across the stone wall and see your moon gate.

Then I wouldn't try to create any kind of gate here. Just the stone wall would be a nice way to balance it out and then have a path that comes off, Christine, just this step here and comes around the side of the house and around here with the inside of it being all garden.

Those are just some ideas. I hope they help. Good luck with your project.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• garden makeover
• p. allen smith makeover
• garden design advice
• virtual garden makeover
• p allen smith garden design
• design
• garden design
• New York
• Christine
• American farmhouse
• shutters
• Diamond Frost Euphorbia
• flowering pear
• juniper
• boxwoods
• cosmos
• stone wall
• path

[avlasam]

awesome!

what software is used for this presentation?