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On this sequence of The Better Buy , garden expert Carmen Johnston shares her top tips and tricks for bring your dreaming garden to life-time .
John Pyle | Design : Better Homes & Gardens
Credit:John Pyle | Design: Better Homes & Gardens
The Better Buy , a podcast from Better Homes & Gardens , explores all thing home — from dress and DIY to renovating and budgeting . For season 2 , we ’ll turn over into the full domicile purchasing process , from house hunting and moving to home design and landscaping , with write up , practical tip , and advice from our guests each week . We ’re on a missionary work to urge and invest you to create your dreaming abode . young episodes every Wednesday !
On This Episode
boniface Mélanie Berliet talks with garden and landscape gardening expert Carmen Johnston — the owner of Carmen Johnston Gardens and Bespoke Garden Plans — about promiscuous ways to spruce up your front yard , her beneficial advice for founder gardener , how to keep off common landscape gardening mishaps , and why horticulture , like cooking , can require quite a bit of patience .
Meet Carmen Johnston
Carmen Johnston is a pro gardener and landscaper who have Carmen Johnston Gardens , a landscape design and initiation firm based out of Georgia , and Bespoke Garden Plans , which offer personalise digital landscape design plan for client across the country . She is HGTV ’s Smart Home 2023 landscape painting expert , and her work has appeared in cartridge holder likeSouthern LivingandCountry Living .
Advice from the Episode
Carmen shares her practiced method for embarking on large scale landscaping project — without taking on too much stress .
Carmen Johnston
commence with the landscape plan , and number two , break away it down into phase . Do n’t recollect that you have to do everything all at one time . I think a bunch of citizenry get so overwhelmed because they see the front railyard , the backyard , there ’s so many things to tackle in a garden … Just take it one season at a time .
Double-Check Your Lot’s Drainage
There ’s a lot of thing that you ask to tick off into before you go a landscape undertaking , more so if you ’re purchase a home . Number one , check the drainage , check where does the weewee flow ? Where is the H2O moving ? How ’s the water basically circulating around the house ? … When you get an review before you bribe a rest home , make certain you agree out all the drainage .
Be Patient With Your Plants
Anytime you implant anything , anything , specially a garden , the first year it sleeps , the 2nd year it cower . And the third year it leap , mean you have to have forbearance in the garden … I think it ’s so important hoi polloi know : Let the garden talk to you .
It’s OK to Make Mistakes
I suppose horticulture is a lot like cooking . How many formula have you made that did not taste very good , but did you cease cookery ? No , you did n’t … You have to try things . sure things are gon na work out easily in an domain . Things are gon na not work well , but just do n’t give up and keep trying . I do n’t require hoi polloi to , uh , they get so intimidate , and they just throw in the towel .
Steer Clear of Overwatering
A lot of citizenry struggle with tearing , and this is the matter , it ’s a really hard thing to teach . It ’s an art form . It ’s not a skill . I think a plenty of people think , “ Well , if I watered it on Monday , Wednesday , and Friday , it ’s going to come through . ” … Imagine if you jump in a pool and you did not come in up for air . What would happen ? You would give-up the ghost . It ’s the same thing . The plant want air , it want circulation . It needs those dissimilar thing to survive . So when you have plunged it into a , you recognize , into a pool of pee , that ’s where it go wrong . So the best baksheesh that I can give is to keep the territory moist to the touch .
Keep Simple Spruce-ups in Mind
The fastest way to transform any exterior is put two container next to your front room access and plant your mailbox . And cut the sess if you have dope in the front one thousand , and mulch . Just those few little thing — you’re able to transmute any front yard , specially if you ’re strain to trade your family or if you ’re getting ready for a party or getting ready for entertain . That ’s a really cost - efficient mode to translate any front thousand .
Consider Hiring a Designer
It is an upfront cost . But trust me , I ’ve hear this from so many time and we actually had an email this morning , “ We made this misunderstanding on our last house and we ’re not doing it again . We are getting a landscape plan so we can save money in the long run . ”
