A faux gate enhances the ambiance of my client’s garden to attract birds and butterflies and enjoy the conservation area view.

Create A Gate Faux Every Garden!

An interesting way to add an entrance (or an exit) to your garden is to install a faux gate. Even if you don’t have a fence, a faux gate will create the illusion of an entrance. Depending on your garden theme, it can be an old-fashioned crickety wooden gate created by tying branches together, or vintage rusty (safely sealed) metal gate, or a modern frosted glass panel between two columns.

Your gate can show where to walk in your garden. It can be at the end of your journey to a garden bench or meditation area. They can be placed at the beginning of the walkway, or midway along the path to indicate entering the next outdoor room, or at the end of the garden to allow visitors to leave with flair. Faux gates are easy to install between two complementary posts. Match the material of the gate. Make sure the posts are stable by using concrete bases in the ground or metal rods to secure them. Do not let them wobble!

Where can you find a faux gate? You can check out antique shops, Etsy, Facebook sales, garage sales, thrift stores, and vintage furniture stores. Or make your own from all the wood you collect on a hike during your vacation.

Instead of placing a beautiful antique gate on a wall, or featured as a piece of art, make them a purposeful piece of art, “thriller”, or just whimsy, just so you have a faux gate. Where would it lead you?

As a landscape designer, whether it’s foliage or flowers, one of my major color decisions is Pantone’s Color of the Year. How can I work into my landscape plan? This year, Pantone has selected a very earthy, subdued, calming color called Mocha Mousse. Mocha is espresso coffee that is combined with chocolate and cream. It’s not a dark brown, but brown that has been mixed with white.

Mocha mousse is satiny. Think of mousse hair foam, a satin pillowcase, or the dessert that melts in your mouth. Nothing chunky about it. Just mmmmm smooth.

In the garden, brown is associated with Autumn and death. Leaves turning brown and falling to the ground. Leaf tips that are parched or diseased. Not even dirt is thought of as brown, but shades of black, greys, orange, and white tones, but not brown. Mocha Mousse is subtle in the background or underneath the main colors.

My number one selection for incorporating Mocha Mousse in the garden is the Nun’s orchid, Phaius tankerville. One of the few plants with truly brown flowers. Nun’s orchids are perfect for an elegant statement in a shade or woodland garden. Other plants that are perfect for use in a Mocha Mousse garden are various coleus, Copperleaf, Cleyera, and Heucheras. Pantone’s color palette includes softer tones of brown, mauve, and warm silver.

Roses that fit the category are floribunda ‘Distant Drums’, hybrid ‘Toffee’, floribunda ‘Koko Loco’, and grandifolia’s ‘Lagerfeld’. ‘Toffee’ and ‘Koko Loco’ roses are available at Lukas Nursery. Heirloom Roses, and High Country roses.

Consider blending the Mocha Mousse with jewel tones, soft pinks, whites, and light blue flowers and accents. It’s an elegant, rich hue and shouldn’t be used with primary or bright, “in your face” colors. Check out Piktochart’s webpage for wonderful color combinations for creating an elegant landscape.

Teresa's Design Tips - Plotting For More Turkeys

Photo credit: Jeanette Mazza

I received a timely design question this month.

“Teresa: I live in a rural part of Central Florida and would like to have more wildlife, especially turkeys. What can I plant? “

Great question, Jim. Turkeys need three things: protected roosting sites, year-round food sources, and nesting cover. Being out in a rural section with lots of trees is also a preferred environment for turkeys. The wooded perimeter of cow pastures are also habitat for turkeys. Thick trees with understory of shrubs provide a sense of security where they can quickly run to escape a predator. Turkeys roost in trees at night for security.

To encourage turkeys to stay year round, supply food sources such as berries and fruits, insects, nuts, seeds, and vegetables. Oak trees with a turkey’s favorite food of acorns are ideal for turkey plots. A stand of Long Leaf Pine trees is also a good start. If your plot is within a mile of a lake or river that can provide water will also be helpful.

When choosing plant selections, diversity is important to remember. Three types of vegetation is optimal: groundcovers, taller grasses, and grains. Turkeys prefer lower groundcovers and grass when they forage. Grasses and small plants also necessary for turkeys to strut their stuff. Oops… I shouldn’t use the word stuff, should I?

Here is a nutritious menu for turkeys:

• Grains: millet, oats, rice, soybeans, sorghum, and wheat.

• Grasses: chufa, muhly grass, weeds,

• Groundcovers: alfalfa, clover, legumes, rye grass, wildflowers,

• Fruits and Vegetables, Insects, and Snakes.

The size of your turkey plots should be at least one-half to two acres bordering the edge of wooded conservation area or forest. Level the ground before any seeds are planted. Do not use herbicides to remove weeds or wait for the label’s instruction on timing to revegetate the area.

Leave an open strip of sand around the outside of your turkey plot. This will help turkeys dust themselves. Dust baths will help turkeys with itching, skin irrigation, maintain the feathers, and allows them to clean themselves.

Like wildflowers, Spring and late Summer is the best time to plant your turkey plot.