Let the sun shine in! Guest Landscape Plan

Hi Friends! Rayan - the Frugal Designer here!  I am so excited to be a regular contributor for Cassity and Remodelaholic.  I am a huge fan of her site and LOVE her tutorials, her sense of humor is fantastic as well! 
For those of you who don't know me or haven't visited my site, this is me...

My site - The Frugal Designer - focuses on having and maintaining a high sense of style and design with a budget friendly mindset.  I strongly feel that you don't have to go without just because you don't have lot's of money to spend.  I try and provide shortcuts, design tips, landscapes, crafts, mood boards, and more recently I have created a PROJECT: LIBRARY full of DIY tutorials from around the web.  This is how I came across Cassity, and you better believe I gobbled up her fabulousness, quick like!



I would love for you to check it out and see what has been cataloged so far!  I am adding new projects daily, some of which end up in my LOOK 4 LESS tab, which is a special place where Accessories and Design are... HACKED, using inspiration from specialty retailer products! 


For those of you who have embraced the DIY movement wholeheartedly, I have started a FINISHING SCHOOL to help you finish the furniture and accessories you build yourself.  Faux Finishes and tips and tricks galore...


I have also opened up the design hot lines recently.  Do you have an area of your home or yard that you are having trouble finding a vision for?  Are there special design considerations that need to be taken into account?  If your budget is a sensitive subject and your troubled area wreaks havoc on your mind, send it on over....I LOVE a good challenge!



If your design dilemma is specific to your home or yard, consider my DESIGN SERVICES.  If you like my Mood Boards and Land:Scapes, you will LOVE my DESIGN SERVICES...after all they are catered specifically to you! 

Don't miss out!

Now onward to the Budget Friendly Color-Scape...let's get planting!



 I'm all about the sunshine lately!  It has been nice and warm here for the last 2 days, after more than a week of weird weather, and I am so glad to get outside again.  Planting in my yard is one of my favorite activities, unfortunately I am always limited on funding for this type of project.  Rather than go without, or purchase one large beauty, I opt for many plantings that cost no more than $5 each and a few that will be even less (likely around $3).  They may be small, but with a few bags of Composted Steer Manure (less than $1 per bag and great for your plants) and a little TLC, they will be more than large in due time!

Each Land: Scape I produce, you can rest assured is extremely budget friendly, assuming you purchase the small lot.  You are welcome to purchase larger or very large varieties of each plant if that is affordable for you, but it isn't necessary for you to still reap the reward, on big impact color scapes! That is the beauty of a color scape, you don't need to invest hundreds to have something wonderful even in it's most infant growth stage.  The color arrangement provides the impact rather than the size of the plants. 

I typically buy my plants from Home Depot, Lowe's, or Walmart so each of the plants I choose should be readily available assuming they are meant for your climate zone.

If you assume that each of these plants is the full $5 (which it probably won't be) this Land:Scape should still cost you no more than $55!  That's budget friendly for sure, because these plantings (forsythia, flax, cyprus) will get quite large and this will cover a decent portion of your yard if you plant it properly.

Always be sure to check your climate zone and pay careful attention to the planting distances outlined on the plant's container when you purchase them.  They will never reach full height or width if they are planted too closely.

Without further ado...here is color story for full (moderate might be pushing it, but might be possible) sun.




The Planting Guide below is for the purpose of giving you an idea of where each plant should be planted in relationship to the other plants.  Always follow the instructions on your pots for the actual distance or spacing each plant requires, then use this guide to arrange them accordingly.  Consider the center of each circle to be the stem and root system of the plant and space from the center of one plant to the center of the next (according to the planting instructions on the pot or tag). 


The New Zealand Flax will provide the most impact in this Color Scape if you purchase it in the burgandy-ish color.  The Kangaroo Paw comes in a wide variety of colors but for this arrangement I chose pink, and the verbena in 2 different colors: a bright deep red and a purplish blue.  The Erysimum is fabulous in orange because it gives you a gradation in orange colors ranging from redish orange to yellowish orange and the main color is amazing and rich!