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I’ve been gardening at my home in Durham for over 15 years and have reached the point where I can really focus on the containers in my garden, swapping out plants each season to add impact and drama. Read on for 3 ways that containers can add impact to your space.

Though it’s not officially summer I’m busy planning our container designs for the summer season. Read on to learn about two fun tropical plants to use in your container designs – Alocasia ‘Low Rider’ and Musa ‘Truly Tiny’.

Seasonal Container Planting by Bright Leaf Landscaping – Our Subscription Service for Truly Low Maintenance Gardening!

Say goodbye to spending the first weeks of spring waiting in line at the garden center. Instead, sign up now for four seasons of effortless beauty with our seasonal container subscription.

Here’s how it works: Choose your favorite container from our curated selection, and we’ll deliver it to your doorstep along with a custom-designed planting to fill it. As each new season begins, we’ll return with a fresh, stunning design and whisk away the previous season’s arrangement, making the experience truly hassle-free for you. Our experts carefully select plants that will flourish in your specific conditions, and we’ll provide season-specific watering instructions to ensure your plants thrive. With our subscription, you can trust that your patio will look its best all year long, without any of the hard work. No tools, no mess, and no more worrying about whether your outdoor space is ready for friends and family to gather.

Brr it’s cold outside! Does you garden need some additional color this season? Even though many of our perennials and deciduous plants are going through dormancy there are still options to add color to your garden beds or containers.

There are many factors to consider when selecting hardscape for a project – aesthetics, durability, and cost to name a few. At Bright Leaf Landscaping we specialize in two types of hardscape – dry set natural stone and ornamental pea gravel. I have both in my garden, and I appreciate what each brings to space, as well as the tradeoffs between the two. Read on to learn more.

There are lots of ways to design a container planting. Thriller, filler, and spiller is a phrase often used, and can be a great starting point. Some designers use only annuals and rely on seasonal rotations with tons of flowers to keep their pots looking great. Here in North Carolina we are lucky to have a diversity of plants that maintain their foliage even in winter. Read on to learn about one of my favorite cool season containers this fall, that relies only on evergreens.

Even among experienced gardeners there is always some trial and error when it comes to plant selection. Knowing what a plant needs to thrive and doing your best to put it in that situation is always a good idea, but sometimes you really don’t know how a plant will do until you put it in the ground. Read on to learn about my quest for native red flowing perennial for my garden.

This spring I started reworking two areas of my garden – the bed between my screened in porch and outdoor shower (click here to learn more) and the area that I see out of the window over my kitchen sink. I wanted each area to have a distinctive point of view, meaning that they could be different from my overall garden, but needed to work for a specific purpose. For the area outside my kitchen window I wanted it to be interesting year round, and provide a distraction from the mundane cleaning tasks I typically perform when I’m in that spot.

This spring I added some plants to the bed between our screened in porch and outdoor shower. Because this space is primarily used in the warm season, I focused on landscaping that included deciduous, flowering plants, especially those that tolerate our hot and dry summers. I wanted the space to be dramatic and was ok with most of the plants going dormant in the winter. Leaf color and texture were as important to me as flower color, but I prioritized plants that support hummingbirds and pollinators. Read on to learn about the plants I selected.

Incorporating bulbs is a smart way to fill in open space in your garden. I plan to add bulbs that will naturalize or that can be used for cut flowers. Read on to learn more about bulbs I want to add to my garden in 2024.

Lycoris radiata (Hurricane Lily)