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From Eye-sore to Eye-candy

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May 28, 2013
Almost every landscape has an ugly spot that you try to hide. Today, we’re going to show you one idea of turning a landscape eye-sore into some beautiful eye-candy. This particular house has an old stump along the driveway that would be expensive to remove or grind up. Instead of just living with the problem, my friend Jerry turned this ugly stump into an attractive planter. Here’s how: Jerry started by removing some rotten wood along the top edge of the stump. He wanted the planter to have a rustic look, so he chose some strips of old scrap tin as the building material. By attaching several tin strips all the way around the edge of the stump, they formed a big bowl to serve as a planter. This particular site is away from the house and a water supply, so drought tolerance was a consideration in choosing plants. He used a good commercial potting mixture with moisture control to serve as the growing media. Jerry also wanted to use the proven Thriller/ Filler/ and Spiller formula to design an attractive mixed planter. Red pennisetum was chosen as a thriller plant, to provide tall, colorful interest. For the filler plants, Jerry planted some New Gold and Desert Sunset lantana to provide some color and additional greenery. And finally, he put in some sweet potato vine to spill over the edges, and provide a cascading effect. To finish the project off, some liriope and confederate jasmine was planted along the bottom edge of the stump. In the end, an eye-sore was turned into eye-candy, by using some plants, re-cycled scrap material, along with a good idea. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman for Southern Gardening.

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