With a number of summer parties planned, from a graduation to a school fundraiser, Kristin Savini wanted her backyard to look beautiful. But when she gazed outside, “everything was beige and brown.” She loved her pool. patio and brick fireplace, but her flowerbeds and the cushions on her outdoor furniture seemed overwhelmingly “blah.”
So she called in the pros. First, Steve Gilbert from Willow Glen Home and Garden suggested using the color of the pool as inspiration. He brought in bright turqoise cushions for the furniture and no fewer than 11 ceramic urns. To Kristin, it all looked “elegant and fun.” But that was a lot of urns to plant. So she called in her friend and container gardener Dhelia Fahrner of La Jardiniere.
With the bright cushions and pots, she knew the plants needed to be one thing: saturated with color. “It couldn’t be pale,” she said. At Summerwinds Nursery in Campbell, she and Kristin pulled out bright orange-gold “Easy Does It” standard roses and a big chartreuse ginger plant for height in the middle of some of the taller pots. They also added purples, fuschias 
and oranges with geraniums, lantana, verbena, petunias and alyssum of various heights and textures.
The results were spectacular. Here are some tips for vivid container gardening from La Jardiniere:
1. Before going to the nursery, take measurements of your pots, both width and height, to figure out how many plants are needed to fill each pot and how tall the plants should be to balance the size of the pot. At the nursery, find an empty corner to arrange your chosen plants to see how they would appear together in the pot.
2. Know the sun exposure so you know whether to get sun-loving or shade-loving plants.
3. Choose a style — tight, loose, abundant, minimal — to fit your style or the architecture of your home.
4. If you’re planting several pots, purchase some “foundation plants” that are perennial and can last from season to season. Buy colorful annuals in six-packs that are less expensive to replace.
5. Use quality potting soil and fertilizer and water, water, water.
To see what Dhelia did to her own backyard and another project open these:
Before and After:Spanish Courtyard Gets Makeover
Here’s the complete slideshow:
I spied a cool exhibit at the Willow Glen Home Tour earlier this month–
The pots look like they have been carved out of stone. Urban Farmgirls uses cement, perlite and reclaimed fibers to create that wonderful faux stone feel. The pots are surprisingly light weight. So as I get ready to re-do my front porch, I will need to pick up a few of these. Pairing them with succulents seems too perfect.
This house actually has a Lookiloos provenance: I wrote about it in June 2003 in an essay about my open house obsession for the San Jose Mercury News. I wrote about Lookiloos like me — and this was some five years before I co-founded this website. (I’m true blue!) In it, I wrote this: “A wall of windows overlooking a courtyard of a Carmel open house makes me imagine myself a famous novelist with a salon of literay friends who drive down to Nepenthe for inspiration.” I called myself the “Walter Mitty of real estate.” Is it so hard to believe, I wrote, “that living in a great space can be inspiring and life-transforming?” I still believe that.
The house was designed by John Gamble, who designed a number of modern homes on the Monterey Peninsula. And now it’s for sale again, for $1.29 million. If you buy it, please let me know. Maybe you can invite me over.
When four girlfriends and I escaped our kids for the afternoon, piled into my mini-van, and headed out for the 
stenciling in the hallway–and eclectic accessories, many of which came from the Vintage Flea Market in Alameda. 
If I had a bigger lot, I’d consider a swimming pool with different lounging levels and contrasting materials like Kris and David Gambelin’s home. If couldn’t get such a lot and wanted to get really creative (or crazy), I’d move next to my sister, tear down the fence between us, and create one big, shared, drought resistant landscape like the Gilliand home. 
Saltilo tile floors greeted her in the entryway with a sweeping staircase with curved wrought-iron railings. Two steps down took her to the grand formal living room with plenty of space for the baby grand piano and their whimsical orange and black “Halloween tree” that adorns the front window for the autumn Rose Garden Homes Tour in mid-October.
One of Mary’s favorite spots for a little solitude is the lovely balcony off the master bedroom where she often reads or enjoys a cup of coffee while overlooking the lush backyard and swimming pool.
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