Botanica Gardens Archives - Page 3 of 5

Living the Good Life with Chris H. Olsen: It’s All in the Mix

January 5, 2016 by agill@athomearkansas.com

We Americans eat a lot of mixed salads, don’t we? It’s at the top of most menus, and even McDonald’s offers a selection. Many of us—especially after the holidays—face salads for lunch as a sort of penance for overconsumption. Mixed salads are always a great way to improvise, use color and texture and contrast, and tell a kind of seasonal story. Your garden can be planned and assembled the same way you create a great-tasting salad for guests. Start with the basic ingredients, a bit of design principle, and add color and texture. It’s not hard because you use a mix of perennial and annual-blooming plant material, according to growing conditions and exposure.

Start with the ‘bones’ of your garden area. By bones I mean the elements—growing plant specimens and architectural aspects—that will anchor your plantings and remain year-round. (Think of them as the basic greens salads are built upon.) Conifers and other tall plants that are usually not deciduous are your best bet for plant materials that establish permanence in your landscape. The large pots shown here add further depth, solidity, and architectural interest, as well as fonts for seasonal color. Use shorter green plantings, such as these boxwood and rosemary for further shape and anchoring. Your annual color—the workhorses of the plant world—are plantings you change with the seasons. And they’re right up front, too, like these sun-friendly New Guinea impatiens.

Once you’ve placed your bones and anchoring plants, stay with the same idea, and put in blooming perennials, like this rudbeckia. Perennials, while not full of color for the whole season like annuals, are just what their name implies, lasting most or all of the year, and into the next. They won’t bloom for the entire time, but they grow often into nice drifts, and provide a bit of further visual interest and texture. Translation: they come with a subtle touch of chaos, which you’ll want to keep your garden from becoming too formal. Note how they seem to caress these dwarf ilex.

Repeat your elements throughout your landscape. Use the same cultivars and plants to create harmony. It also makes your planting area seem larger to use some of the same bones, perennials, and annuals. But you don’t want mirror images of each planted area. That would again inflict a kind of formality that you don’t want in your residential garden. Use some of the same plants, but plant them differently for further visual interest. Musical composers call this idea ‘variations on a theme.’

Why am I smiling in this photo? Simple: the entire planting—and it’s a large one—comes together with finishing touches of annual color and further green texture. I used the same design principle in each planted area, and much of the same material. I began with the bones, then moved forward and out, establishing simple areas for layered plantings of perennials. Then came the easy part: full-blown annual color. You don’t have to break the bank to have a great garden. Nor do you need vast acreage. All you have to do is begin with the basics of your mix, then add elements for texture and color and varied growth habits. Each part can be like the ingredients of a great salad, and you can change it up to please your palate. Good planting, like good food, is a visual pleasure.

Live Life to the Fullest!

Chris H. Olsen

Living the Good Life with Chris H. Olsen: A Parade of Pumpkins on Pedestals

October 7, 2015 by agill@athomearkansas.com

Anyone who knows me, how I approach my craft, or what excites me knows I love pumpkins. I use them from the time I can first purchase them—sometimes directly from the grower—then deep into winter and beyond. (They can last many months—a fact that wasn’t lost on farmers in the days before refrigeration.) I feel you can’t beat their vibrant colors, wildly varying textures, or happy shapes.

Here’s the thing: they don’t have to be relegated to Halloween displays, carved up into jack-o-lanterns. Pumpkins and all their range of colors and textures are wonderful complements to the fall garden.

Have you ever noticed how, oftentimes, we love our gardens the most at the end of the season? Everything is at its verdant peak—the colors more saturated, the growth more lush. You can add a mix of pumpkins (and ornamental squash) to the plantings you’ve nurtured all summer long. It will add further visual interest and make the approach of fall a little merrier.

To really get the most out of your pumpkins, why not put them on simple pedestals? You highlight their addition to your garden, add height and interest, and ensure they’ll be noticed. And appreciated. We carry these metal pedestals at Botanica, and you can use them throughout the year.

Think about the area you want to use them in. Do you want them to trace the line of your walk? Give height between foundation plantings near a wall? Create visual interest at the end of a path? Provide punctuation to an existing design? Then give them each a small stage, so that they can have their moment in your garden.

Notice that I’ve mixed them. It’s far more interesting to use pumpkins that differ in size, shape, and color than featuring all the same type. The pedestals make the point here that you’ve found really interesting shapes and colors, even warty ones, and you’re now taking them to another level. They become part of your landscape, part of your hearty end-of-season garden when used this way.

It’s a really simple idea, but (as is often the case with simple ideas) it’s a good one. And those little pedestals can be used to display seasonal bits of interest in your garden all year long. Once you elevate a bit of garden color and texture, you elevate the senses and the design appeal, which is what makes your guests want to come back, season after season.

Chris Olsen is a nationally known home and garden guru, designer, author, TV personality and public speaker. In his book, Chris shares his landscape and gardening knowledge along with his unique flair for home decor and design.He is also a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. Learn more about Chris and all of his work at chrisholsen.com.

Living the Good Life with Chris H. Olsen: Public Places, Private Spaces

August 10, 2015 by agill@athomearkansas.com

Since the dawn of civilization, humans have created open spaces within their active areas of livelihood, places to gather or linger, areas devoted to expression. These sometimes-unexpected meetings of hardscape and plantings can also serve as markers of entrance or exit or as punctuation for the grid of streets surrounding them. By creating and opening up such areas, we provide a certain respite from urban chaos and make an area, although carefully planned and executed, that is serene and almost pastoral. The design elements for these plantings are really quite simple, and you can follow them to either establish a design for your neighborhood or create such a space for yourself.

What you need is an area that is somewhat level and always accessible. If you’re designing something for your neighborhood, think about the entrance or even an available empty lot. (Yes, seek permission first.) You want a place that can be seen.

Craft your bed for planting, remembering one fact: Nothing square is found in nature. Use a pattern that is circular, somewhat so, or even will have a bit of a curve to it. Always raise your bed. It will make your planting more important. Now play up texture, by using something like the stones used here. Since raised beds mean your plants will be closer to eye level, be mindful of heartiness and color.

Work your way into your space, by first using lower plants. Then, add a secondary element. This can be taller plantings, bloomers, or greenery. You want a bit of contrast. And you’ll also want to find plants that are easy to maintain and hardy in most weather.

Then add the focal point, like a bit of sculpture shown here—although your piece of interest doesn’t have to be metal; you could just as easily select an urn placed on a pedestal, or even a tall plant or tree, blooming or not. The idea is for you to select whatever pleases you and will provide year-round interest, for the focus of your design.

Your design for a public place can also be full of rangy color, like this bed full of rudbeckia, begonia and gomphrena. If you want something that is seasonally vibrant, here’s the one for you. Emphasis is placed not on art, but on color.

Good design needn’t be complicated or require lots of sourcing of materials. Find an area for your design, then fill it with what you love, what speaks to you. You can take the principle of ‘public place’ and make it your own ‘private space.’ Just remember scale and good siting for your design. Assemble and sit back and admire. Or forget it until the next time you walk out your door or round the corner. It really is that easy.

Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen: Make the Most of Your Hardscapes

February 3, 2015 by ark_admin

Many landscape designs incorporate ‘hardscapes,’ a term that means just what it says: retaining walls, terraces, patios, concrete, rock, and stone—all ‘hard.’ Exterior walls can define spaces, create outdoor rooms, retain slopes, and become lovely extensions of the house itself. Because they can be interesting additions to many landscapes, you should consider them to be not just functional, but also an addition that can make your yard more appealing.

These keystone block walls are actually a replacement for a retaining system of railroad ties that had deteriorated and decayed over the years. Railroad ties are perfect for performing the function: they hold back the soil. But they can’t curve, or loop. In nature there are no straight lines, so railroad ties aren’t always the best choice if you want your walls to be a natural element in your design.

The pairing of slab steps and rock walls gives a bit of serenity and even lightness, even though they are stone. Stone walls are still functional, but are more natural, and can be a reflection of your own personal style.

Walls don’t just retain an upper level; they also can create additional space, as well as define another. It’s like adding an addition to your house. When the walls intersect the ground above, you have an opportunity to create another flowerbed, or sitting area. This area of the yard is no longer just a slope for grass alone. And using keystone walls also means you can create a rounded-out area to showcase and accommodate a unique plant, large piece of glazed pottery, or a sculpture. You can relieve the monotony of a straight wall with just such a design factor. Railroad ties would never permit this kind of serendipity.

Stone walls are wonderful for terraces and patios because they aren’t dark or even heavy. An added benefit to erecting them is that you can delineate shade gardens from sun, and feature your favorite seasonal color. Use of stone walls also means that if you hang a light fixture, it’s as if you already have a room that, in turn, needs to be lit.

By having the walls level off and create more space, you also will be able to put your plantings even closer to eye level. If you have a corner, or small space, use of walls means two display areas—one above, one below–which means creating another dimension to your plantings. Translation: Your plantings will look full and lush, and you’ve made optimum use of limited space.

And isn’t there something serene and comforting about stone slab steps? These look as if they were carved out by nature, not lifted from a quarry.

Finally, stone provides texture, which can be a good counterpoint to greenery or even smooth concrete. The nooks and crannies can be home to mosses and even the occasional lizard. Your walls become part of the landscape, not just something to keep it at bay. Using stone won’t make you a rock star, but it will make your landscape so inviting that you’ll want to spend more time in it, and savor the seasons.

Living the Good Life with Chris H. Olsen: Let’s Reflect (on Christmas Design)

December 2, 2014 by ark_admin

Every year you put up a tree, hang garland, string lights, create seasonal tablescapes, and try to incorporate every surface you can find for holiday decoration, both inside and out. It’s what we all do, especially if we want to show personality and showmanship at a time of year when competition is stiff and ideas are many. Here’s a project you may not have thought of—a surface you probably haven’t used.

If you already have a mirror on the wall in a room, why not make it part of the act as well? All you need is an ample supply of plastic ornaments, a design plan, and a hot glue gun. You’re going to put your Christmas design directly on the mirror.

When the holiday is over, you’ll use a single-edged razor blade to remove the ornaments, and scrape off glue reside. No damage will be done to your mirror.

First, figure out what you want in the way of a design. A tree outline is best—read: easiest—because it’s pretty simple to create the ‘trunk,’‘branches,’‘lights,’‘tree topper,’all out of regular ornaments.

You’ll probably need to plan out your design on a table or flat surface first, to make sure you have enough ornaments to do the trick, and to see that it will have the effect you want. You can easily measure and mark for placement of your design by using a Sharpie or dry erase marker directly on the mirror.

You and your glue gun are going to be best pals before you’re through, so make sure you have enough glue sticks. The key to success with keeping the ornaments stuck to the mirror, and getting great show out of your design can be found in one word: Plenty. Use plenty of glue to suspend each ornament. And go back to augment the glue as you assemble your design. And use plenty of ornaments. You don’t want to be skimpy because your design is going to look right back at you.

Stop often to make sure your lines are straight—or not—and that each ornament will stay where you placed it. And check your colors and design as you progress. You might want to bring in something unexpected, or sustain the idea of brown ornaments for the trunk, green, red, and gold for everything else, or whatever color scheme you want to go with.

Remember that your design, as well as the colors you use, will be increased by the reflections in the mirror, and you’ll get a sort of ripple-and-shimmer effect with anything you use.

Keep adding glue, but keep your touch light, because too much glue pressed on at once will create globs when hardened between ornaments.

Once your tree is finished, remember to top it off, just like you do the real thing.

And you’ll be able to disassemble it all with ease, once the holiday is over.

You’ve now created another place for Christmas, found another area that lends itself beautifully to decorations. Anyone else would have limited themselves by hanging a bit of tinsel around the mirror’s edge, but you’ve taken it to the next level. Your tree, suspended from the mirror, will reflect well on you and your holiday celebration. And if that mirror is in a room where your friends and family gather, it will shine like never before.

Living the Good Life with Chris H. Olsen: Holiday Pixie Sticks

November 4, 2014 by ark_admin

Do you remember Pixie Sticks? Those paper sleeves of awesome tart candy powder. Not only did they TASTE great—eating them was such fun! You ripped the end off and tipped the ‘stick’ up, tilting your head back, pouring all that sour goodness into your mouth. Here’s a design idea that, while not edible, will satisfy your urge for color and simple design. And this time, it’s light, and won’t cause you extra time at the gym!

Take lengths of standard PVC pipe, measure and cut them in comparable lengths. But, before you cut, think about where you want to display your Pixie Sticks, if you are going to use them indoors or outside. If you’re using them outside, you might want them longer. You may want to cluster your pipe pieces, so think about using units of three pipe pieces. Yes, as usual, ‘three’ is your magic design number.

Using a drill, you want to drill many holes in random spots up and down the length of a pipe. Yes, ‘many.’ While drilling is tedious, remember the more holes you create, the more light will pour out. And don’t drill your light holes uniformly because you want scattered pinpoints of light, not rows.

Once you have plenty of holes drilled, then you want to think about color. You’re going to spray paint your pipes, and you’re only as limited as there are colors of spray paint. In this example, I used red, because they were incorporated into my holiday design. Any metallic you use would be great for year-round effect, orange for Halloween or Thanksgiving, blue for Hanukkah, or any other color or combination of colors to evoke any feeling or holiday you wish.

When painted, cram your pipes with ordinary holiday light strings. The more the better.

If you use your Pixie Sticks indoors, they become part of holiday structure, and are a nice foil for round ornaments. They can be hung, piled up, or even propped in corners. And another benefit to using PVC pipes is that they’re so lightweight, if you wish to suspend them, it’s easy.

And, if used outdoors, they take on a sculptural feel, and can be used alone or in conjunction with other exterior decoration.

Note how you can set one up, then the next, and then have one leaning into the two. Yep, three pipes have just the right look.

If you place your light sculptures within your landscape, they can mimic slender tree trunks, and form a nice design echo.

All you need is pipe, strings of lights, a drill, and spray paint, and in just a short time, you can create a cool light sculpture to use indoors or out. And not a single calorie was consumed.

Chris H. Olsen is a nationally known home and garden guru, designer, author, TV personality and public speaker. In his book, Chris shares his landscape and gardening knowledge along with his unique flair for home decor and design.He is also a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. Learn more about Chris and all of his work at chrisholsen.com.

Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen: Heads-Up!

October 1, 2014 by ark_admin

Don’t you just hate it when pumpkins get lazy? They congregate in dim corners and just sort of sit around, or they roll into each other, cheek-to-jowl? Passive and refusing to participate in what’s going on around them? Well….You can energize them, put them to work for you, rev up your decorating, and bring something unexpected to unexpected places. All you have to do is look up.

Seek those high points in your home, like shelves and the tops of cabinets or armoires. Think about what’s below, on those shelves, or featured—your collectables—and shop for pumpkins, mini-pumpkins and gourds that will bring out the life in what you already have. Think about scale, variety, color. Scale is important because you don’t want a pumpkin so large it ‘looms’ above you and your guests, and takes two people to lift up onto the surface above. And color is also something that you want to consider, because you want to complement what you already have in the room, or provide a nice contrast.

As you get your look assembled above, be sure and use some of the same elements below, which will create uniformity in your design, and even make your space appear larger. You don’t want your design to seem too polished, so look around at the pieces you already own and try and incorporate them into your look.

Don’t be afraid to bring your display into really unexpected places, like these kitchen shelves. These -out-of-the-way places serve as great little vignettes for seasonal produce heaped into a few similar bowls. Note the blown-glass irregular shaped vessels are the perfect receptacle for pumpkins and squash because they don’t obscure the fruit within, or make your design too heavy overhead.

While you’re creating a sort of natural design, go outside and find some things growing around your yard that will help you create a design point. Cut branches make a sort of ‘nest’ for this pair of pumpkins. The column capitals were nice and level, which meant the pumpkins would be fine resting on top. But the insertion of a few small stripped limbs around them gives the look a bit of texture and whimsy, which is always good.

When we think of pumpkins, of course we think of the color orange. So try to bring in a hue not as shopworn. ‘Ghost’ pumpkins are now easy to find, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. And by using such a pale color above, the design is not nearly as heavy as it would have been with the tried-and-true hot-toned pumpkin.

All you have to do to give your design that extra pop is elevate it. Use your seasonal elements in unexpected places—as high up as you can—and don’t forget the good design trinity: scale, variety, color. You will enjoy the seasonal transition much more and all with only a few new ideas or elements. And it can all start with you looking up for inspiration.

Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen: One Plus One Plus One=Late-Season Success

September 3, 2014 by ark_admin

It’s that time of year; not quite fall, summer not quite run-out, definitely not time to think about end-of-year seasonal decorating. Things look a little worn-out and frazzled. How do you keep your decorating and your pots of plant material looking fresh? One way is to think of a simple composition rule: Three is a much better number than two, or even one.

Instead of a lone plant, a forlorn piece of seasonal produce rolled into a corner, or a plain-vanilla terra cotta pot, you should jazz things up, create an unexpected pairing, and provide a sort of textured layering to it all. And use your equation in all sorts of places, inside and out.

The first element is a great pot. ‘Great’ doesn’t necessarily mean large or expensive. Use something you’re drawn to, something with a sensuous shape, good color and/or texture. Find the appropriate plant for your container, which means thinking about seasonal color and what’s available right now. Bumblebee orchids are a good bet with their ‘hot’ colors, mini pumpkins are coming to market, and an unadorned wall is a good place for a statement. With that pot you found on sale, the statement is complete. The color pops, the combination is unusual, and you’ve given an out-of-the-way location star treatment.

Move on to other pots and other locations. Nurseries this time of year will have hanging plants that might have been with them all season. They’re often lush and low-hanging. Bring one home, and find the right container for it.

You can leave these late-season additions in their plastic growing pots for easy removal, and place on top of existing soil in your larger, ‘featured’ pot. If you use something like a creeper, you get the effect of sprawling vines. And when you plunk down your third element, like this early season pumpkin, your foliage becomes a sort of necklace, or foamy collar. You’ve brought the pumpkin patch indoors, and created a happy combo.

Since we’re not into fall just yet, you’ll want to temper your hot color usage, and think about a color to complement the orange, crimson, or yellow blooms and pumpkins. Blue pots are soothing and provide a cool counterpoint. And your bloom color and pot will pick up other bits of comparable color in the room.

Don’t forget the appeal of texture. There’s nothing quite like a timeworn urn or pot with a glossy plant residing in it. The matte finish of your container is always good counterpoint for shiny foliage, and vice versa.

Gray is the ultimate neutral, and can be found in many areas, including plant material, like the tillandsia added to the pot here. Use the hue with confidence because it makes other colors sing out.

Also, since we’re not farmers, we shouldn’t want to see the soil the plant resides in. This time of year, make Spanish moss your ally, and stuff it around your plantings as a last step. And note you’re using the same color gray to strengthen your design.

Finally, step back and use more elements as needed. A few extras can be tossed underneath and around. And take a look at the surrounding walls. These nailed-up, sawed-off pumpkin halves are an amusing nod to the coming change of season.

Use of an uneven number of elements—a deceptively simple idea—can give oomph to your late season planting and decorating. Don’t be afraid to prove that one plus one plus one can equal a lot more than three, and show off your design prowess in a big way.

Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen: Strength in Numbers

August 6, 2014 by ark_admin

Thick, textured, lush, healthy, shining. Adjectives from a shampoo commercial? You bet, but they also should be your watchwords for summer plantings. You can achieve the sort of blooming beds—the kind that people will remember—with just a little bit of planning and maintenance, and a few simple design ideas: Plant more; think color, then texture; find vitality in simple design (I like to call this the “shove it and cram it” style); feed and water consistently.

Even if you have only a small area to plant, you should put out more than a few paltry little specimens. By planting more—think of it as more plants sharing tight quarters—you create a unified design. While it’s fun to try mixing different type plants and assorted colors, you achieve a more pleasing look some times by using just one or two varieties of annuals.

You’ve heard me exclaim before about the great impact of the dainty-appearing angelonia, but here it is in full glory. The color range is in the cool spectrum, so you’ll find them in white, pink, and a couple of shades of violet. Crowded in this way, you get the effect of waves of color. And, despite their diminutive stature, they’re the workhorses of summer annuals. Also known as ‘summer snapdragon,’ their bloom is unstinting for months in the summer heat.

Another extraordinarily hardy bloomer is scavolea. This plant tends to creep, run, and ramble, so it can easily be placed as a foundation planting under something taller. Great for borders, where the color can ‘pop,’ or in pots assembled with other bloomers, you get 120 days of bloom every time. And scavolea comes in a thrilling blue. When you see it blooming, you’ll want more, which means creating that unified design I’m showing you here.

Another benefit of the ‘more plants, closer together’ or ‘shove it and cram it’ philosophy is that you can pair them with something taller, to create a texture contrast. These begonias are matched with fan palms. The vibrant red blooms are countered by the nodding fronds overhead, an unexpected pairing, but one of two rugged plants that thrive under the steady sun. And a benefit of the palms towering over the begonias is that those fronds shade the begonias, meaning cooler roots, and less fading of bloom color. Another benefit of close planting is that the volume of blossoms overhead, plus the increased amount of plant leaves and stalks, is that all the roots get shaded from above.

Another good design idea to remember is to FORGET about the color wheel. It doesn’t have to match the brick of your house–it’s all about personal preference. If you want to create a planting pair, try something like the angelonia placed cheek-by-jowl with the brilliant yellow lantana here. Also a great texture and shape contrast, such a planting maximizes your space, and is pleasing from a distance, a good idea if you want your beds and borders to be seen from the street.

You’ll want to build in maintenance for your plantings. Annuals are heavy feeders. Feed with time release fertilizer, like Osmocote or Miracle Gro’s ‘Shake and Feed,’ as well as an occasional dousing with water soluble fertilizer. Yes, it makes a difference. It takes a lot of strength, stamina, and fortitude for these plants to bloom under relentless summer conditions, and they need your help. Which also means water deeply on a consistent basis. Shampoo commercials promise happy, tossing, rolling, shiny waves of hair, and with just a bit of suggested care. You’ll be able to get the same kind of feeling from your summer annuals with a little bit of planning and maintenance, and you won’t have to think about spokesmodels at all.

Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen: Sit a Spell

July 2, 2014 by ark_admin

Quick: How many rooms do you have in your house? I bet you can rattle the total right off! Next, how many bedrooms? how many baths? I bet you even know the total square footage without even thinking about it. But, I bet you are leaving out one area that you NEVER thought of! And I’m not talking about that ‘bonus room’ realtors like to list in the selling details. If you have a patio, terrace, stretch of yard loosely bounded by a wall and plantings, or even a relatively level bit of ground beneath a tree, you have a whole new room to use. One to decorate, accessorize, just have fun in. It’s time you turn your eye to that area and create a great space in which to live, congregate, contemplate, enjoy and take those moments to live life to the fullest.

The idea of garden ‘rooms’ is not new. English landscapers all the way back to the middle of the eighteenth century considered them an integral part of garden design. But what passed for a garden ‘room’ in those days—a lone wrought iron bench placed on mown grass, maybe paired with an urn on a pedestal, shielded by an impenetrable hedge—didn’t lend itself to real gatherings or informality. Think Tom Jones, or a scene out of many Jane Austen novels. What you need to think about for your room is what you like to do, what sort of stamp you want to put on your decorating there, and then have at it.

First, let’s start with seating. How many people do you usually entertain? What sort of party do you like? The options for chairs, sofas, ottomans, and settees are endless, so you need to consider your space, what sort of configuration you have room for, and how you want your guests to interact. And remember that you want a place where people can feel at ease, so look to something new, maybe even something rounded, like the piece here. Formality doesn’t always translate to the outdoors, so you can be looser—and more inventive—than if it were inside. And don’t fear upholstered pieces; the days of mildew and faded prints are over. New processes mean fabrics are now able to last longer than one season, and can repel stains or relentless sun. And nothing has to match, unless you want it to. Gardens lend themselves to serendipity, and yours should be no exception.

The translation of al fresco dining is literally taking the meal outside, so think about a table. Many travel articles about the Mediterranean feature smiling dinner guests seated around an oak table that has been brought outside, and placed under a gnarled olive tree. You should think about something more permanent, maybe a fixture you can use many months out of the year, and won’t need to cart into storage. If you have a grill and someone in your family who likes to show off prowess with it, then you will want a table large enough to feed a group of hungry guests. Keep this in mind, guests that are seated around the table in such a way, with your landscape surrounding them, good food being prepared as they watch, tend to linger, and remember the quality of your entertaining.

Now you’re thinking about how to fill your new room, where do you go to find the right stuff? It’s easy. Crate and Barrel, CB2, West Elm, Pottery Barn, and Restoration Hardware all now have catalogs devoted solely to outdoor furniture and accessories. And they have great websites where you can see everything. Lots of retailers are getting in on the outdoor entertaining trend, so you won’t have trouble finding what you seek. You can add to the square footage of your home, decorate it as you see fit, and find one more place in which to show your guests a good time.

Living the Good Life with Chris H. Olsen: It’s All in the Mix

Living the Good Life with Chris H. Olsen: A Parade of Pumpkins on Pedestals

Living the Good Life with Chris H. Olsen: Public Places, Private Spaces

Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen: Make the Most of Your Hardscapes

Living the Good Life with Chris H. Olsen: Let’s Reflect (on Christmas Design)

Living the Good Life with Chris H. Olsen: Holiday Pixie Sticks

Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen: Heads-Up!

Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen: One Plus One Plus One=Late-Season Success

Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen: Strength in Numbers

Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen: Sit a Spell

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