![]() ![]() This prevents the lawn and weeds from growing into the bed and saves you time weeding. ![]() Another helpful item is 'landscape edging' that runs around the edge of the bed. Shade-tolerant perennials include hostas (beautiful foliage), day lilies with large, colorful flowers, astilbe (delicate feathery blooms) and japanese painted fern (silver-grey leaves).The bed can include a few stepping stones so you can get in there and add mulch or fertilizer easily. Perennial plants are plants that come back every year so they are great value for money. You can also include some low-growing holly bushes for additional evergreen texture (similar to the box hedge, they retain leaves throughout the year). Other shrubs to consider are: Azalea (bright flowers in the spring), spirea (many different varieties with interesting foliage and flowers) and weigela (bright flowers attract butterflies). There are a wide variety of box shrubs, some grow only a few feet high and require no clipping. Your neat box hedge is a really nice feature! You could include a few box shrubs in the bed, this would visually link the new bed to your existing garden, for a more 'finished' look. ![]() Because the lawn is partly shaded by a tree, you could choose plant material that thrives in semi-shade. This would be something enjoyable to look at from the terrace, bench or swing. For more ideas, check with your local craft supply store.Have you thought about creating a 'island' bed in the center of the lawn? It can be planted with a variety of low-maintenance shrubs and perennial plants. On each end of the mantel (where you have the lamps) place a lighted (battery operated), miniature Christmas tree as part of the street or park scene. Then, using doll house miniatures, make a street scene or park scene in front of the 'house.' As examples, you could put a length of 'lighted snow' from a Christmas village kit across the shelf and make a snow man from small Styrofoam balls of graduated size and add miniature benches, caroler figurines, and so on. Perhaps you could place 'clings' of a door on a safety mirror and use a removable adhesive that will not cause damage. In the three lower recessed panels (the rectangle with a square on each side), make the squares look like picture windows by adding acrylic sheeting, safety glass, or mirror squares and then make the center panel look like center doors with side lights. In the three large, recessed panels that are shaped like the roof, you might be able to add colored 'cling' plastic, acrylic, or lucite to delineate the roof. On second thought, if you look at it a certain way, the panels above the mantel shelf are the shape of an old-world style house with a Mansard roof, and you might make this area look like such a house decorated for Christmas. Some mirrors in the panels left and right of the center panel would add light and brightness to the space as well. Multi-colored Christmas lights around the perimeter of the space would look vibrant too. Mistletoe consists of these colors, but please use the artificial greenery as real mistletoe is poisonous. If you wish to display a wreath, choose one with white or white-frosted artificial greenery above the center of the space. I would suggest a white, red, or lime green mantel scarf and some white or silver snowflake ornaments made with crochet thread to be suspended from the mantel edge and showing below the edge of the scarf.
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