We landed back home last night after a great vacation in Rome, Barcelona and Nice. We snapped some photos from gardens around the Mediterranean that I’ll start sharing soon.
But, as soon as I saw Not Neutral’s tall orange lantern on sale for 40% off at Fab.com (you have to register to shop, unfortunately), I wanted to ask for help with two roof garden challenges I want to focus on next spring: scale and color. I’ve loved these lanterns since I first saw them on Apartment Therapy, but I don’t want to buy something this big in such a bold unless I’m totally sure we’ll use it. (Of course, the black and white are not on sale!)
In our first three years of roof gardening, we’ve planted what we love, with an eye towards sturdy plants that survive dry, windy conditions. Last year we invested in some taller shrubs which improved the scale and made our garden feel more relaxing, a bit less windswept. We going for the cacophonous British garden look, but I think we can try to plan it out just a bit more.
Do you have any tall, bring accessories in your garden or do you let the plants do most of the talking?
Brooklyn Roof Garden 
Posted by revelgardener on August 28, 2011 at 3:18 pm
I like the idea of splashing a bit of color in the garden, and this bright orange lantern would be one way to do it. I have been trying, however, to limit the dollars I spend gardening, believing that the time I spend gardening is justified by being able to shave a bit off my grocery bill (of course the joy of it counts but it is nice to have a quantifiable justification for the blood sweat and tears that go along with the smiles). That said, I found that the begonias I bought from my local garden shop did a great deal to add some color to my vegetable plants which mostly produce green in the garden for the majority of the season. I bought three of them this year – orange, green and yellow/orange. They did the job and, though I can’t eat them, they don’t need a pricey container to make them pretty. Just curious…what’s the price tag on the lantern above? While I don’t spend much, I do spend, and like to do so wisely…