Landscaping Goals: Inspiration For A Happy, Magical Alice in Wonderland Garden

Taking a break from the interior for a second, let's talk about landscaping. Our house is in serious need of love outside, and with the first frost coming in about a month or so (whaaaat!?) I've been sitting down and trying to learn as much as I can about what to plant and when. Originally when we first moved in, we decided we weren't going to attempt anything outside beyond just pulling as many weeds as we could before the snow falls. But, the idea of pretty things popping up from the ground next Spring is just such an exciting feeling, so we may attempt to plant a few things in the fall by our front porch.

The previous owners weren't living in the house full-time for the last two or so years, and when we moved in, everything was very overgrown with a lot of weeds. Currently, it's a little overwhelming but I'm so excited about the potential.

Thinking about landscaping and flowers, two movies pop into my head (which I know is weird, but whatever): You've Got Mail and Alice in Wonderland. So, do you remember in You've Got Mail when Kathleen says that daises are the friendliest flower? And the scene in Alice in Wonderland when Alice finds herself lost in the flower bed and they ask, "Do you suppose she's a wildflower?" That's kind of what I want the outside of our house to be like: Friendly with daisies, garden-y with wildflowers and spurts of lush, fluffy peonies, dahlias and garden roses. The fluffy is imperative, right? :) And, to bring in our love of Cape Cod, we eventually want to line our driveway with hydrangea bushes.

                                             Photo courtesy of imoviequotes

                                             Photo courtesy of alice-in-wonderland.net

While I'm still keeping track of what areas of our yard stay sunny the longest, and which ones provide shade, and still getting an overall plan in place, I've put together a lot of inspiration on Pinterest that I thought I'd share with you today.

I'm drawn to wildflowers that have lots of lots of bright colors:

                                             Photo courtesy of hgtv.com

And by our front porch, since that area definitely has sunshine most of the day, I'm really dreaming of peach, apricot and blush toned garden roses and peonies:

Since dahlias are some of my favorite flowers (I used primarily Pom Dahlias in my wedding bouquet), I'm really hoping to incorporate a couple of varieties into our gardens. I'm mostly drawn to the Pom Dahlias and Dinner Plate dahlias (or Cafe Au Lait - I've seen these guys listed both ways):

                                                          Photos courtesy of floret

                                             Photo courtesy of Superhero Journal

Oh, the arrangements you can make with dahlias! Gets me eights kinds of giddy:

                                                           Photo courtesy of Project Wedding

                                             Photo courtesy of Busy B Productions

And hydrangeas that can't quite be contained by fences bring me back to the Cape, and I can almost smell the salty air and fried seafood just looking at this photo:

                                                       Photo courtesy of Serenity in the Garden

Finally, seeing as how we have a big dirt hole in our yard currently from where our above ground pool used to be, we plan to turn that into an entertaining patio with cobblestones, adirondack chairs and a fire pit for some seriously good smore-makin'. This is what we have in mind:

                                                          Photo courtesy of Ketron Custom Builders

And there you have it! Our landscaping inspiration. If anyone has any gardening tips or advice, I would love to hear it! I'm ready to get my hands in the dirt.