DIY Life

Dreaming of a Mediterranean-style oasis in your own yard? Me too! Okay, let's get inspired!

So, what makes certain gardens "Mediterranean," anyway? Well, for starters, they're designed to withstand both lots of heat and irregular rainfall. The garden designs are visually appealing, true. But they're also low-care and eco-friendly. Because plants are selected for toughness, and lawns are absent or insignificant, there's less need for chemicals and watering.

1. It's all about contrast.
Mediterranean styling is pretty easy to imitate. The essential element? Contrast. That is, contrasting hard, structured surfaces with soft, unstructured foliage and blooms. Think tumbling vines atop high stone walls. Think paved walkways next to climbing roses. Think clipped hedges fronting tall, slender cypress trees. You get the picture.

Working out in my yard this past week, I was taken with the fragrance of my lilac bush. It is so easy to forget from season to season how amazingly aromatic the lilac blossoms are.

I've written in the past about creating a fragrant herb garden, but how about those other flowering plants and bushes that scent your yard with their lush fragrance? You can create a garden alive with the scents of the season that satisfies your olfactory sense as well as the visual.

The Helpful Gardener has a comprehensive list of fragrant trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals for each of the blooming seasons: spring, summer, and autumn. They even list some winter plants that can emit some scent. Some of my favorites caught my eye: lilac, jasmine, lavender, lilies (choose Asian for the strongest fragrance). They even mention chocolate cosmos; everyone likes the scent of chocolate!

For some of us, gardening is fun. I wish I had more time for it, because digging in the dirt, planting spectacular growing things, and watching them change over the seasons is so rewarding. Having a beautiful yard helps me enjoy being outside even more.

Sometimes there is close to no time, though, or you simply don't enjoy doing yard work. There are quick and easy things you can do to make your yard beautiful with minimal work. Some take less than five minutes, others a couple of hours, but each makes an important impact on the eye appeal of your yard.

If you have five minutes...

• Buy a hanging plant -- or two, or three! -- and some brackets, and hang a plant by each entrance to your house. Petunias and begonias work well in sunny areas, impatiens if your doorways get less sun.
• Weed a small garden you have been neglecting: instant gratification.
• Stick a small garden flag at the entrance to your driveway or in the most prominent garden in your yard.
• Purchase a planter already teeming with greens and blooms and stick it somewhere noticeable.

I have a huge perennial garden in my backyard. Being somewhat persnickety, I have a grid diagram of my garden showing where each plant is and when its flowers are due to bloom. But this year I'm going to have to make some major changes.

Several of my plants have grown to enormous proportions so they need to be split and relocated. Others just aren't performing well, so I need to put out feelers and see if any family or friends are interested in them. Because so much work needs to be done anyway, I've decided this is a perfect year for a garden redesign.

BBC Lifestyle has a virtual garden design tool -- an easy way to envision how your garden may look. The tool is simple to use. You'll enter the dimensions of your garden and select the plants. The selection of plants is somewhat limited, so you may have to choose some that are roughly comparable to what you really want. Next is the fun part -- the tool will render a 3D image of your virtual garden. Enjoy!

Want colorful flowers this spring? No time to read that 500-page gardening book you got for Christmas? Well, time-pressed gardener, here's how to grow masses of beautiful pansies in 10 easy steps.

1. Know your zone. Is now a good time to plant? The answer depends upon your zone. Check the USDA's plant hardiness map. Pansies are grown as annuals in zones 2 to 11 (i.e. most of the US) during spring and fall. From zone 9 south to zone 11 (south Texas and most of Florida), they will grow right through winter. North of zone 9, they may die down during winter, but come back in Spring. Further north, the cold will kill them stone dead. Bottom line: if the weather is warming up for Spring and you don't expect any really hot weather anytime soon, you're probably good to go.

2. Buy smart. Don't be sucked in by the brightest blooms. Instead, buy dense, sturdy-looking plants with lots of healthy, green leaves and buds. These will give you more blooms in the long run once they get established. Another buying tip: it's better value to buy whole trays of baby pansies rather than pint-sized pots of mature ones. Be patient and those tiny plants will soon grow to full size.

Each week, Diane Rixon brings you Avant Yard, a look at all your lawn and garden could be. Diane shows you how to give life to everything inside your fence. We promise that your yard will be the greener "other side" and the neighbor's envy to boot. Alright, we don't really promise, but you get the idea.

Is there a dead tree in your yard? Let it live on -- repurpose it! Here are a bunch of suggestions, with an emphasis on projects that are both easy and inexpensive.

LEAVE IT ALONE
1. Leave it standing. If it's not a danger to people or structures on your property, of course. Let it be a home for birds, bugs and assorted critters.
2. Leave it standing and turn it into yard art -- hang colored bottles from the branches or string it with colored lights that change with the season.

CUT IT UP
3. Use planks for fencing.
4. Build a big brush pile, which is a fantastic refuge for wildlife.
5. Use it for garden mulch. You will need to hire a mulching machine or mulching service for this, however.