Welcome to a Celebrated Hodgepodge Garden!

Welcome to a Celebrated Hodgepodge Garden! Felder Rushing's celebrated Mississippi cottage garden, parts of which are featured in countless magazines, is available to all in this HGTVGardens exclusive gallery.



Before - high maintenance and uninviting Illustration of the "before" landscape - fairly useless and uninviting, simply grass to mow!



Small Enclosed Front Garden WIth the help of a landscape architect, Felder enclosed his front lawn and built a "green roof" entry arbor. The backyard was also reversed - it currently faces the home instead of the road.



Front Garden View from the House The front lawn is seen from the home, not in the Road, and includes water, fire, round decks, and complete solitude - along with plants which provide texture and colour every week of the year



Mississippi Gardens Have Winters, Too Even in winter the backyard has texture and color - including a large iron fire pit



Back Yard - Where's Felder Actually Lives Because Felder travels extensively, he lifts his "front" house and lives in a small cabin in the trunk - making that his main personal garden



Back Garden Repeats Front Garden Round Theme A raised boardwalk and a flagstone walk encircle the small backyard, with the cottage on one side and a series of arbors and a fire pit surrounding a round mulch bed that is filled with antique daffodils in spring and winter.



Energy-Efficient Tiny Cabin Felder's tiny cabin is only 250-square ft, such as a tower kitchen which doubles as a solar heat collector in sunlight and also slanted porch roof that offers summertime while capturing cool summer breezes. The deck has been painted every year with all the official Pantone Color Institute colour of the entire year (in this instance 2013 Emerald Green).



Colorful Round Deck Repeating the circular theme of Felder's front and rear gardens, such as a round daffodil mattress (dormant in this sumemr scene), this deck is painted "Radiant Orchid" which was the Pantone Color Institute's 2014 color of this year. Notice the arbors about the far side of the tiny back garden.



Cover Arbors for Folks Comfort Round the back garden, opposite the cottage, is a string of comfy arbors, some covered, for seats and to enjoy a roaring fire pit. Then entire back garden is surrounded with flagstone and increased walks.



Practical Hardscaping It takes more than crops to make a garden function.



Teal Paint and Chairs Made of Bicycle Tires Color and whimsy are all hallmarks of fun gardens - and that front deck invites relaxation and laughter.



Whimsical Shape to Back Deck Who says a deck needs to be square, or even round? This is supported by extended beams attached to iron posts.



Noisy Waterfall The small but heavy water backyard has a waterfall constructed over a small cave which amplifies and "aims" the noise towards the front deck - similar to cupping your hands will help direct your voice.



Fire Bowl Adds Special Element Nothing beats the combination of fire and water in a backyard - Felder considers we are "hard wired" for them equally.



Rainwater Collection Roof and Cistern The front porch has been redesigned to collect and funnel rainwater running off the house's metal roof, and can fully fill a 300-gallon cistern from only 1 inch of rainfall.



Green Roof Entry Arbor This "green roof" arbor is encouraged by 14-foot iron I-beams and implanted with Liriope, Artemisia 'Powis Castle', 'Blackie' ornamental sweet potato, and cascading rosemary.



Contemporary Upgrade A new arched bridge connects the center deck, along with the first waterfall garden was filled in to get a calmer appearance and less upkeep.



Plants from A to Z in a small garden Felder develops a wide assortment of shrubs, flowers, vegetables, fruits, and tropical potted plants.



Heirloom Pepper 'Birds Eye' (Chile pequin) peppers are among Felder's many heirloom vegetables which are unavailable at shops.



Sansevieria Collection Just a smattering of Felder's extensive group of low-maintenance Sansevierias, which endure months of neglect when he is away on extended trips abroad.



Heirloom Daffodils Many of Felder's dozens of daffodils, increased in a round back garden bed, came from his horticulturist great-grandmother's garden. Listed below are a few that were blooming one March day.



Small Flower Bed Felder plants just three small flower beds of seasonal annuals, which require very little cost and upkeep, but jointly give a big splash of color through all seasons.



Combo Veggies in Buckets Closeup of a few of Felder's veggies and herbs, he develops in painted buckets on a sunny deck.



Salad Garden at a Recycled Pot An old cooking pot with drainage holes drilled in it develops a lush salad garden of leafy greens, onions, kale, parsley, and edible-flowered violas on a bright winter deck.



Hosta and Fern Collection Felder includes a tiny raised-bed collection of shade plants including hostas, ferns, hecucheras, and companion plants, plus a splashy waterfall to keep things cool and humid at the hot Mississippi summers.



Truck Garden For several years now Felder has grown flowers, shrubs, herbs, and veggies - plus lots of "yard art" - in the back of his pickup truck, through all seasons. He compels thousands of miles a year using it living hot sunshine, winter cold. . .and hurricane-force wind!



Yard Art Personalizes the Garden Nothing too whimsical for this world traveler who can use a fantastic laugh at his garden!



Lawn Art - St. Fiacre This statue of Fiacre, official patron saint of gardeners, adds a good touch yearlong to an ever-changing seasonal garden spot.



Recycled Metallic Scarecrow One of Felder's metal sculpture friends made this whimsical scarecrow - including crow - from recycled metal.



Vinyl Pink Flamingoes Felder has a set of America's most loved-to-be-hated icons, plastic pink flamingos. But there's a twist: Many of his have been personally autographed by Don Featherstone who first patented the creatures in 1957, and that famously said that "before plastic, just wealthy people could afford poor taste!"



Tire Christmas Tree It took days to assemble just the right size tires to stack and paint into a somewhat natural-shaped "rubber bush" which is festooned at Christmas with lights and ornaments such as nothing else in the neighborhood.



Glass Garden Art Felder also collects from nationally-known artists for interesting items in his backyard. In cases like this, he commissioned a trio of vibrant glass plates, each nearly four feet tall and hung between his front door and the street.



Cobalt Blue Glass Bottle Tree One of Felder's ten bottle trees is a custom made metal bottle tree which adds some whimsy and color to the corrugated tin fence enclosing his backyard. It's lit up at night time.



Blue Bottle Tree Felder wrote a novel about his treasured home-made yard art - whimsical wooden or metal "trees" festooned with colorful bottles, a practice which goes back thousands of years to ancient Arabian folks stories of genies in bottles.



Felder and his Dog Rusty They love and amuse each other. 'Nuff said.

Annuals

Annuals As their name suggests, annuals are plants that complete their life cycle in just one season. Typically utilized to add seasonal color to flowerbeds and planters, these prolific bloomers die back after flowering. Removing spent blooms will excite annuals to generate more showy flowers. Frequent annuals are marigold, vinca, begonia, coleus, zinnia, impatiens, petunia, nasturtium and pentas. But climate plays a big part in determing an annual plant lifecycle -- several forms of daisies, geranium, lantana, mandevilla, pansies and verbena are perennials in warm climates. Locate the best annuals to your zone in our plant finder.



Biennials Less common than annuals and perennials, biennials live for two decades, making foliage the first year and flowers the following. Flowering biennials comprise hollyhocks, foxglove, dianthus and Canterbury bells. Most biennials are actually vegetables -- beets, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chard, collards, endive, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, onions, parsley, parsnip and rutabaga -- that produce food the initial year but don't complete their growing cycle and shed seed until the second. Locate the best biennials to your zone at our plant finder.



Perennials Technically defined as a plant that lives for at least two decades, perennials are the backbone of any landscape with vibrant annuals offering variety. Depending on your climate, some perennials may maintain their leaves through the winter but many shed them die back to the ground to reunite again in the spring. Popular perennials contain: clematis, some kinds of daisies, hardy ferns, hellebore, hibiscus, hostas, lavender, several ornamental grasses, peonies, periwinkle, phlox, roses, salvia, sedum, violets and yarrow. Find the best perennials to your zone in our plant finder.



Bulbs One of the easiest plants to grow, bulbs provide lots of show-stopping color year after year for very little work. On top of that, bulbs self-propogate meaning they multiply and spread to quickly fill a little bed with blooms. Tulips and daffodils are the most commonly known bulbs causing many people to connect bulbs with spring but many varieties of lillies, such as canna, Asiatic and Oriental, bloom during the heat of summer. A few other plant types tend to be mistaken for authentic bulbs because they grow the exact same manner. By way of instance, bearded iris is a rhizome, crocus and gladiolus are all corms, and dahlias and elephant's ear are tubers. Locate the best bulbs for your zone at our plant finder.



Evergreens Defined as plants which retain their leaves yearlong, evergreens include a bright spot of colour to a winter landscape. Conifers, like pine, spruce, cedar and fir are exactly what generally come to mind when we think of evergreens but magnolia, hollies and lavender trees are also evergreens. Dependent on your planting zone, many blooming shrubs, like laurels, azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias and gardenias, keep their leaves year-round making them excellent base plants. Learn more about selecting an evergreen for your landscape.



Deciduous We can thank deciduous trees and shrubs for the kaleidoscope of orange, red and golden leaves we enjoy each fall. Unlike evergreens that maintain their leaves, deciduous plants shed them each year before entering a dormant period in winter months, then develop a brand new canopy of leaves.



Vines Even the acrobats of the plant world, scaling plants enable you to choose your garden to new heights when planted along with a trellis, arbor, wall or fence. Although a few vines, like morning glory and nasturtium, are annuals, most are perennials, coming back year after year to completely cover their supporting structure with blooms, leaves or fruit. Thanks to the variety of colours available, clematis is a favorite climber. Other good choices are bougainvillea, blackberry, gloriosa lily, honeysuckle, jasmine, mandevilla, trumpet vine and native wisteria. Find the best vines for your zone in our plant finder.



Groundcovers If your lawn includes a steep bank or bare patches under trees where grass won't grow, planting a hardy groundcover might be just the remedy to your lawn woes. These low growers creep across the floor quickly forming a dense mat that is resistant to weeds. With so many varieties to choose from, the key is matching the plant to its place, either shade or sun. For sunny locations, very good options are creeping phlox, goldmoss sedum, ice plant, plumbago, creeping juniper and lemon thyme. For shade, try periwinkle, euonymus wintercreeper or English ivy. Find the best groundcovers for your zone in our plant finder.



Aquatic Plants If a pond or water garden a part of the landscape, aquatic plants are worth contemplating not just for their beauty but also for the role they perform purifying and oxygenating the water while giving a shady habitat for resident fish, like koi. Though we're most comfortable with water lilies, there are dozens and dozens of aquatic plants -- some float on the water's surface, like lotus and water hyacinth, while some are entirely submerged, rooted to the pond's bottom, or grow along the water's edge like cattails, reeds and stalks.



Shrubs Compact and compact, shrubs can be either evergreen, like boxwood, holly, barberry and azaleas or deciduous, such as lilacs, viburnum, forsythia and spirea. Their small stature make shrubs the perfect choice for foundation planting around your home but they're also well suited for adding colour to hedges and borders or anchoring garden beds. Most all shrubs will benefit from an occasional trimming to help them keep their shape and encourage new development -- but always wait until the tree has finished flowering for this season. Browse 25 shrubs which can work in even the smallest areas.



Grasses, Rushes and Sedges Though we typically loosely refer to grasses, rushes and sedges as decorative grasses, they actually belong to various plant families and have varying sun and moisture requirements. The simplest way to distinguish them is the shape of the stalks: grass stalks are usually round or hollow while sedge stalks are usually triangular and rush stalks are generally flat or round. As for care, grasses (such as pampas grass, shown here) favor a full-sun place with well-drained dirt while sedges are ideal for shady, moist locations and appears such as it dampest of -- they are typically found growing at water's edge. Find the ideal bud, rush or sedge to your zone in our plant finder.



Cacti and Succulents Thanks to a sophisticated method for storing water in their roots, stalks and leaves, succulents (which includes cacti) have managed to thrive in the most inhospitable environments. This durability also makes them amazingly easy to maintain and perfect for desert landscapes. The rising popularity of xeriscaping, or landscaping that reduces or eliminates the requirement for irrigation, has attracted attention back to these water-saving plants -- but their habitat needs (sandy, loose soil, infrequent rain and year-round warm temperatures) restrict their usage to mostly the Southwest. The most popular exception is the prickly pear cactus which has been known to live as far north as Canada. Find the best succulent for your zone at our plant finder.



Tropicals With a warm year-round climate and abundant rainfall, it's no surprise that the tropics are home to some of the world's most stunning plants. It's also no surprise that those of us who live in less tropical climes want to incorporate these exotics in our landscapes -- however frequently the harsh reality is that many tropical plants are not hardy beyond USDA Zone 8. Container gardening is almost always a safe bet, you can overwinter the potted plant inside then return it to a landscape after the previous threat of frost has passed. Check this handy guide for 8 hot tropical plants and suggestions for growing them.