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ROSA VUVUZELA: Attend a midsummer rose pruning demonstration in Stellenbosch.

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• The garden guide sprouts advice

Cape Town – January is the time to sit back and gaze at your garden. Look carefully at the way you have designed your beds and planted up the borders, and consider what you might do differently this year.

Each year, landscape design shows reveal design trends for the upcoming year. Many gardeners look to the Chelsea Garden Show to glean the latest garden design trends, and this year’s 100th show (May 21-25) is set to be a major event on the international gardening calendar.

Kirstenbosch will also celebrate a centenary this year with the launch of Professor Brian J Huntley’s magnificent book, Kirstenbosch: The most beautiful garden in Africa (1913-2013 Centenary Edition), one of several high-profile events celebrating the milestone this month.

South Africa’s top exhibition designers, David Davidson and Ray Hudson, will be at Chelsea in May to design their 20th Kirstenbosch-South Africa exhibit.

For ultimate design inspiration for your garden, consider the 19th annual seven-day tour (May 18-26) to support the Kirstenbosch-South Africa exhibit, and which includes visits to Prince Charles’s estate, Highgrove, Lord Heseltine’s Thenford House garden, and Waltham Place, the Oppenheimer’s country estate. Contact Gill Durrant on 083 261 3961 or gill@bluesky-aviation.co.za

Local action

EASTERN DELIGHT: Visit the 100th Chelsea Flower Show in May to see how the Japanese meticulously create a water feature.

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By all means look, listen and glean ideas from top design shows, but don’t miss out on what you can do in your garden this weekend. Cool days, big heat, fierce wind and occasional rain has had a significant impact on gardens this summer.

January is the time to check your lawn, plant a spectacular hibiscus and stock up on the latest erica and protea hybrids. Follow these tips:

l Lawns: Lawns take strain in the midsummer heat and need to be cut on a high mower setting at least twice a month in January. Allow leaf blades of both kikuyu and buffalo lawns to be at least 8cm long during the heat of summer. Avoid shaving your lawn down to the roots as it will burn, and you will have dead patches appearing next month. Give your lawn a fertiliser boost by sprinkling a half handful (30g) of lawn fertiliser granules or organic pellets per square metre. Water thoroughly after application.

l Mulch: Make sure the roots of your hydrangeas, azaleas, camellias and gardenias are covered with a 5cm thick layer of pine needles or acid mulch. Visit your local park and sweep up the pine needles, or purchase large bags of peanut shells, apricot pips or bark nugget mulches from a garden centre.

A 5cm layer of mulch (compost, bark or dry leaves) on garden beds protects roots against the heat, and retains moisture in flower beds. If any soil in your garden is exposed to the sun, you have a problem. It’s time to cover up.

l Roses: January is a good time to give your roses a summer trim. Attend a summer rose pruning demonstration and learn how to trim back your roses to stimulate fresh new growth that prolongs the flowering period into autumn.

If you need to move a rose and you can’t wait for June, transplant it this month. Prune back rose bushes by half before moving.

Feed roses by sprinkling 60g of rose fertiliser granules around the roots of rose bushes. Foliar feed two weeks later with Seagro, Multifeed, Nitrosol or any good liquid fertiliser.

l Hibiscus time: These shrubs are in full flower at garden centres. Choose a spot that receives at least eight hours of full sun a day and is sheltered from wind. Hibiscus flourish in a paved, hot spot beside a swimming pool, and in large well-drained containers not less than 70cm high or 50cm wide.

Shrubs and standard varieties should be planted at least 1m away from walls. Plant in a hole that is two or three times the volume of the plant bag (75cm x 75cm). Mix in compost and two cups of hoof and hornmeal to the soil. Avoid adding chemical fertilisers at this stage as they can burn the roots.

Hibiscus shrubs hate wet feet and will suffer from root rot in poorly-drained clay soils or in over-irrigated gardens.

For the best flowering results, sprinkle a handful of general fertiliser around the base of your hibiscus once a month in summer.

l Proteas and ericas: Plant proteas, pincushions and ericas to attract birds, insects and chameleons.

Choose a sunny open position on sloping ground, or in a rockery. If your garden has poor drainage, you could grow them in raised beds.

l Perennials: Remove any dead flowers or untidy leaves from summer-flowering perennials such as agapanthus, alstroemeria, daisy bushes and cannas. Avoid letting hanging baskets dry out by watering every second day. Baskets of flowering fuchsias that get a few hours of morning sun can quickly dry out, and need to be checked regularly.

l Bulbs: Although liliums have finished flowering, continue to feed them so that the bulbs can build up food to produce healthy flowers next season.

A tablespoon of general granular fertiliser (3:1:5) dissolved in five litres of water applied to the root area will do the job.

l Annuals: Deadhead colourful annuals – such as petunias, marigolds, salvia and dianthus – to prolong their flowering period into autumn.

Established seedlings in colour bags can be found at local garden centres, and if planted up in containers will revitalise your patio or entrance.

Easy-to-grow heat-resistant varieties include petunias, bedding dahlias, marigold, portulaca, vinca and zinnia.

l Keep a garden journal. It takes the guesswork out of when to sow seed and plant shrubs, what flowers when, and for how long. Botanical illustrator Daphne Mackie has produced a beautiful Kirstenbosch Journal, published by Random Struik. Decorated with glorious African wild flowers, the 100-page journal is designed exactly for this purpose.

l What could be more practical than pots of colourful nasturtiums and culinary herbs grouped near the kitchen door? Pots are also useful for growing succulents that require excellent drainage, or for confining vigorous growers such as bamboos and mint.

l Plants growing very close to the sea are often damaged by salt deposits rather than by the wind. So if you live on the seafront, get into the habit of hosing down the foliage of your plants regularly, particularly after a few days of strong wind. Getting rid of this salty deposit will work wonders.

l Introducing water in some form can enhance the mood of a garden. The sound of water spilling from a freestanding or wall fountain is not only soothing, it also helps to mask noise from passing traffic and neighbours.

l Plants of differing structure and texture are essential in a garden for creating year-round interest. Don’t think because the garden is small that it automatically follows that plants must also be small. By introducing bold foliage and strong vertical forms into a garden you will create a better balance .

l With so much vibrant colour at this time of year, it makes a pleasant change to include white flowers such as agapanthus, gaura, hydrangea, marguerite daisy, Shasta daisy, galtonia and summer-flowering watsonia. l Avoid damage from wind by thinning out some branches on top-heavy trees. This allows wind to pass through more easily. – Weekend Argus

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All three found what they were looking for — in Oklahoma garden clubs.

Treat is a member of the Apogon Iris Garden Club, Oklahoma City’s oldest. Smathers serves as president of the Viola Garden Club in Oklahoma City, which she joined five years ago. And Lawson participates in several — the Flora Belle Garden Club in Norman, the Gladiolas Garden Club in Cushing and the American Begonia Society.

The three gardeners recently intersected at the “Christmas in the City Holiday Flower Show” on Dec. 15 at Will Rogers Garden Exhibition Center, 3400 NW 36. The standard show was presented by the Oklahoma Council of Nationally Accredited Flower Show Judges and led by Treat, an accredited judge and grand master gardener.

“I have a passion for working with flowers and plants, and love floral design,” said Smathers, who takes advantage of many of the design workshops, which are taught at the center every month and offered free to the public.

Along with wreath-making, Smathers said she’s learned how to create an ikebana Japanese style dish garden and condition plant material before making flower arrangements so they last longer.

She’s also taken advantage of the Oklahoma City Council of Garden Clubs’ periodic plant sales, in which members share plants from their yards. “We enjoy helping each other improve our own yards and also beautify the community,” Smathers said.

The great old castles of Europe have a lot to teach us about urban gardening.

Actually, castle heights are in many ways like clusters of multistory apartment buildings that often surround a small patch of open space. Like an elevator shaft, all the rooms that look out onto this space have the same point of view as Rapunzel did, straight down to the ground.

A thousand years ago, they needed a steady supply of aromatic herbs to season not-so-fresh food and to cloak the odors of what that era would dub “the great unwashed.”

Fresh clippings of santolina, rosemary, thyme and sage were strewn onto the floors, scattered into bed sheets and stuffed into less-than-clean garments. But when the barbarians swept through the neighborhood to pillage what they could, everyone ran to the castle for protection until the invaders moved on. And that meant there were more unwashed bodies within the castle walls, and the need for herbs was unceasing.

Then somebody got the bright idea of making an herb garden at the bottom of that space within the battlements. There they could grow herbs and greens without venturing out into risky open country. Now these folks could have just grown in rows, but, thankfully, they reached into ancient Celtic art where they found patterns, a lot like large knots of different-colored chords. Those first crafty gardeners decided to lay out the herb garden at the castle in a pattern that could best be seen from high above. It was a bird’s-eye view that drove this design.

Today these ancient herb plots of the medieval castles are called knot gardens. Every time the herbs were sheared to generate more clippings to use indoors, the knot pattern was refreshed. Over time they grew more elaborate, larger and yielded more colors and a powerful three-dimensional effect.

When the Dark Ages passed, the knot gardens of castle grounds were expanded outside the walls. In France, these patterns upon the ground grew to many acres in size. In time they evolved into the parterre, which reached its zenith at Chateau de Villandry, the world’s most decadent food garden.

One of the greatest truths of garden design is that there are no new ideas; only the applications change. Therefore, gardens thankfully tilled in vacant lots and small plots between buildings should be seen on two planes. First, of course, is the ground plane or the human-eye level. Here the garden must produce vegetables or greens and other edible plants. That is the functional aspect of its existence.

The second plane is called “plan view” by designers. This is the view of a Google Earth satellite photo that shows your home and grounds from above. Inside a castle garden you may not even perceive the pattern at all, and only when looking out a window above does the graphic become apparent.

Imagine what would happen if urban gardeners who live in apartments above began to view these practical cultivations as visual opportunities. If those spaces were laid out in interesting graphic patterns, whether inspired by modern art or ancient knots, they would be productive and beautiful, too.

It’s really all about how you lay out raised beds. The parterre at Villandry is all rectilinear in form, with the beds laid out at easy-to-build 90-degree angles. This eliminates the complex knots with their odd angles and curves. Whether it’s a simple four-square garden or a detailed parterre, accuracy is what makes them pop when viewed from above.

The beauty of knowing history is that we can draw from ancient ideas and give them modern applications. This medieval knot garden is an idea perfectly tailored to our modern urban plots. So as we grow to resolve contemporary problems of high-density living, pollution and a limited food supply, with a thousand-year-old solution, we contribute more than just gardens to the beauty and livability of our cities.

(Maureen Gilmer is an author, horticulturist and landscape designer. Learn more at www.MoPlants.com. Contact her at mogilmer(at)yahoo.com or P.O. Box 891, Morongo Valley, CA 92256.)

Six MU student designers created 29 dresses inspired by  plants for the Mizzou Botanic Garden Fashion Show on Saturday.

“It’s a whole new experience for me because this is the first time when they’re like ‘take this,’ and I make something based off that, instead of trying to develop everything from nothing,” said Elise Lammert, one of the six designers from the MU Textile and Apparel Management Department who presented at the show.

Mizzou Botanic Garden organized the event to remind the community that the garden exists, said Karlan Seville, manager of communications at MU Campus Facilities.

“The whole MU campus is a big garden itself that all MU students are able to live in,” said Madeline Beyer, an information specialist at MU Campus Facilities.

Popcorn Drift was one of the flowers that inspired Lammert. The dress embodied the characteristics of the flower, with colors that start out yellow and fade out to cream white, reminiscent of butter-drenched popcorn.

Coleus Under the Sea King Crab stretched out on the dress created by designer Molly Elizabeth Akin, the leaf giving the appearance of a rare mix of bold and fine textures.

Akin said she wanted to take advantage of the show as an opportunity to express herself.

“I have to design based on first having a solid purpose to fill my inspiration,” Akin said.  “And so, with two of my garments that I’ve entered tonight, both of them were inspired by friends who had gone through hardships or by nature and just kind of like God’s creation and everything like that.”

Supervising editor is Simina Mistreanu.

With the help of Thomas Mawson, a well-known landscape architect, the Cory
family developed a spectacular garden stretching over 55 acres, including
formal lawns, an arboretum and a collection of themed “garden rooms”, such
as a Mediterranean garden and rose garden.

The entire estate passed into the hands of the Vale of Glamorgan council in
1996, and has gone extensive restoration, with the help of over £6 million
in funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Councillor Neil Moore, leader of Vale of Glamorgan Council, told the Telegraph
that the garden had been passed to the National Trust because the council
believed the charity could boost visitor numbers and bring money to the
area.

“Now the council has restored the site to its current wonderful condition, the
National Trust can take this beautiful location to a higher level, drawing
in its members from all over the UK. We expect visitor numbers to boom,
boosting local tourism hugely,” he said.

The Trust’s first project on the site is to open five rooms in the house,
which is currently closed, so that visitors can view the garden from the
perspective the house’s inhabitants would have once enjoyed.

“The garden was designed and built to ensure the family and their guests could
enjoy views of it from different rooms within the house and by opening up
these to the public for the first time, visitors will be able to experience
the house and garden in the way the owners once did,” said Mr Calnan.

A similar deal to lease the historic Welsh mansion of Tredegar House in
Newport for 50 years was struck with the National Trust in 2011.

Take
a look at our gallery of Dyffryn Gardens

Andrea Bithell, aka The Garden Lady, will be teaching Dallas County’s criminals how to grow things.Prison gardens have become something of a thing in recent years, sprouting in California, then taking root in an increasing number of jails and penitentiaries across the country. The benefits claimed by gardening advocates are numerous: reduced recidivism rates; skills that are transferable to life on the outside; food costs drop if the produce is used in the institution’s kitchen; hardened criminals are inculcated with an obnoxiously self-righteous preference for organic food.

The movement has finally made its way to Dallas County. Commissioners will hear Tuesday about plans to establish an organic garden to serve inmates enrolled in a gardening and landscaping course.

I have a call into the county for more information, but some details are provided in Tuesday’s agenda. The county would be teaming up with Oak Cliff Organics, which would plant a butterfly garden in one rectangular planter; a garden for food crops in another; and various types of flowers, herbs and cover crops in four circular planters.

The plots would be tended by teams of five or six inmates working under the supervision of two armed jailers. The garden work would be concurrent with OCO’s five-week curriculum, which instructs students on the finer points of organic garden design and maintenance.

The project is expected to cost the county $15,000 — $9,000 for supplies and $6,000 for OCO’s time and expertise.

There’s no mention in the plans of what the county or OCO plans to do with the harvest though, given the size of the beds, it won’t be terrifically bountiful. But you never know. If the program proves successful and expands along the banks of the Trinity, Lew Sterrett-brand tomatoes may be hitting the grocery shelves someday.

Arthur Dennis Stevens received an unexpected accolade in December when one of his creations — that was built more than three decades ago — was chosen as Wall Street Journal readers’ favorite out of 200 homes for sale. Price tag? $2 million.

Stevens has designed and constructed more than 230 buildings in the United States and Jamaica over the past 60 years, including houses, offices, schools and commercial spaces.

The 82-year-old architect, an Illinois native who has lived in Idaho since 1995, is still going strong.

His firm, Architectural Enterprises Ltd., is currently remodeling a three-story log house and designing four houses in the Robie Springs subdivision.

“I’m doing what I love to do,” Stevens said.

The 5,750-square-foot house at 7 Timberline Lane in Riverwoods, Ill. — about 25 miles north of Chicago — was chosen by 52,633 Wall Street Journal readers as their favorite among 49 “House of the Week” finalists to be named “House of the Year.” All of the houses were on the market in 2012.

“I feel like I’m on ‘The Voice,’ or the ‘X Factor,’ ” Stevens joked about the public vote on the merit of his work. “I don’t know that many people in the world.”

“It was exciting because I didn’t know anything about it,” he said.

The finalist houses ranged in price from $895,000 to $44 million. The Stevens-designed house, which has four bedrooms and 3› bathrooms, is currently priced at just under $2 million.

Despite the passing of more than 30 years, Stevens remembers the project well.

“They’re all my babies. They’re all my kids. I can tell you anything you want to know about the house,” Stevens said in a phone interview Wednesday from the Colorado Springs airport.

The two-story cedar-and-stone house has a curved pagoda-style roof and an 8-foot-square skylight. It sits on two wooded acres near a 550-acre wildlife preserve and the Des Plaines River.

“It’s such a beautiful site, and so private, you could put in whole walls of glass,” he said.

And that’s what he did.

“Pretty much the entire exterior is windows,” said listing agent Tracy Wurster of Prudential Rubloff Properties in Lake Forest, Ill., in a phone interview Thursday.

Stevens said a mountain of earth and gravel was brought in to raise the level of the house, in part to add an extra measure of safety near the river but also for aesthetic reasons. Winding steps in the front of the house lead to the main entryway, which is actually the second floor.

The house’s great room has a 40-foot ceiling — plenty of room for a rubber tree that has grown to 30 feet since the house was built. The tree isn’t in a planter; it’s in the floor.

One of Stevens’ aesthetic objectives is to make it hard to differentiate whether you’re outside or inside.

“You have to work with nature,” he said.

Stevens designed the house in 1978 for Joyce Marcus, owner of a marketing and design company. She has lived there since it was completed in 1981.

Marcus did not return a call to the Statesman.

She told the Journal that she and husband, Gary Janowitz, are selling the house so they can divide their time between Florida and downtown Chicago.

Wurster said the couple put the house on the market about a year ago for about $2.7 million. They dropped the price a few months ago.

Wurster said her phone has been ringing off the hook since last week, when the Journal named it “House of the Year.”

Stevens is tickled with the attention the house has received. He said he takes pride in knowing that a house built so long ago is “still contemporary in people’s minds.”

“It’s quite different,” he said. “It’s not a standard house.”

Katy Moeller: 377-6413

Stephen Lacey, meanwhile, is holding out for a change of focus. “I
would like to see a rediscovery of shrubs,” he says. “They have been booted
into the shadows by the grasses and perennial movement and are now well
overdue a revival.”

Sarah Raven agrees. “I’m only interested in three ways of gardening:
productive, pollinator-friendly and trees (for their long time-scale in
contrast to the annuals I usually grow). I want to plant more flowering
shrubs and trees, low-maintenance elegant stuff that will give my garden
good bones to develop and mature around.”

However, Matthew Appleby says that instant gardening will still be a
huge attraction: “Look out for so-called tree lilies,” he says. “They reach
six feet plus by the end of summer and are great for cutting. For patios,
try Crazytunia Mandevilla, which are mounded, weatherproof petunias in new
colours.” (Both from Thompson Morgan.)

HOME-GROWN IS BEST

Poor harvests in 2012 prompted doom and gloom about young allotmenteers giving
up their plots; supermarkets took to stocking “ugly veg” (ie slightly
imperfect) to make up the shortfall in crops. But while fingers remain
crossed for a return to prosperity, many expect the grow-your-own movement
to carry on regardless.

“The turn towards self-sufficiency will continue, with more people relying on
their gardens for a supply of fresh food,” says Jean Vernon.
“Gardeners will be composting, recycling and making-do. At the very least,
they will grow their own herbs and salads.”

Stephen Lacey thinks the trend goes beyond austerity-driven scrimpers
and savers.

“Designer friends tell me that even super-rich non-gardeners are asking for
their gardens to include somewhere they can go foraging for a few edible
leaves and berries. Not a proper vegetable or fruit garden, with all the
attendant work and space required, but simply an odd blackberry or raspberry
cane, or patch of rocket.”

Mark Diacono, at the forefront of the home-grown movement, is looking
forward to 2013.

“I am excited about a resurgence in edible hedges,” he says. “People are
planting more hedges, and are also growing some of what they eat, so they
want something delicious from their boundary as well as shelter.

“I’ve been asked to design and supply edible hedges, not only traditional
blackthorn, elder and hawthorn, but other delicious edibles such as autumn
olive, Japanese wineberry, Akebia quinata, blackberries, Rosa rugosa, and
white filberts alongside.”

WORRIES ABOUT WILDLIFE

An increase in wildlife-aware gardening, particularly for insects, is set to
continue. According to the National Trust, 2012 was a difficult year: slugs
and snails relished the wet weather, but bees, hedgehogs and hoverflies
suffered.

Ken Thompson agrees, but thinks the planting-for-wildlife focus will
shift slightly. “I expect the first results from the RHS Plants for Bugs
project to knock on the head the idea that native plants are always best for
wildlife,” he says. “And if more people realise that paving over their front
garden (and half the back), isn’t always a good idea, then last year’s
floods won’t have been entirely a bad thing.

“And it would be nice if I could get through 2013 without a single gardener
telling me they don’t have room for a compost heap.”

Anne Wareham, on the other hand, warns that gardeners may cool on the
idea of attracting every bug and beastie possible. “Indiscriminate love of
wildlife will take a beating, as animals such as panthers, boar and deer
reach the suburbs. ‘Hug a slug’ may become less fashionable,” she says.

SHOP TILL YOU DROP

“The poor economy and the Chelsea Flower Show centenary will trigger sales of
replica vintage items such as Victorian terracotta pots, cloches and seed
boxes,” says Matthew Appleby. “In tough times people are drawn
to what they feel is safe and comforting.”

It’s not all about harking back, though: “As an antidote to the sodden summer
of 2012, expect a surge in outdoor LED lighting, which is transforming
gardening into a 24-hour activity.”

Garden centres, meanwhile, are doing more than ever to entice shoppers to hang
around. It seems to be working. The Garden Centre Association (GCA) reported
November sales up 11 per cent compared to last year.

“Their cafés are doing a roaring trade too. There were 55 million visits to
garden centre cafés in 2011, up from 36 million in 2008.”

WHAT’S AROUND THE CORNER?

•TREE TROUBLES

Potentially the most damaging plant disease to hit Britain since Dutch elm
disease, Chalara fraxinea (ash dieback) will continue to wreak slow
havoc on native woodlands. For updates and more information, visit the Forestry
Commission website.

• PESTS AND DISEASES

Slugs and snails may be so last year, but the viburnum beetle is set to
continue its invasion and chestnut blight threatens our sweet chestnuts (Castanea
sativa). For more information, visit rhs.org.uk.

• PLANT CONSERVATION

The conservation charity Plant
Heritage celebrates its 35th birthday this year. Ian Hodgson is a
big fan: “Cultivated plants, which includes those grown in gardens, are now
considered as critical to conserve as those grown in the wild,” he says.
“With 630 national plant collections, Plant Heritage can play a leading role
in protecting Britain’s biodiversity.”

• HORTICULTURE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Primary schools do well at teaching gardening, but at secondary level the
green-fingered energy fizzles out. With high-profile support from Alan
Titchmarsh, Jamie Oliver and Prince Charles, let’s hope more secondary
schools will start to teach the subject. “With increased tuition fees
putting people off university, horticulture may be one area which benefits
from young people taking a more pragmatic look at their futures,” says
Matthew Appleby.

• WEATHER FOREVER

2012 was the wettest year on record and, from a gardening point of view, one
of the most difficult. Predictably unpredictable weather looks set to
continue, but at least a hosepipe ban in spring 2013 is now off the cards.
Opinion is still divided on whether 2013 will be warm and dry or cold and
dry. See Noel Kingsbury’s predictions on pages 45.

• A ROYAL CELEBRATION

Prince Harry’s charity for HIV+ children in Lesotho, Sentabele,
will exhibit at Chelsea in the show’s centenary year. The prince is said to
be taking a “keen interest” in the garden, which is being designed by Jinny
Blom.

• THE VOLUNTEER ARMY

Horticulture charity Perennial
is seeking to capitalise on the volunteer spirit that was so much to the
fore during the Olympics and is launching its biggest ever call to action.
For more information, call 01372 384033 or visit perennial.org.uk.

REEF LANDSCAPES cannot guarantee dry weather but can guarantee a quality job which will, it says, will add value to your property.

Reef Landscapes specialise in hard and soft landscaping, including driveways.

1. ​

For a free no-obligation quote, please call Reef Landscapes on 01803 842753 or 07771 907534.

HOEP

Homes-Right-Sleep Stylishly

This March 2012 publicity image provied by Houseofhepworths.com shows a knock-off version of a popular but pricier PB Teen bedding ensemble using inexpensive sheet sets and iron-on ribbon created by Austin, TX-based, Allison Hepworth. She provides a tutorial on her blog www.houseofhepworths.com. (AP Photo/Houseofhepworths.com)

HONS

Homes-Right-Sleep Stylishly

This undated publicity image provided by OpenYourEyesBedding.com shows fa detail of former interior designer Lynn Cimino’s original Twist mattress design – components include cotton covers and buckwheat hulls that you self-assemble by filling the covers with the hulls and twisting and tying. Fully customizable, the mattresses are similar to Japanese futons. (AP Photo/OpenYourEyesBedding.com)

HONS

Homes-Right-Sleep Stylishly

This undated publicity image provided by OpenYourEyesBedding.com shows former interior designer Lynn Cimino’s creation of the Twist mattress – components include cotton covers and buckwheat hulls that you self-assemble by filling the covers with the hulls and twisting and tying (www.openyoureyesbedding.com). Fully customizable, the mattresses are similar to Japanese futons. (AP Photo/OpenYourEyesBedding.com)

Posted: Thursday, January 3, 2013 12:15 pm

Design your own chic, comfy bedding

Associated Press |

0 comments

There are stores full of exquisite bedding. But fancy sheets, duvets and mattresses can sometimes fall short of our wish lists, in style, price, comfort or all three.

What if you could make your own?

You don’t need to be a professional designer, or even much of a sewer, to create one-of-a-kind bedding that looks as nice as the stuff of dreams.

First, your existing bedding can be embellished with sew-on or iron-on appliques, available in craft and stitchery supply stores.

Writer and crafter Kim Ray offers suggestions on the website Doityourself.com. Trim the edges of sheets with flowers or butterflies for a feminine touch. Monogrammed initials give a smart, tailored and custom look. Ray also recommends edging a sheet with lace, making simple ruffles out of rayon seam binding, and embellishing coverlets with flowers made of various-size buttons. www.doityourself.com

Allison Hepworth of Austin, Texas, chronicles her efforts to creatively and affordably decorate her “cookie-cutter” home on her blog, House of Hepworth. When shopping for a bedding ensemble for her daughter’s room, she found what she liked at PB Teen but didn’t want to spend $400. Instead, she bought a couple of basic sheet sets from Wal-Mart, cut one up to make a pretty pink band on the sheets, and used heat bonding to attach a contrasting grosgrain ribbon trim on comforter and sham. Her final cost was under $70.

“I rarely sew and couldn’t make a dress if my life depended on it,” Hepworth says. “I can, however, sew bedding sets and curtains, because it only involves a straight line and patience.”

If you’d rather have someone else put your bedding together, check out Inmod’s Design Studio. The online option page lets you pick a pattern from a selection of nature and graphic themes. You then move on to fabric choices – cotton, linen/cotton blend or Dupioni silk, then embroidery colors. You’re given the opportunity to see your final design in a virtual room before purchasing. www.inmod.com

Got specific colors in mind? You can customize duvets and sheet sets in any color combination at www.custom-bedding.com.

If you want to really get custom, you can make your own mattress. Former Manhattan interior designer Lynne Cimino started having back problems and found that the marketplace had options, but pricey ones. Working out of her Marbletown, N.Y., home, she came up with a no-sew buckwheat mattress that’s similar to a Japanese futon.

Sections of cotton canvas are filled with the hulls, then twisted and tied in sections for a custom-size finished product that looks like a big billowy cloud. Since the hulls have no nutritional value, she says, pests aren’t a problem. The hulls are virtually non-flammable so no harsh retardants are needed, nor is buckwheat typically farmed with pesticides. The cotton covers are machine-washable. You buy both elements separately and do the assembling yourself. www.openyoureyesbedding.com

Nest Bedding of Albany, Calif., offers a range of DIY mattress components including natural latex cores, vegan or cotton and wool covers, kapok and wool comfort layers and toppers. www.nestbedding.com

© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Posted in
Home,
Life

on

Thursday, January 3, 2013 12:15 pm.

| Tags:


Furniture,

Home,

Sleep,

Bedding,

Mattress,

Beds,

Blankets,

Mattresses,

Duvet,

Comforter,

Futon,

Bed