garden – Page 3 – MarvinGardensUSA

The Many Faces of Halloween

Back in August, Marvin Gardens took you in a brief tour of the old dorm room of Edgar Allan Poe at the University of Virginia. Now, the macabre writer seems to be popping up in other places just in time for Halloween. Aside from the fact that he’s one of our favorite authors, we’re ecstatic that even today, Poe continues to inspire artists and designers alike. In a recent pumpkin carving contest for This Old House, his likeness was used as the muse for artist Melody M. Dallastown of Pennsylvania as she carved a portrait of him into a white pumpkin. How creative!

Marvin Gardens would like to know, what are your plans this Halloween? Leave a comment and tell us if you’re planning a haunted house for neighborhood kiddies, your own pumpkin-carving session at home or perhaps simply passing out candy to eager trick-or-treaters.

Photo Credit: This Old House

Accessorize Your Garden Today With Timeless Form, Function and Grace

Marvin Gardens’ chief designer, Amabel Chan, is constantly searching for home and garden elements that can be used both indoors or outdoors — whether antique, vintage and contemporary or traditional — to accessorize with timeless form and function with a goal of crafting a genuinely unique ambiance that cannot be found elsewhere. Marvin Gardens’ product line includes a large range of interior furnishing and accessories (antique, vintage, mid-century and modern), lighting and home décor accents, an extremely large selection of outdoor iron, cement and stone containers, interesting architectural elements, wrought iron garden and driveway gates, antique floorboards and hand hewn beams. Take a look below at some of our favorite home and garden elements!

Take a look through our gallery to see more of our collection!

Photo Credit: Marvin Gardens

Wallpaper That You Can Reach Out and Touch

While Marvin Gardens’ style of décor is more on the traditional side, we’re always interested in finding out more about the latest innovative design trends out there, even contemporary ones.

A new wallpaper concept from Ilias Fotopoulos really caught our attention. Using felt dots to create words in over-sized Braille, Fotopoulos creates patters that are illustrative and imaginative.

From Apartment Therapy:

Oversize braille! The concept from Ilias Fotopoulos is a rather unique one and for those that still have their sight, it doesn’t too shabby either. For those without, the idea of standing on a ladder to run your hand over all of it seems a bit perplexing, but none the less, it’s an interesting way to design a surface.

Photo Credit: Apartment Therapy

Favorite Fall Reads From Marvin Gardens!

At Marvin Gardens, we love books. We love the look and feel them and their weight in our hands, the stories that leap forth from their pages once opened and the simple statement of history their tattered spines make while lining an old bookshelf. They have the power to sweep you away to far away places and times and they can transform your world completely if you have a playful enough imagination. A chilly fall night makes for the perfect time to nestle up in your favorite comfy chair with a warm throw, a cup of tea and a good book. So we’d like to know, what are some of your favorite fall reads?

Here are a few of ours:

Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White

Poems by Emily Dickinson

Grimm’s Fairy Stories by Jacob Grimm

The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe

Photo Credit: Good Reads

What’s Your Favorite Comfort Food?

After a long, hard winter’s day full of the hustle and bustle of life, there’s something so soothing and nostalgic about savoring a bite of warm apple pie just like mom used to make. Comfort foods soothe the psyche by reminding us of fun childhood memories and usually invoke feelings of nostalgia, safety, and security. For the most part, comfort foods epitomize home cooking; dishes can range form casseroles and stews to pies and puddings.

Over the next few months, Marvin Gardens will be making available to you our own line of specialty soups. These southern style soup mixes include Texas Tortilla Soup and Lone Star Chili and are designed packaged to be given as gifts. Keep an eye out for more information on all the delightful varieties we’ve got to offer.

In the meantime, we’d like to know, what’s your favorite comfort food?

Photo Credit: Big Blend Magazine

Recycled King Louis Tables

Even though the London Design Festival is done and over with, Marvin Gardens is still reveling in a few charming items that were displayed at the nine-day celebration of creativity. One such item that Inhabitat came across at the Lab Craft Exhibition is the gorgeously elegant, yet sustainable, King Louis Table made from recyclable cardboard from Gareth Neal. It’s rich, dark color and entertaining texture is enough to add a regal air to any space.

Take a look at what Inhabitat had to say about them:

Harking back to the grand ol’days when the French monarch reigned supreme, designer Gareth Neal gives these pieces a modern day twist using 3D computer drawing and CNC processing to create a sturdy cardboard honeycomb structure for these tables. An eye-catching, tongue-in-cheek creation fusing the old with the new, the Louis makes the perfect addition to any modernist home looking for a bit of irony.

Photo Credit: Inhabitat

Gorgeous Fall Planter Ideas!

There’s something so enchanting about a vintage, silver-plated item. Be it a serving platter, lettered cuff links or even an ornate chandelier, silver tells a story and adds character to any setting. If you’re searching for some decorative planting ideas this fall, track down some silver goblets or vases and transform them into gorgeous planters! Take a look at a few of our favorite silver containers-turned-succulent planters!

Photo Credit: Etsy

Contact Marvin Gardens for more design ideas by e-mailing MarvinGardensUSA@gmail.com.

Marvin Gardens Would Like to Hear From You!

Have a gardening tip you’d like to share? Want to learn more about a specific area of sustainable landscaping? Think we could stand to explore a bit more about exterior home design? Here at Marvin Gardens, we truly appreciate feedback from our readers. So tell us what we can do to improve, what you think about our latest blog posts or even simply what would you like to see more of. After all, this blog was initially created with the hopes of creating dialogue with our friends and customers and sharing information. So join in the conversation and tell us what’s on your mind! Don’t know how to leave a comment on a blog post? It’s easy: from the home page, click on the title of the particular post you’re reading, e.g. “Prepare Your Garden for Fall Succulents”. This will take you off of the home page and to the post. At the bottom of the post is an area called “Speak Your Mind” where you can leave your comment. Just fill out the gray boxes with your information and submit.

6 Lavender Care Tips

For centuries, lavender’s gentle color and relaxing scent have both been put to great use in a variety of ways by gardeners and hobbyists alike: its fragrance has been used in soaps, shampoos and even fabric softeners and also to relieve ailments like insomnia, anxiety, depression and mood disorders. Its subtle flavor has been used in teas, jellies and ice creams. Aside form all its many uses, though – and perhaps best of all—it’s a gorgeous specimen. Lavender’s sultry purple-ish hue livens up any garden. This herb can be easily grown in your own backyard or in a container on the window sill. If you’re considering introducing lavender to your plot, Marven Gardens suggests taking a look at these plant care tips below from Buzzle. Be sure to consider the type of lavender you’re working with, i.e. French and Spanish Lavender, as care varies slightly by specimen.

From Buzzle:

1. Make sure you regularly water the plants and use compost manure.

2. Never over-water; if plants develop a brown base, this is an indication to reduce the quantity of water.

3. Cut one-third of leafage in spring. When there is an appearance of new growth, leave it for a month or two. Cut half of the new foliage.

4. Spent flower stems would keep depositing on the plant. Cut spent flower stems regularly. If you don’t, the plant would grow woody and out of shape.

5. Avoid cutting the woody branches in order to bring the plants in shape. This might result in the death of the plants.

6. If the plants are ruined and cannot be saved and you have to replace them, wait for the fall. Winter is the best season to replace them.

Photo Credit: ShaunFleet.Com

Trading in Summer for Fall: A Look at Autumn-Inspired Rooms

At Marvin Gardens, the ambiance of the interior of the home fascinates us just as much as its exterior—after all, a perfectly manicured garden is nothing without a cozy abode to nestle up to! So, in light if the fact that tomorrow is the first official day of fall, we thought we’d take a look at some of out favorite autumn-inspired interiors from various designers as presented to us by Habitually Chic. We suggest that you use these early fall weeks to put away the light summer blankets, bring out the heavier wool quilts, trade your cool summer colors in for warm earth tones and swap the cold iced teas for comforting, hot seasonal ones. What’s your routine when preparing your home for the changing of the seasons from summer to fall?

Photo Credit: Habitually Chic