Tour a Florist's Blooming Garden With Ruth McKeaney

Welcome Gardenworthy, my name is Ruth McKinney and we are somewhere very special. You may have met Keely on a number of my episodes. She's done floral arrangements, actually, for both of my daughter's weddings with her mom. But we are at her home today and she is every bit as talented and gifted with her gardens as she is with her floral design. So come with me, this is going to be a really fun treat. Beyond the garden gate, another world awaits. Our new channel, Gardenworthy, lets you explore the world's most extraordinary gardens. From the timeless estates of the South. I love green and white, it's always right in a garden. And the storybook European countryside. Wander through fragrant cutting gardens bursting with color. Here's where I get to play. Because a truly beautiful home doesn't end at the door. It begins in the garden. Welcome to Gardenworthy, where we believe every garden has a story. Did you see Walker? Hi! Hello! How are you? I'm good. Hi mom, this is for you. Oh, it's so good to see you. So this is why I'm excited. I have known Keely since she was probably 18, maybe 18 or 19. So for a couple of decades almost. I mean, not to date us, but a while. Yeah, it's been a minute. It's been a minute. And Keely and her mom are probably two of the most gifted floral designers I've ever known. She's done both my daughter's weddings and some different really fun events. But what's truly special is to come to her home because she's taken what was a smaller, what was not refinished. No, it needed so much work. It needed so much work. And she has completely put her stamp on it. So I can't wait to show you. So let's start out, actually, even from the curb, because the minute you even walk up, you've made changes. And you took an ordinary hedge here. It was so overgrown. They were really high all the way around. And we had another tree here that was dying. And I went to town on the hedges, like Edward Scissorhands. I see, you cut them in different. You were like Edward Scissorhands. So I made these like round. I wanted it to look like bushes, like you could slow a person down a little. So you could actually look at something. Yeah. And then I put this arch here. And I got this plant on sale for like 30 bucks. And this is Wisteria. I love it. It's taken off. And it's doing great. I love it. So this isn't the only place you've created a really fun arch right in front of your house. Yes. Tell me how you did that. This arch with sycamore branches that I saw on my way home from work and got so excited about. So I took multiple trips and I filled my car up, sticking out the back window. I have a Jeep. So I opened the window and I had them sticking out the back. Yeah. I don't know if that's legal. Don't tell the cops. But anyway. But I love sycamore because they shed. Ours shed all over our backyard. Oh, cool. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Well, I loved these too. Look, aren't they adorable? All these little balls. Oh, they're up here too. My son just noticed them and started ripping them off and breaking them. But there's still some left and now he knows not to do it ever again. But I used fishing line and created this little arch. I just thought it was so much more interesting and organic. I liked adding this shape to the straight lines of the home. I love it. Driving up, I get so much more excited. So how long have you been in this house? For four years. Okay. Yeah. And how many kids do you have? I have three kids. Just the four of us. I have a dog, three chickens, two kittens and a fish that's been around. What inspires me so much about you is here you are. You know, you started as a single mom and I know you've got a really fantastic boyfriend now. But who helps you? But you're not afraid of trying things by yourself. Life is too short. It's too short. And I love the space and the home that I've been given. I mean, obviously I work for it, but I just feel so grateful to be able to enjoy my space. And I try to make it special everywhere I go and just have my kids enjoy it. And then to walk up and want to sit neat there or sit over there and watch kids ride their bikes go by. So show me where we're going to be moving to your backyard, which I know is your haven. It is. That's really the most special. Show us where and how you were thinking through that process the whole way. Yes. I'd be happy to. There's so many little things. Like, I love this, right? I just like little treasures in the yard that you can just stop and admire, enjoy. It's hidden and yet it's not. And it's structure within. So when the plant is gone, it still looks cool. I got that cool thing. So I love it. All right. Take us to the backyard. So what I love, I happen to remember what this looked like when you bought it. Because Bob and I came over to tell you things. So I want you to tell everybody, what did it look like? I mean, it takes a lot to get inspired sometimes, especially when you're going through your own personal stuff and feeling like you want to create an oasis. And you have created it. So tell me, from literally coming out your back door, how did you plan it? I wanted this kind of winding path through a garden. Because this was not here. None of the stonework was here. The gardens weren't here. There was a big old tree where the fire pit was that was massive. And it was as tall as that one. All the way over there. Broke my heart to even think about cutting it down. But the cool thing, we put it through one of those machines and made mulch out of it. So the whole back is the mulch from the old tree. So you got to use the mulch. So it was all right here. The tree was here. And then this, the whole garden, I can't take full credit. I had an awesome guy. His name's Brent from Union Landscaping. It was the fence. Because I have a dog. I've always had a dog. I have a new dog. But anyway, I needed the fence. We put the fence up. And so this was kind of custom built from a guy that I knew could do, you know, woodwork stuff. And so the specs were there. And he put the whole thing together. We did a cedar shake roof. Because I think that looks so cute. And like Nantucket-y and like cottage-y. And I wanted it to feel like its own little cute cottage in the backyard. And I loved the door with the crisscross. And did you paint this? I had it painted as well. Actually, my ex painted it. Okay. You know. Thank you. Okay, so this is painted. You put this little kind of cafe scene going on right here, which I love. Yeah, I brought that with me from where I lived before. I love the marble chips around. My kids just came and the s'mores stick is out here. I love this pot I got. This lavender keeps coming back. And these keep coming back. Because they're succulents. So yes. So this is really cool. I'll show you this rock I have in the back where it's growing in the crack. And I pulled it out and put them in dirt. And they come back every year. And if you look over here, it had babies. Isn't that the cutest thing? I love it. It makes me so happy. So down in my rooms, I only use succulents. Because I know I'm not going to get down there to water all the time. And they will come. And the crazy thing is, it's like you can, I don't want to do it on yours. But you can take out these little, you know, like it could pull out. And then you just pull it out. Literally, you could do this. Yeah. Go stick it somewhere else. You can stick it right over here. Right in there. Yeah. And it'll, oh, you put some in there. So I love succulents. These two. I love them too. And I have two pots of them over there also. Okay. So you like, because you're like me, you liked the purple. Yeah. And the white. Because I have Annabelle. And then I have all, yeah, the same thing. I love it. And then did you put in the magnolia? Those were put in. Yeah. There are four of them. Brent was my guy. And he got them and put them in. I love magnolia. I do too. I love the way it smells when it's blooming. It makes me happy. Plus you can use them at different times a year for cuttings that are really. Yeah. I mean, I just hosted a big event this past week. Like a big event. And she knew we were on a budget for it and foraged all through her own backyard. And then came over and foraged through me. Yes, I did. All right. So what do we, you are also doing some low things. Dusty Miller. And this idea of it kind of being on each side. So it feels like nature, how it kind of grows that way. Like layers of nature. I mean, that's what Brent does. So I just want to make sure that I'm not like, oh. But obviously I've tended to it and kept it going for several years. Well, I think what is smart and you did it because we had that conversation. You needed somebody to give you a design. You knew how you wanted it to look. Of course, yes. But there's something. I did the same thing for my house. I want low things. I want it to feel a way. And he is able to do that kind of stuff. I would love to say I do it. And maybe one day I will. But I needed help to get there. So I feel like he's totally done it. And I've filled in places where some things don't do so well. And other things take over. And then you're weeding. And, you know, I mean, there's so much to do in a garden. It never ends. So I'm out here all the time. It never ends. Never. OK, what do we got here? Those are blue stars, something or other. OK, I love these pots. Yes. And again, more succulents. They're from that Life's Patina place. Do you know her? I've been there before. She's got a really cool barn full of like European aesthetic antiques. OK, what's going on here? I love this. Yes, it's like a Jewish wedding tradition to be married under a chuppah. And I had all the pieces just sitting in storage. And I'm like, why don't we just enjoy it? Well, because you've used them to do people's weddings. Yes, I had it. Yeah. And I just wanted to enjoy it with my kids. So we were out here just last night eating pizza. But I love it because you've hung your candles up there. Yeah. And I think you used that greenery on one of our tables last week. I did it knowing you were coming. Just like, look, you can also do this. I love it. Yeah. And what I love. OK, so this is a fire pit underneath a table. Yeah. Yes. I love that. So how did you do this? Well, Tom built this cool thing. My parents actually have one, too. It's like a lid, basically, for your fire pit. But that's brilliant. It's not so heavy. And so you just move it when you want to have a fire. And it's great because now you have a table. So he built this. Yeah. And it literally sits just right on top of the fire pit. Super easy. Oh, that's brilliant. Isn't that cool? Because those rust over. And I've got two where I'm thinking it would be really nice to have a table there instead. We could do it. I got a drill and an electric screwdriver. OK, what I love is you stopped your patio here, and you still left a large portion of your yard as yard. Yeah. That was kind of one thing I interjected about. Because one of the plans was to have it going this way to utilize the space. But I have three kids, and I love the yard. So I wanted to go this way and have it kind of open the backyard so we can play yard games. I had a badminton net here for a long time. So yeah. And then we have some cool plantings. I have a nice old bench over here. And the kids are always back here. My dog running around. You mentioned in our conversation earlier there was a site that you go to. Yeah, so there's a really cool thing, since I'm not loaded. But I love that. You're like, I'm not loaded. And if you're not loaded, you have to get on this site called Buy Nothing. You can get rid of things, and you can find things for nothing. So it's not Facebook Marketplace. It's Buy Nothing. It's called Buy Nothing, and it's on Facebook. You have to join it. You can only be a part of one group. OK. Let's say you wanted to get rid of your rusty fire pit. You can put it on the curb, and somebody can pick it up. Right. All you do is just say curbside pickup and wherever, and then they can come and get it. So I've gotten rid of corner pieces of furniture, just random things. Yeah, I love it. I've gotten pots. I've gotten some cool things. I love that. Some shutters in my home, like the storm shutter, plantation shutters. I got those off of there, and they just magically fit my windows. Anyway, really cool thing. You can even get plantings. So what is here? So this is probably the only thing, besides some of these tall grasses, that was here, and this giant tree. OK. But this sedum was here, and these giant rocks, which some people have brought into their property. Yeah. Yeah, so they're beautiful, and they have this sedum growing out of it. That's where I foraged for the little window boxes. But these are so cool. They turn different colors in the fall. They kind of turn red, but they just have a cool shape. So I took everything out of this garden. And you can't kill it. It comes back. Yeah. I mean, my kids try to kill stuff all the time, and they haven't successfully killed it. OK. Tell me what you did here. So this is a beautiful thing my boyfriend made for me. I've been wanting... We actually built one together over there, learned that the raised bed doesn't need to actually be on legs, because it buckles in the middle with all the dirt. So we put them here. He actually built them and filled them with soil while I was away. And yeah, very sweet guy. Well, I love what you're doing right here. Thank you. What do we got going right here? We have two kinds of tomatoes, a cherry tomato, a yellow pear, which if you haven't had is delicious. These are cucumbers that are going buck wild, and we need to figure out how to contain them a little bit more. Sweet peas right here. How cute. Oh, that's adorable. Do you have sweet peas? I do. First of all, their vine is awesome. I know. But no, I just actually chopped them for a Thai salad I made the other day. So yummy. You love that. I saw that, actually. So did you put this over here yourself? Oh, I picked this up on the curb. Isn't that cool? That's what I love. I love you. Isn't that the thing? The wheel of it was huge. I'm like, yeah, I'll use it for something. I had to park my car, shove it in and then ditched it on the side, you know, maybe. I mean, how many times have we, I have to confess, I've gotten things out of neighbor's trash cans. I'm a very proud trash picker. There's no shame in the game. I mean, God provides in many ways. I agree with you. What do you have here? These are peppers, and this is romaine that my kids obviously have been eating. I can give this to the chickens, this one. And this is spinach. Also, lots of little funny little parts we can feed to our little peppers. Have you always loved gardening? As long as I can remember. Well, your mom is so incredible. There's like pictures of me making little bouquets when I was a kid. So I know it's in my blood. Yeah. I've always enjoyed being outside. All right, what do we have back here? So here's the treehouse that I painted black. Oh gosh, if you can see that beautiful shipping container back there. Let's talk about the shipping container, please. If anyone you know out there likes shipping container projects, this is a future one. That's very exciting. I'm gonna have this be my workshop. I want to build a deck off of it, pave the doors, everything black. Yeah. Have an overhang, hopefully cut the whole front off. You could do a cafe awning. Totally, that's the goal, to make this whole front piece cut out. I'm like, do I know anyone who welds? Could I weld? I don't know. Maybe I could weld. Maybe you can. Or just the spinning blade, or picturing like... I don't know. Anyway, but the hard part would be lifting it up. I've talked to a few people. I'm gonna get there eventually. Okay. You know, manifesting. Yeah. And these doors are from a project from two houses down. They had a three-car garage that they turned into their home, and their kids now live in the front house, and they live in a house in the back. And I'm like, mom and dad, do you want to move in? Do you want to? Oh yeah, like your parents would move in there. Oh my goodness. It could work. And so it'll be a workspace for you for all your gardening, all your... Yeah, and saw, and like electrical, you know, things, whatever. First of all, where did you get that? From Tom. So Tom, my ex, was into events. He's an event producer. And the new thing, as of like 10 years ago, is turning these shipping containers into cool things, modular homes, whatever. You can do so much. Swimming pools. There's so much you can do. I've seen underground, like, bunker housing. Totally. Me too. It's amazing what you can do. So we're just going to get somebody to come weld that open for you, put the doors. Yeah, okay. And I'm going to have them sliding open, and then you and all of our friends will just be there doing a workshop on a long table. I love that. Got a cool deck. So Kaylee recently came over. I had about 25 women from around the country in last week, and she did a beautiful workshop on setting three different dining tables in my barn. One was a Mediterranean feel. One was kind of a Ralph Lauren feel. And what was the other one? It also had a Mediterranean, but it was more of like a garden-y, like the floral linens. And she did a different floral scape for each table. But your point is you're wanting to be able to do that kind of workshop from your home. Yes, I want to do workshops. It's a thing. People do them, and I've been asked several times by, you know, different people around. And I've done a couple, and I want to do more. So I think it's a good opportunity. It'll happen. I got all the turntables, all the clippers. Good to go. And then we have a chicken coop. Yes, here's our chickens. We only have three now. But you know about chickens. I know about chickens. You know all about chickens. These are three barred rock. I would let them out, but... And they usually do run around, but they just like to kick the mulch up everywhere. I started a compost, too. You started a compost? I did. Have you done that before? I haven't. I've been encouraged to do it, but I have not done it. But you have chickens. It's hard to decide. I feel like if you have chickens, you either feed your scraps to the chickens or you stick it in a... Or you build a compost. Well, I've been using this trash bin. I went to the flower show, listened to one of those lectures. This tomato guy was going on about how you can make a compost in a trash can, wheel it around for your garden, open the lid, and just use that. Use it. Anyway. But I give all my leftovers to the chickens. I know. So do I. But you can do leaves and all kinds of other stuff, too. So one of the things that I noticed when we were walking through, and one of, you know, I feel is lighting is so important in a garden. And I want you to talk about where you've put lighting and how you've done it. Yes. As you know, lighting is huge. It's everything. You can't see anything without light. So I got these cute little lights. They're solar. And where else have you put lighting? I think I see it all the way around. I have strung these lights up. Sorry, kitties. There's one all along here. And then there's one along the back and one over here. It just really opens up the yard, you know, and my kids and I can enjoy it a lot longer. And these lights stay lit till like four in the morning. I noticed last night when I was up changing the sheets after Walker went to bed. I'm like, oh my gosh, the lights are still on. How cool is that? Being a mom, changing the sheets at three o'clock in the morning, four o'clock in the morning. It's a real good job. I love it. I know you do. I do love it. I really do. And I know it's only a window, you know, season. It's a season. And they'll be out and you'll be begging for them to come back. Look at this fun architectural piece. Isn't that cool? Now, where did you find that? Hen Feathers was a really cool store. It was in Malvern. And actually, there's a couple little like this little pot. Some of these little treasures around the garden are from there. They're not in business anymore, but it is very cool. I did see one on Etsy or no, what's that one? eBay. Okay. Yeah, just because I thought they were so cool. And they're very lightweight. It looks like a cathedral kind of thing. I just love the architectural pieces that you throw in everywhere. So yes, thank you. Do you have any other dreams for the backyard? A tiny pool, a water feature. Okay. You know, I'm looking at those like cowboy things, like the tubs, the metal tubs. I don't know. Oh, you're talking about that animals drink out of. Yeah, but it could be cool. You could make anything cool. As long as you had a water feature, like it's constantly changing the water. I think it needs to be filtered. Yeah. Or even just like an outdoor shower slash bath situation. Because you could just take the water out of the fresh water. And I'm talking to a plumber about running warm water through the hose. So I can do my kids a dog outside when they're filthy. I can just have warm water instead of like freezing cold hose water. Wow. That's up next. Well, I think what I think I love so much, Kaylee, is nothing scares you. And you, you know, you've gone through some hard stuff. And you were able to create a safe place, like a haven for your children. Your children. I love you too. That's the goal. And I'm so proud of you. And, and I love how creative you are. I'm going to go home now just because I saw that table on top of the fire pit. Not only... Bob can do that in a heartbeat. Bob can do it in a split nanosecond. He probably already did it by the time you get home. Well, if you'll text him, I would really appreciate it. But, but you'll get a table and then it doesn't also ruin your fire pit. Yes, it's nice. It's a nice smell. I love it. So thank you so much for your willingness to do this and open up your house. This is like your sanctuary. And what I love about... I know. You can tell. I know. And you've done the same with inside your house. I really appreciate you coming. But what I love is, I mean, you're constantly encouraging other people. You can do it. Yeah. When things are hard or if you're by yourself or you've got a whole parcel of kids, take time for yourself to create that safe place that you get to like. Thank you for seeing me. That is how I feel. Yeah. Life is short. It's meant to be enjoyed. Yeah. Thank you for being with me. I love you. Thank you, my sweet friend. And sometime we're going to get back and go into that house and see all that you did in the house. Yeah, please do. It's cute. I'm coming over one evening to have a glass of wine in one of those chairs. Yeah, exactly. Let's sit by the fire. We'll bring Bob because he hasn't been here since you finished. Yeah, and I think he knows how to weld. Don't you think? I think he does.