A Jackson Hole Bed and Breakfast’s Adventures in Landscaping

Inn on the Creek, a Jackson Hole Bed and Breakfast, has a picturesque location on the creek that makes our backyard one of the focal points of the Inn. Its a real team effort by the Jackson Hole Bed and Breakfast staff to make the most of our yard space with flowers, vegetable plants and relaxing seating areas for guests.

We brought in Frederick Landscaping, a locally owned company, to work magic with our patio and the pathway on the south side of the Inn. Summer 2012, the Frederick Landscaping crew started on the south pathway. The old space was dark, uninviting and gave a negative look to the Inn.

The results were stunning! The southern pathway, nicknamed our secret zen garden, gave the Inn instant curb appeal.

The Zen Garden Pathway After

The asphalt pathway was ripped up and replaced with a meandering stone walkway. Sweet woodruffs were planted for ground cover between the stones. This area of the yard does not see much sun due to the building and well established cottonwood trees. So the landscaping team planted a variety of shade loving plants like hosta, heuchera, bleeding hearts and ferns.

Small boxes were hung along the fence to add color at eye level.

These boxes were planted with begonias, lamium, lobelia and Jack Frost (more shade lovers). Many guests have been inspired for their gardens back home.

Finished stone patio

The next project for Frederick Landscaping was to convert our small, brick patio that had seen better days into a new stone patio. Another success. The new stone was gorgeous and expertly laid out. A small garden area was created between the building and the patio to soften the space. Karl Forester Tall Grasses and perennials including poppy, phlox and dianthus were planted in the new garden bed, and this fall bulbs will be added for early flowers this upcoming spring. The upgrade was not only visually appealing, but also more functional because it increased seating area and ease of access to the back rooms.

Finished stone patio

The next step in our landscaping adventures is bringing color to the Inn on the Creek with flowers–lots of them. When driving into Jackson Hole from the National Parks up north, our bed and breakfast is one of the first things visitors see once they turn onto Mercell Street, so we wanted the Inn to grab peoples attention. We headed to Twigs Garden Center, a local nursery, for some gorgeous flower baskets for the front of the building. The baskets needed to be bright, warm colors so we chose a mix of geraniums and pansies in yellows and pinks. The combination of the cheery flowers and flags turned out stunning and definitely grabs the eye of potential guests.

We continued the theme of bright, cheery flowers throughout all of our flower boxes around the Inn. Once the flowers take off it’s fun to bring the outside in by cutting some of the flowers and making flower arrangements to decorate the inside of the Inn. Two of our favorites flowers that we planted are day lilies and snap dragons for the inside flower arrangements.

This past cold Jackson Hole winter, the bed and breakfast staff started planning a vegetable and herb garden that could produce items to be incorporated in breakfast. We wanted to start out small this first year to determine how much time we could allot to this new endeavor. We choose two of our favorite vegetables, tomatoes and peppers and a handful of herbs including chives, parsley and sage. Kelly, one of the expert gardeners at the Inn, started them from seed and nurtured them through the cold Jackson Hole spring.

Our first tomatoes came shortly after August 1st and we are looking forward to a nice harvest the rest of the summer. Now, off to water and prune. The landscaping labor of love is never done at this Jackson Hole Bed and Breakfast.