Twin Cities gardening expert on finding your 'Outside Style'

CATHY WURZER: It is finally warm enough to be out on a patio taking in some sunshine, if it was actually sunny today. Maybe when you're out there, you might have noticed your dirty and cobbled together deck furniture might need some work, not to mention the slightly raggedy looking bushes and other landscaping. Maybe I'm describing my yard.

Our next guest has some good advice for getting started. Ryan McEnaney is a Woodbury-based garden designer and author of the book Field Guide to Outside Style. Ryan is a fifth generation family member and owner at Bailey Nurseries. That's a 115-year-old nursery headquartered outside of St. Paul. The company has grown-- pun intended-- to be one of the largest producers of shrubs and trees in the country. Hey, Ryan. Welcome to the program.

RYAN MCENANEY: Thank you so much for having me.

CATHY WURZER: One has a personal style when it comes to clothing, which is difficult enough. Now, you're talking about outside style. Explain this.

RYAN MCENANEY: Yeah. I mean, coming into the landscape or anywhere in the outdoors can be a little intimidating. Where do you start, and how do you make it personalized? We're spending a lot of time out there, especially after the last few years, and so being able to sort of break down those barriers of where to even start and then making something that is uniquely you can be a little scary.

So that's where I sort of took on this idea-- going into writing this book of, how do you make something really special and something that's beautiful not just for today, but for the long term? And using, as you mentioned, these ideas of fashion as maybe a starting point, taking a look at yourself and maybe what you enjoy with other people as well.

CATHY WURZER: I thought it was fun that you broke people up into three design personalities-- Martha, Tommy, and Kelly. So talk a little bit about those.

RYAN MCENANEY: Well, that was one of the big challenges when you come into it-- writing a book that's about creating something that is unique to each individual. And then how do you create this pathway to designing an outdoor space? And so that's how I found could be a way that was relatable, by breaking it into these design archetypes or personas, and at least giving you a starting point.

Kelly being the more naturalistic plant, Martha being more classic, cottage gardening, really fun and colorful and useful and tactical, and Tommy being that more clean lines, tidy boxes, more structured space-- again, to give people a starting point for where they might design their space. But you don't have to live within that box, either. I'm a "yes, and" kind of guy, so, again, I wanted to have a structural place for people to begin their design process but not feel restrained by it.

CATHY WURZER: Now, you were a guy who grew up with plants in a family that-- the Bailey family, for goodness sakes. How would you describe your style, and is it vastly different from other members of your family?

RYAN MCENANEY: Yeah, I think so. For me, I grew up obviously around plants, but I didn't start my career in horticulture either. I started in a completely different world living in California and have learned all of this by being back and doing it and really developed what is me. And I am a mix of two of the most disparate design styles in the book, being Tommy, which is that very clean line, tidy box design style, and Kelly, which is the intentionally wild, very dense planting.

And so I like a little bit of the extremes where a lot of my family fits into more of that Martha, that classic cottage garden, living with the hydrangeas-- we do a lot of hydrangeas at Bailey. So I think it's a little bit different in that respect, but I think that's what makes it fun. We get to use this as a tool to have conversation around what people enjoy.

CATHY WURZER: I tend to get caught up in what I see on social media because it looks so beautiful, but it's kind of unrealistic because some of these influencers have perfect homes and perfect gardens, and it drives you nuts. But can you talk about how to take inspiration from things you see online in a more realistic way?

RYAN MCENANEY: I think that's a really, really important piece of the conversation, and there's a whole chapter that I call "Guardrails." And it's the area that I am not great at myself because budgets and that sort of thing are scary to me. I'd rather say yes to everything. But it's really important to have that understanding of what you're getting into and not just looking at Instagram or magazines or books like this, and say, oh, I'm going to replicate that.

Because that can mean a lot of money. It can mean a lot of your time and effort going in to maintain. And it might be something that looks beautiful, but it might be someone that's gardening in California or Florida or Georgia that you just can't get to survive here-- and so using that as sort of that jumping off point and say, that's what inspires me. That's what I really love. And then using books like Field Guide to Outside Style and other tools that can help you take that idea and make it practical at home.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Let's start here. Maybe let's take some advice for apartment dwellers who might be listening or somebody who's got a condo who might just have a nice patio or a deck to work with and not exactly sure how to even begin.

RYAN MCENANEY: I think that's one of the things that's been so fun, especially these last few years for those of us on the communication side of horticulture is how to talk to people about that sort of gardening up close idea. And not everything needs to have this big, sprawling, beautiful, lifestyle landscape that you see in some magazines and books and online.

You can do a lot of really great things up close. It can be just going out-- especially at a week like this-- going out and finding a bunch of annuals that bring a lot of pops of color. But it might be that you want to spend your money really wisely, and so you buy a shrub like a hydrangea. There's a new one that's actually out just this year called Pop Star that is a compact hydrangea that really re-blooms and survives our Minnesota winters.

So if you've got a condo or an apartment, put something like Pop Star in a deco pot. It's going to bloom for you all season, it's going to re-bloom into fall, and then you can protect it in the winter and have it come back next year. So it's a great way to add lots of seasons of color, some year after year interest, that-- again, you get to have that sort of up close experience.

But it could be that you might be a more of a Martha style that is more of a classic and want to get a lot out of your landscape. That could involve edibles, and you can do a lot of great things mixing edibles and color, flowering plants, just in decor pots or in raised beds right up close on your patio.

CATHY WURZER: I always admire those who got the really beautiful backyard living spaces with the sectional couch and the little fire pit. And I look at that and think, I would just think that would be so great. But then I think, well, then we have this really yucky Minnesota weather, and I don't know how to balance some of this out. What's your suggestion for maybe adding some furniture and some plants in a sustainable way?

RYAN MCENANEY: Yeah, I think that's really important. And one of the things that I talk a lot about when I'm traveling around the Midwest is talking about planning for seasonality and budgeting for that, too, and making sure that you get to embrace the season when we do have it, even though we have a shorter growing season, so playing to those strengths and finding things that do really well at the time of year that you are experiencing your space.

So if you go to the cabin all summer long, maybe don't spend a ton of time and energy and money with plants that are going to be beautiful all summer and not in spring or fall when you're maybe spending a little bit more time in the space. And so planning your planting design around when you're experiencing it, but same for furniture and decor pots-- all that can add up and be really expensive.

So again, being really intentional about understanding why you're doing your project, why you're going to be spending time in that space, and how you're going to use it so that you can spend those resources in a way that is really relevant to your experience in your outdoor space.

CATHY WURZER: OK. So give me one thing that's in your outdoor space right now that you just adore.

RYAN MCENANEY: I have this little collection of mix and match deco pots in the corner of our patio that I planted bulbs in, so it gives me some of that early season color. And then I'll swap some of those out for a couple of shrubs. I'm going to put that Pop Star in my deco pot, but then also a bunch of annuals and tropicals as well.

So I get to play with it, get a bunch of different things that will happen throughout the season that just give me a lot of joy, and again, that sort of up close gardening versus the beautiful palate that I have along the fence line-- just a different experience.

CATHY WURZER: And are folks are able to do this work by themselves without necessarily hiring an expensive landscaping crew?

RYAN MCENANEY: I think that's, again, going to that guardrails idea of understanding how much you actually can do versus how much you want to do. And the scary budget question of, how much do you want to spend while you're doing it? So there are things like electrical and plumbing and that sort of thing where you really do want to bring in the expert.

But then there are other opportunities where you can just get out and do some of that planting yourself. But again, that Instagram versus reality concept-- if you see this big lush landscape and you're starting with nothing or almost nothing, that might not be an easy one to bite off on your own.

But if you're just doing some deco pots or you're doing a vegetable garden or you're adding something of interest to that sort of weird shady spot in the back corner of your landscape, that you can maybe bite off yourself and won't have as much time or financial resources that need to go into it.

CATHY WURZER: Ryan, I had a good time talking to you. Thank you so much for the good tips and for the great book.

RYAN MCENANEY: Yeah. Thank you so much.

CATHY WURZER: Ryan McEnaney has been with us. He's a Woodbury-based garden designer, author of the book Field Guide to Outside Style.