Design a Garden Room

Did you design your own garden? Are you like a neighbor of mine who sees plants at the store and brings them home, not knowing where they'll be planted or how they'll look in her yard? Or have you given up and your home is surrounded by green lawn, from the sidewalk to the foundation?

Designing a garden is pretty intimidating - my first garden "design" was a disaster with large plants that grew over smaller ones, plants that loved water growing next to plants that liked dry conditions (neither plant was happy) and orange flowers blooming up against purple ones.  It made such an ugly yard that I never wanted to be in it, no less maintain the plants.

Then I read a brilliant article about Garden Rooms.  It's an old concept that people are re-discovering: think about how you want to use your yard or garden and design for it. We do it all the time inside our homes, this is just an extension of that idea.

I have a shady area that just begged for an arbor where I could sit on a warm summer afternoon, leaning on a pillow and drinking a mint julep (I don't know what a mint julep is, but it sure sounds refreshing, doesn't it?). A big box store had an End-of-Summer sale a few years ago and I picked up a pretty metal arbor with built-in benches for a great price. The next Spring I planted a Silver Lace Vine at the back and it's given me oodles of shade and tiny white flowers every Summer since. It needs a bit of pruning back every year but at the end of a busy August day I really appreciate the sitting room I've created.

My home sits north to south, so my large side yard faces east - my 'room' there is almost a secret garden with a simple wooden bench facing the small lawn and surrounded by blooming shrubs (Forsythia and Daffodils in Spring, Butterfly Bushes and Clematis in Summer, annuals all season long). Since the sun moves slowly  across the space, it has a gentle, quiet light that is very peaceful and I often sit there between garden tasks tossing a ball for the dog.  This area is a playroom - a great place to sit and work on my garden journal or watch the grandkids play a vigorous game of croquet.

The south side of my home is the work room: it has a greenhouse, a cold frame and vegetable beds. It's filled with bright light 12+ hours of the day and feels very active with birds, butterflies and bees constantly flying past. It's like a kitchen with regular activity producing wonderful results.

The front yard is, as most people expect, the entry hall - semi-formal plantings of spruce trees lining the driveway, grasses along the walk, flowers at the front door.  It's designed so that the plants will look good in every season (or at least have interesting textures even in the Winter), colors are complementary (the same shades and/or opposite colors on a color wheel) and are low maintenance so they're always ready for visitors.

Of course, I also have that ubiquitous storage room, the place where the compost pile 'lives', the woodpile is stored, the trash barrel sits.  It's hidden behind the garage and surrounded by a huge False Spirea (Sorbaria sorbifolia) which hides the ugliness quite well. Not always pretty but very important to everyday life.

What will your garden rooms look like? Do you have a dog who needs a sawdust pile to roll in? Some pre-teens who need room to play soccer (and a seating area to rest)? Or maybe you'd like a dining patio surrounded with plants that make you feel like you're at a Pacific Island resort? The possibilities are endless if you let your imagination roam. Take your time, do some sketches, look through a few library books and you may be surprised with how much fun it can be to design your own Garden Room.

Here's a fun publication to get you started:  http://tinyurl.com/oj2l29y