Gardening...

Gardening Should Be Fun, Exciting by Scott Makey

The warm season is upon us, and it's time to start having fun outside again!

What's an article about having fun outside doing in the lawn and garden issue you ask?

Simple, gardening should be fun and exciting. If it's not, you may be doing something wrong. You've been cooped up inside throughout the winter, but chances are you've at least been comfortable and cozy in you home.

Why?

Because you've got a nice place to hang out. You like to hang out at home, it's a place you enjoy. You have nice furniture, a roof over your head, pictures and decorations that reflect your family's personality. You've created a place where you spend time. You more than likely enjoyed and got excited about creating that place to "hang out". Why not apply those same principles to your landscape?

Landscaped Yards, Gardens

OK, I'll admit, it's hard to get excited about row of bushes in front of your house. But it could be so much more! The row of bushes is not much to look at, so you usually don't give them more than a glance. You simply walk by them on your way to and from your car. You have a yard. Not a lot of excitement there. Let's say you've got two rows of bushes and maybe a tree or two, now you've got a landscaped yard and still not a whole lot to get excited about going to and from your car.

Now imagine opening your front door to make your way to your car on a Monday morning and you're greeted with all the colors of the rainbow, all the textures of your imagination and the air is perfumed with all of natures wonderful aromas. You take a few steps out and the peony's scent stops you in your tracks, and behind them the first butterflies of the season flock to the flowers of your mandevillea. The soft texture of your Deodar Cedar makes you completely forget it's Monday and you wind up being late for work. (Let's hope you have an understanding boss.)

Now you have a garden. A place where you want to spend time. A garden isn't just for vegetables anymore.

Rooms In Your Landscape

We've mentioned applying the same principles you used inside your home, outside. Your home has many rooms, all of which serve some purpose. Design your garden with the same concept in mind. We'll start with the den, the place where you more than likely "hang out" the most. What are the features of the room? Well, it has walls, right? Simple. Install a nice fence, stone wall or plant a hedge. You can be creative here. There is more to choose from than Red Tips and Leyland Cypress.

Consider Magnolia

Consider planting a row of Southern Magnolia and keep them sheared to whatever height you prefer. They grow slow and only need shearing annually, have big, beautiful fragrant flowers and dark green foliage year round. Like I said, be creative.

I would imagine no room without a ceiling. Tree tops; the canopy of oaks, maples, and pines make for a wonderful ceiling. Oh, you like cathedral ceilings. OK, come under any of the aforementioned with a second story of dogwood or Japanese Maple. Get the idea?

The use of creative combinations make for fun and excitement. What would any room be without furniture? Shrubs make good furniture pieces, although I wouldn't recommend sitting on them. Think of shrubbery as accessories; end tables, the bones of the garden. You may install real outdoor furniture for sitting on. Now it's time to decorate.

You can be really creative here. Use annuals and perennials in the garden and in planters. Don't overlook the value of trellised vines such as Clematis, Mandevillea or Jasmine. The use of groundcovers, such as Ajuga, Liriope and English Ivy, is an attribute here also. Use these same ideas when designing any outdoor room. Connect rooms with hallways, I mean walkways. Don't use straight lines.

Have you ever noticed the worn, curvey footpaths that almost always deviate from paved sidewalks? We don't like to walk in straight lines. Force you garden traffic to meander. They're going to anyway.

Dig It Up, Rearrange

Once you get started planting, if you don't like it, dig it up and move it. God invented shovels to move plants with. Take advantage of this divine invention. Note that every time you move something, you prolong its establishment, which means it will need a little more attention for a longer period, but plant arrangements are not set in stone.

How often have you bought new furniture and left it in the first place you put it? Don't be concerned with which plants go together. Wild combinations always make for a more exciting garden. Combine colors and textures in whatever bold array you like. Look around and you'll find this same technique used by Mother Nature. It works!

Read Magazines

For motivating ideas, I'd suggest subscribing to some of the better home improvement magazines, visiting independent garden centers (service and selection are better than the mass merchandising franchises) or enlisting the service of a professional landscape architect, landscape contractor or landscape designer. The garden should be a place you like to "hang out," just like your house and can be installed anywhere in your yard.

As a matter of fact, I prefer to think of the yard as a garden. And a garden is a fun and exciting place, a place you want to be. Everyone had the same old foundation plantings of Compacta or Boxwood. And they have served us well. But I think you'll find the trend towards landscape gardening ever more popular as we race toward the next century.

The walk to and from our cars is destined to become a wonderful and exciting journey.