Gardening clichés tend to spring up like dandelions at this time of year. Every televised gardening show and almost every magazine invites gardeners to create their own retreats and outdoor rooms. They make it look easy as they explain how to turn back yards into a low-maintenance Mecca full of beauty.
The trend goes back to 1910 when The Secret Garden author Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote "And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles."
What if the garden was actually a place of peace and refuge where lounging ruled the day? That space would need shade and built-in comfort. If possible, it would have privacy too. Though that's a trick that's hard to come by in urban gardens, it's possible, said landscaping artist Cory Christopher, of First Choice Tree Nursery and Garden Centre.
"You need to create a boundary, perhaps with the use of plant material or perhaps with some architectural structure such as a gazebo or pergola to define your space," he said.
The trend now is to bring the indoors outside, Christopher said.
"People get scared because they think it's expensive, but if you do your cooking outside on the barbecue, why not think of it as an outdoor kitchen and then create an outdoor dining space? If you want an outdoor library, create a reading area with some upholstered space. All you need is one or perhaps two good chairs," he said.
If your yard is large, try to mentally divide it into conversation areas, just as you might do in your house. For an unconventional look, use big boulders as dividers or even seats. Use an outdoor-style rug to further define the 'room,' Christopher said.
If neighbours' houses overlook the yard, use tall columnar trees to block the view, while still providing a sense of airy space. Near your back deck, try a temporary, inexpensive screen by seeding climbing blooming plants such as morning glories or scarlet-runner beans. For a more permanent divider, plant clematis or hops.
"Try different layers of plants between your neighbour's yard and your own. To achieve vertical structure, you might use a climbing vine on a trellis, then you might add texture and dimension in front of that with grasses or ninebark trees," Christopher said.
Draw the plan out on a piece of paper before you purchase expensive landscaping materials. Then, to provide a realistic image, try using the garden hose to mark off and get a better idea of where the different rooms will be in your yard.
Shaded patios
Acrylic patio covers have a new, modern look to them. The newer acrylics do not turn yellow in the sun and while they will take the heat off of a patio, they still allow light in, so pots full of flowers still thrive.
"They take away 15 per cent of the heat but block all the UV rays. They let 85 per cent of the light through," said Richard Vanderveen, owner of Natural Light Patio covers.
These permanent covers can handle the weight of heavy snow because they are held in place with gaskets instead of screws.
"The gaskets allow the covers to expand and contract, whereas if they were screwed in, the acrylic would crack," Vanderveen said.
Human garden
Having shaded, private gardens is one thing, but Jim Hole of the Enjoy Centre believes it's critical to add the human element to the yard as well. Perhaps given his history as part of St. Albert's best-known gardening family, it's not surprising that his words seem to echo those of Frances Hodgson Burnett.
"What propels us to the garden in the first place?" Hole asked. "Is it esthetics or is it the human connections we have to plants? Is it the soil and the human need to put our fingers into it and to smell it that pulls us outside?"
For Hole, the most evocative plant in the garden is the carnation, a plant he says, that his mother Lois Hole always grew by her back step.
"Carnations have a powerful cinnamon-like smell. It's a pungent smell and you never forget that fragrance. When I do smell it, it takes me right back to childhood and memories pop out, memories that were hidden in some secret place. They take me back to that day in the garden," Hole said.
