Enter INTO Your Garden

Another article from the home-and-garden website Houzz: 8 Ways a Garden Can draw You In.

I’ll write a post of my own on this subject in the future, and I’ve alluded to it in various past posts. (I’m always looking for ways to encourage residents/families to get out into the garden, not just look at it from the window. (Altho’ there’s nothing wrong with looking at the garden through the window or from the porch. Not least through the misery of winter.)

But for now, some of the key elements that I like to develop in a design include:

1. Framing: You might be framing a borrowed landscape from a neighbour or some adjacent wildness. It might be a feature that you can just peak through loose hedging. Or just make the gate something extra special.

2. Texture: Some plants beg to be touched, like Stachys byzantina (Lamb’s Ear) . But from far away you can’t tell. Others call out “Touch me” so loudly you can hear across the street–like Stipa tenuissima, aka Mexican Feather Grass, or “Ponytail Grass”.

3. Destination. This may include getting to a destination, or getting to a destination. For example, a pathway (getting to the destination) that winds a bit and conceals the end point will encourage your visitor to want to find out what’s at the end. Best to make the journey as accessible as possible under your conditions. The branches of my persimmon tree that provide a ceiling to the path for most of the year become an obstacle when the branches are laden with fruits in late summer/fall.

A bright container that may or may not be partly hidden by other foliage (getting to the destination) will attract attention. As would a bench or chair.

And of course, the sound of water somewhere out of sight will draw the ear and the feet.

If you incorporate these three elements or ideas, your guests, family, visitors just won’t be able to resist entering into the magic of your garden. And you’ll be compelled to enjoy your own space as well.