Maria Nasir
Why Plan a Year-Round Enjoyable Garden?
Year-Round Enjoyable Garden Can Become Centre of Family Activity
I grew up watching my father spend all his spare time taking care of the decent sized garden that we had in our colonial style home in the 1970s Lahore. It was a year-round enjoyable garden that was the center of most family and social activities. In summers we even slept in the garden on jute cots (charpai) with mosquito nets and pedestal fans. Sleeping in open air, on cool white cotton sheets, under the stars was a surreal experience.
In winters, we spent most of the sunlight hours outside – reading newspaper, prepping vegetables for meals or just soaking the sun while enjoying peanuts and oranges. It used to be a nice garden with a neatly trimmed hedge of the evergreen Duranta plant. There was a mature Frangipani tree (Gul e cheen) at one end that provided me with a perch to sit on and do my watercolors. On the other end there was a massive growth of Trumpet Vine with its orange trumpet-shaped flowers that the hummingbirds adored. The tree and the vine both provided privacy from the neighbors on both sides.
Year-Round Enjoyable Garden Keeps You Sane & Happy Through the Ups & Downs of Life
As life got fast paced, priorities changed. We began to seek more and more comfort indoors in our leisure time. After my father, my mom continued to take care of the plants and still is an active and passionate gardener at the age of 71. I inherited this fondness for greenery and some of their plants from my parents. And thankfully my husband also shares this interest with me. We can’t imagine a home without plants. In fact, shopping for plants and taking care of them has become one of our favorite weekend activities. Fast forward to 2019 – Covid happened. Everybody realized the importance of whatever open-air space they had – a balcony, a courtyard or a green patch of lawn. That little piece of sky and ground became life-line for so many people during social distancing. That is when we decided to update our lawn into a year-round enjoyable garden. Since then it has become a prominent and useful feature in our daily lives – be it to escape the couch, relax with a cup of green tea, play with the cat or just sit and enjoy the weather.
Plan the Year-round Garden Layout
No matter how big or small your garden space is, planning always helps. Especially for a year-round garden you would want most features to be permanent but flexible and hassle-free. Making a rough sketch is a good idea and helps utilize the space better. Sketch out where you would want your flowerbeds, mature plants, pathways or steppingstones (if any)and where would be the sitting area, sculptures, water- features or any other decorative items. This little planning ahead will also help with how many and what kind of plants you’ll need. This lesson we’ve learnt from repeated trial and error but, finally, we’ve created a little urban oasis that we always wanted. I’ll keep sharing the details of recreating our garden from the scratch here. So stay tuned, guys!
Select Local Plants and Evergreen Perennials
Selecting from the local variety of plants ensures that they adapt well to the native climate and soil character. Evergreen plant is a plant that retains leaves all year round. Keep in mind that all perennials are not evergreen, some herbaceous perennials shed leaves in autumn and winter but grow back in the Spring. For your year-round garden, you wouldn’t want to pluck out and replant everything seasonally. You would need some plant to retain their color and form so that you can use them as backdrop to make subtle changes according to the season. This means that your year-round garden will need less maintenance and will give you a splash of color all year long. All you’ll have to do is plant your favorite flowers here and there with changing seasons.
Create a Year-round Garden Theme
It’s a good idea to pick a theme for your garden. It would make your garden not only cohesive but also so much more fun! A themed garden is where different design elements, like plants, pots, furniture and other accessories come together to create a distinct style – your style. You must have heard of the Zen Japanese gardens that are designed to create a tranquil space to soothe the soul. Or the English Cottage style gardens with benches, birdbaths, picket fences and variety of fragrant flowers and herbs. You don’t have to be an expert to choose a theme. Just take the architectural style of your house or your interior décor as inspiration for your garden. For example my home is an eclectic mix of Mediterranean and Contemporary styles. We’ve repeatedly used lots of elements inspired by these styles in our indoor and outdoor theme. Like use of natural materials – terracotta pots and garden vases, pebbles, cobbles and rockery. For splash of color – glazed Moroccan tiles and raw fabric throws and cushions. For a relaxed vibe – comfortable seating and water feature.
Include Water Features
According to the size and layout of available space, you can always include a some sort of water feature in your year-round garden. A pond, fountain, simple birdbath or even the tiny waterfalls designed for indoors would work. The sound of water provides a very calming white noise to create a tranquil environment. Water is tested in many studies as the top natural feature that promotes good mental health or the blue-mind as it reduces the stress hormones epinephrine and cortisol. The gleam of water adds a different and delightful dimension to garden. Also water in all forms combats free radicals and purifies air. And then, most importantly, it attracts wild life. Butterflies, bees, birds and small animals enjoy water features too.
Install Garden Lights
Carefully chosen lights can enhance the beauty of your garden manifold. Not only they showcase specific angles of your plants and accessories after dark but allow you to enjoy your garden even after sunset. A spotlight at the bottom of a tree turned upwards creates a very dramatic effect, highlighting the texture and shape. A string of fairy lights on a window creates this feeling of instant cheer and celebration. Little lights along pathways help create a welcoming ambience. Even in cold weather, lights in the garden beckon you outside and make it look warm and cozy. The good thing is that now solar powered lights are available in a variety of designs to suit many purposes. They can be a great option to keep your electricity bill down and your garden artistically illuminated. Don’t forget the the powerful and romantic impact of good old lanterns and candles as well.
Create a Focal Point or Destination
A focal point is as important in a garden as it is in the designing of a room. It could be your water feature, wall mosaic or fire feature. But you have to have a destination or special spot in your garden that would draw you out. Without destination there will be no reason to go outside. Your garden should serve some purpose. It’s a great idea to design that focal point from inside the house. It should be something that captures your attention from inside a window or a doorway so that when you see it, it pulls you outside. Or it should be something that strikes you the moment you enter or pass by the garden so that it invites to slow down and spend some time there. In my year-round enjoyable garden it’s a corner raised bed that I’ve designed like a tiny hill with a clay cottage, rockery and plants. I decorated it by hand with pebbles and mosaic tiles. Definitely a labor of love but it puts a smile on my face each time I’m outside. And I can see it even from my drawing room window.
Privacy From Outside World
Your garden is your private sanctuary. You don’t want the passersby or the neighbors on your sides to overlook while you are enjoying an alfresco meal, reading a book or simply snoozing in the hammock. Now there’s lots of different and creative ways we can do privacy. You can use trellis (wooden or metal framework) to build an arbor , complete with a roof on top. Or simply use these frameworks to extend the height of walls and cover them with vines and climbers. Many different kinds of stand alone privacy screens are also available in the market. You can build a DIY one with some artwork or mural on it. Hedges and plants are a natural solution. Bamboo and Ficus plants are great candidates for making formal hedges and screening. Some varieties of palm trees are fabulous for screening as well as creating that lovely tropical feel in your garden. Ashoka trees are my personal favorite that we are using as screen on one side of our garden. These grow to look pillar-like Mediterranean Cypress trees.
Include Edible Plants In Your Landscaping
Vegetables, fruits and herbs become one more reason to visit your garden more frequently. You can plant colorful peppers, cherry tomatoes lemons and leafy greens that look lovely and keep supplying you with fresh salad ingredients. You can find many garden to table recipes on my recipe blog www.foodaholic.biz as well. Or have mint, parsley, lavender and basil to delight your nose with their fragrance and make healthy herbal teas with them. I daily go out to the garden many times just to get fresh peppers and coriander for my omelet. Or pick some herbs and lemon for my teas, chutneys and garnishing. Keep sowing crops in the intervals so that you always have something to enjoy from your garden. For instance, planting spinach at regular intervals can give a steady supply instead of having a mature crop all at once.
Include Art & Invite Wildlife
A year-round enjoyable garden appeals to all senses. Include beautiful little reasons to sit outside and enjoy your surroundings in all seasons. Adding statues, mosaics, windchimes, hand-painted pottery can give a unique character to your garden. Birdhouses, feeders and baths add color and a homely vibe to your garden. They also, of course, attract birds, bees, butterflies and ladybirds that help with pest control and are crucial to our existence. A garden frequently visited by these little visitors feels healthy, happy and lively.
Add Comfortable Seating Options
Within one garden, you can design to have more than one seating options – just the way we have in our rooms. Perhaps a built-in seating to maximize a tiny corner in a small garden. Or a hammock in a more open space for an afternoon nap. Maybe a bench for casual seating and folding or lightweight chairs tucked away under the shade if you often have company. Our favorite seating feature in our garden for many years was a swing sofa that my daughters enjoyed growing up. Now we have replaced it with a sturdy bench and a little table as my husband and I love to enjoy our breakfast or afternoon tea in the garden. Whatever your choice of seating, you can always make it more comfortable and inviting by adding comfy pillows and throws. They can be easily changed to update the look of your garden with changing season.
Conclusion
Remember your garden evolves with time just as you do and the rest of your home does. I’m not an expert gardener but I’m very passionate about creating a beautiful garden. A tranquil and happy place for myself and my loved ones that we can enjoy at all times of the year. It’s definitely a journey and can be a very pleasant one. These images are from our from newly planted garden after a house renovation. In the weeks and months ahead I’ll continue to share my journey with you. Therefore, stay with me and lets create beautiful, enjoyable year-round gardens together!