Written by: Mary Griggs, Master Gardener

Gardening is a lot of work and there are many ways to enjoy the fruits of your labor.  By creating garden vignettes in your outdoor space you are creating a “hideaway” of sorts. They allow you to have interesting and unique features in your garden that help you enjoy the space more than ever.

This article is about creating those “go to” spaces in your landscape to sit and/or walk around to enjoy the color, scents and sounds that you have worked to bring into your garden.  It can be as simple as putting a chair or bench under a shade tree, or as elaborate as you can envision. You are only limited by your imagination and perhaps your pocketbook.  Plus, vignettes don’t always have to provide seating.  If you have a collection of favorite plantings, think about accenting them with a large rock, pot or piece of garden art.  The eye will be drawn to those accents and provide an opportunity to stop and admire the plants around them.

What can you use? Your imagination is your only guide.  Furniture, birdbaths, containers, chimes, bubbling fountains, birdhouses, old ladders, mirrors on fences, walkways, flea market finds of all kinds.  If you like, spray paint them with cheerful colors or leave them as you find them and enjoy their soft patina.

Here are a few ideas:

Viewing the landscape from different locations.  Many times, we only view the garden from the house.  Think about providing some seating away from the house so that you are looking at your yard from a different vantage point. If you have an area that is in the shade in the hot afternoon, why not put a comfortable chair or bench there, maybe a birdbath and some shade-loving plants. Then you can sit there in the afternoon and enjoy the view from this different location.

What about your vegetable garden?  It would be a treat to have a small table with an umbrella and a few chairs to take a break from tending to your veggies.  Have a seat and a cold drink and enjoy the beneficial insects hovering over your veggie beds, and then you’ll be ready to get back to your labors.

If you like to sit out at night, think about creating a white garden.  These white plants will glow in the dark.  Some ideas are milkweed, summer hyacinth, phlox, hostas, and lilies, to name a few.  They all come in white varieties.  Also look for plants that release their scent in the evening.  Add some soft lighting in this area, and it will be a delightful seating area in the evenings.

Another fun idea is to create a path that disappears behind a hedge, tall shrubs, shed or other structure.  You walk along the path and behind your shrubs is a sheltered area to sit and enjoy your plantings, whether in containers or in the ground.

Those are just a few ideas.  If you are having trouble imagining how to incorporate some of them into your yard, look in gardening magazines, on the internet, go to garden tours in your area to see what others have done, but mostly just have fun with the idea of maybe looking at your garden in a whole different way.