Garden Planning

With the addition this summer of our gorgeous, HUGE deck --deckzilla-- David and I have been planning on redoing/redesigning the entire back garden from bottom to top.

Even with the "outdoor stage" on the back of the house, we still have a large, almost square amount of space with which to work. We're VERY FORTUNATE, too, as the majority of houses around here have smaller narrow, sometimes longish, gardens. SO having all of this space, we need to fill it. And being as there's so much space, we can "assign" different things to different areas; i.e., an area where I can finally have a clothesline (YES!), David his veggie patch, an area for a shed so we can store things there instead of in the already too tiny garage, and so on.

My ideas for what sort of flowers and things I'd like to have back there, though, as changed constantly, though I'm starting to narrow it all down, and I've got some definite favourites that will take important focal roles. When I first started planning out the flowers beds and all in my head, I wanted an extremely fragrant, garden, with nothing but white and cream and the palest of pink flowers.

BUT...

The more reading I do, and the more plants and flowers I see, the more I've been going for the mishmash of colour. I have to say, though, I have so far stuck to whites, pinks and purples, but I'll add more colour in. The most important criteria now --aside from the obvious "will these do well in our soil/area?" is fragrance. My dream is to walk outside to sit on the deck, or maybe to go to the shed, or to hang laundry, being able to smell the perfume of the garden from any area OF the garden. So when we go to garden centres and nurseries, even walking down the street, if I see something I think is pretty, and might consider for our garden, you can believe I've stuck my head in it, and am smelling the flowers. It's almost therapeutic!

So far, we've chosen buddleias (Maybe "Butterfly Bush" rings a bell? That's how I knew them growing up.) with their fragrance and long, draping cones of flowers, and hydrangeas, in white and pink --hopefully they'll stay those colors! Also some Corkscrew Hazels, which, even though they have no flowers really to speak of, I LOVE them for their fall display of catkins, and twisty branches. We also have plans to get some Osmanthus Burkwoodii (a relation to the "Tea Olive" I love so much back home), some "Mock Orange" and some "old" or "cottage" roses. But wait....

Did I say hydrangea?! And my criteria is fragrance for the flowering things?!

Well yes, but people should ALWAYS consider an exception to their own rule. You see, I've got history with hydrangeas: The palest pink of hydrangea heads were on my wedding reception tables and delicately dotted on my wedding cake --I've always seen hydrangeas EVERYWHERE back home, and I've known since I was a little girl that the colours of their flowers can change depending on the acidity or alkalinity of their soil. Also, my mother sent me a lovely white hydrangea for my birthday this year, to remind me of home. The huge mopheads of flowers turned pink after a few days of being the most crisp linen white, and having my own hydrangea plant so very up close where I can see it grow and change has caused me to fall madly in love with them.

Along with fragrance, though, I'm also wanting texture and interest, which I hope to achieve by using different plants, shrubs and compact trees --cue those gorgeous Corkscrew Hazels! Fatsia Japonica, as well, is on my list, for its deep green, large waxy leaves that lend themselves so well to floral arrangements. Just yesterday I found dogwoods at one of the local garden centres; even though I don't remember those flowers having frangrance, the compact body and destinct leaves would add yet another dimension.

So far, though, this is about all I've planned out. And although we already have three hydrangeas, three buddleias, and two hazels, we don't have any of the other plants, yet. Hopefully we can decide on more plants and things soon, really get down to the business of finalizing the designs of the planted areas, pick up the rest of the plants, trees and shrubs we'll need in the next few weeks, and get everything in!!