Tips and instructions on how to transform a part of your garden, deck, porch, patio or even apartment balcony into a truly personal garden retreat.
Whatever your preferences, you can transform a part of your garden, deck, porch, patio or even apartment balcony into a truly personal garden retreat. It's your own private haven, your escape from prying eyes, wagging tongues and complaining colleagues. All it takes is dirt, a design plan ... and a little of your time and effort.
Privacy and Serenity
Two key design functions -- for privacy and serenity -- connote the concept of retreat. Once you've achieved these essentials, size is unimportant.
You can create a garden haven anywhere! Some of the most beautiful garden retreats in the Midwest are tiny, grotto-like gardens of rocks, fragrant flowers, lush foliage and gently murmuring waterfalls, tucked into a grove of evergreens or sculpted into a 160-year-old landscape, just off the beaten paths on the busy college campuses of The University of Notre Dame and its sister college, Saint Mary's College, in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Privacy
You can design for privacy in a number of ways. In a larger space, you might use tall shrubs, a row of trees or even some natural, geographic "wall" such as a sheltering slope. Consider anchoring the corners of your special space with luscious lavender, purple and white lilacs. Or plant a row of gently waving and enormously fragrant spirea along one side to provide both shade and seclusion!
In a smaller space, consider a fence-piece on one or more sides of your secret garden. Or use the railing of your deck or balcony as a support base for climbing edibles such as honeysuckle or pole beans. Or simply step out the desired area and plant a random mixture of tall flowering plants, such as hollyhocks, snapdragons and foxgloves.
On an apartment balcony or small porch, remember that you can grow down as well as up. Make good use of hanging plants, wind-chimes and trellis screens to block off your own space and create your own little world.
Use your imagination, and design into your garden retreat whatever appeals to you! Perhaps you enjoy the early-rising sunlight on an energetic tableau of vivid purple and sapphire morning glories. Even the prickly, tall, sage-green thistle will provide a natural "cover" for your garden retreat. Choose what you love, and let it enclose you!
Serenity
The elements of serenity are clearly in the heart of the garden's creator -- you! What calms one gardener may well excite or even irritate another. Many people find the quiet, water-free Japanese pebble gardens to be soothing to the soul, but others find them simply annoying.
Color and scent may have similar diverse effects on different types of people. Usually, softer, gentler colors such as pinks and pale yellows and airy whites produce a greater sense of calm than bright reds and brilliant oranges.
Get to know what calms you, botanically speaking. Then select the elements, colors, fragrances and designs that feed your own sense of serenity, and build from there.
Consider a water feature in your garden retreat, as water has almost a universal effect as a soother of nerves and reliever of stress. You may choose a fully stocked Koi pond, a gently bubbling patio waterfall, or, in a very small space, a fishbowl will do!
Light and reflection also tend to lend a calming essence to any space. There's an abundance of wonderful gazing ball designs -- some of them even glow in the dark -- that might make a perfect addition to your secret, serene garden lifestyle.
Wind-chimes playing a random musical tune ... birds and butterflies flitting in and out to eat, drink and be merry ... a shallow reflecting pool to mirror the sunset and star-rise ... a narrow cedar-mulch pathway interplanted with fragrant thyme and lined with lavender and mint ... if you can dream it, you can plant it in your garden retreat!
One aspect of serenity involves what you don't have to do in your garden retreat. Usually this means no telephone or television or electronic intrusion of any kind ... but for some folks, that might be akin to torture. You choose what's right for you.
And serenity almost always means a relatively maintenance-free design, especially if you're prone to want to pick-up-and-fix-up every time you see something out of place.
If you're constantly watering, fertilizing and weeding, you'll soon see your retreat as just one more chore. Relax by design! Use massed plantings to chase away weedy intruders. Choose gently retiring plantings, such as bleeding hearts, that withdraw gracefully when their blossoms are spent for the season.
A little self-examination and planning are all the ingredients you need to get started on your luscious garden retreat this year. With a minimum of time and effort, you can soon be relaxing in a lovely, fragrant world of your very own, a peaceful, personal garden retreat!
