Extend your outdoors with a verandah garden

Sometimes gardening isn’t limited by space, but by time and interest.

If you love the idea of being surrounded by a garden, but you can’t see yourself spending countless hours with a pruner in your hands, a wonderful option is to create a garden paradise on your verandah.

You could still incorporate beds and containers, but you have the added element of hardscaping.

They haven’t invented a stone yet that doesn’t look even better next to a plant. Even concrete looks chic. Building a verandah that blends in well with your garden is a major undertaking and many people would rather hire a professional for this job.

Once you have your verandah, planting it is the enjoyable part, framing, softening the edges, creating paths to maximize your patios potential.

The main purpose of a verandah is to have a place to relax and entertain your guests. Surrounding yourself with the beauty of plants will make it that much easier.

Even non-gardeners now consider their verahndahs an extension of their homes - a room without walls. Rather than just providing a view, interior design is carried from the inside out.

Border

Creating a distinction between your verandah and your lawn is how you turn this outdoor space into an outdoor room. You can accomplish this by outlining the area with a border, by building raised planters around the edge or by creating an edge with containers.

Having a border around your verandah gives you the opportunity to enjoy the best of both worlds. You have a true garden to enjoy and you never have to leave the comfort of your living area.

The border will probably be somewhat narrow, but a lot can be accomplished in this space.

In addition to plants that spill onto this space, like lady’s mantle and geraniums, you can create clusters of height with grasses or small shrubs.

If the border runs between the house and the verandah, you might want to try your hand at growing a fruit tree trained to lay flat against the house wall. The heat of the house and the openness of the branches will produces a considerable yield in a small space.

You have can incorporate built-in flower boxes along the perimeter of your verandah. These delineate the space and provide additional seating.

But more importantly, they provide an eye level garden. You have all the advantages and control of container gardening as well as the root insulation provided by brick or stone.

Many plants will do well in these circumstances, but it’s especially nice to have scented plants such as roses, heliotrope, gardenias, jasmine and sweet peas that will fill your home with fragrance.

http://gardening.about.com/