Garden Detective

Too proud to inspire pity, I'm including a photo of my kickass crocuses instead of the current state of my backyard. I'll post those when I can hide behind the 'after' shots.

Well, it's finally time to pay the piper. Regular visitors here know about the cesspool installation that wreaked havoc on my backyard last summer. Not that it was Shangri La before being reduced to a mud pit. Not by a long shot.

This will be our third summer in this house. I left scores of perennials behind in my old garden. I didn't realize how long it would take to get the new gardens going. The first summer was spent unpacking and settling in. The second summer -- last summer -- we concentrated on the front yard, which still has a way to go. The backyard was plain, but livable. And then disaster struck. Six thousand unanticipated dollars later, we have a new cesspool and well, a cesspool of a backyard. Just mud, erratic patches of grass and and lots of weeds.

I've been researching plants and planning and sketching 3 garden room areas for the backyard for a few weeks now. The backyard beds are marked with garden hoses and jump ropes, and I'm just about ready to order plants, trees and shrubs.

So far, there are 56 items on the list. With a project of this magnitude, I'm going to have to hire in some help to install them all. Most of the plants will be available within a month. Fortunately, that should coincide very conveniently with the arrival of my tax refund.

Though I could consider myself terribly unfortunate for having to spend all this money and time building up the gardens from scratch instead of letting them evolve gradually, I've always been a glass-full kind of person. Plus, starting with a blank canvas is easier than trying to work around what you have. It just takes knowledge and imagination.

The knowledge part is easy, but when it comes to imagination, well, I usually buy what the mannequin is wearing. I'm no stranger to moving plants around several times over the course of a single season until I'm happy. Along the way, the plant often suffers from my indecision, but almost always it's no worse for wear the following year. That's why I spent weeks (and almost an entire pad of graph paper) trying to get it right this time.

A successful landscape comprises greenscape and hardscape components. Greenscape refers to plant material, while hardscape is anything constructed of wood, stone, bricks, cement, etc. The latter includes walkways, patios, decks, statues, ponds and that sort of thing. It's always best to plan and install the hardscape first, then consider how the greenscape will work around it.

I'll only need 2 hardscaping items. A small stone patio area in the center of what will henceforth be referred to as John's Grass Garden, and a large rock in one of the other beds.

John loves ornamental grasses. He finds watching them sway in the breeze very relaxing. I could take them or leave them. They have their places, to be sure, but in my garden at least, less is usually more. I have three surrounding a huge spruce tree in the front and I'd be happy stopping there. John would fill the property with them. So, in the interest of compromise I designed John's Grass Garden in the shadiest spot of the backyard, sandwiched between the deck and the garage. He'll be able to relax on a hammock surrounded by tall grasses and clumping (not invasive) bamboos, oblivious to the existence of anything beyond its borders.

The Curvy Island Bed (I just named it this very minute for your sake) was designed to provide some privacy from the street. Otherwise passersby would continue to have an unobstructed view straight past the driveway through to the back fence at the end of the yard. It also will divide the space into two separate areas, or rooms. I'm filling it up with blue spruce, black-eyed Susans, Echinacea, barberry, Joe Pye weed, blue fescue, white phlox, Ilex, salvia and the aforementioned rock.

When we enter the backyard from the driveway, we'll be forced to walk around the Curvy Island Bed, past the rock, in order to see the back fence and the rest of the property. And that's one of the goals of creating garden rooms. Let the picture unfold gradually. You shouldn't be able to see the whole thing at once. Create surprises around every corner.

You don't need to live on an estate to do this. I have a very small L-shaped backyard. The whole property is only .14 acres, including the front and the land under the house. (Notice the decimal point.) If I can create rooms in this small space, so can you.

Along the back fence, I'm installing a half-moon border with Lelyand cypresses and Cotinus smokebush in the rear, Spirea, catmint, blue spruce 'globosa', Sedums and Dianthus in front. It will serve as a colorful backdrop to a small sitting area. (Note to self: Draw a bench into the plans; it's another hardscape item.)

Here are some logistics to consider when planning your garden room:

• Garden beds should be at least 3-4 feet deep to allow for adequate layering of plants. My Curvy Island Bed will be 9 feet deep at its widest point.

• Include plants with 4 seasons of interest. The bed would look awfully barren over the winter if it's filled with only herbaceous perennials. I've included spruce, smokebush, cypress, Ilex and the by-now-famous rock. Also, I file grasses under winter interest, as they turn strawlike and add a pretty dimension to the off-season landscape.

• The tallest residents in a garden bed should be in the center, visible from all sides. This is called layering. Just like in school on picture day, when the tall kids got to stand in the back and I had to sit in a chair in front. I'm not bitter.

While we're on topic, let me define beds and borders. Beds can be seen from all sides. You can walk around a bed. Borders are placed up against something like a fence or a house and can be viewed only from the front (OK, maybe the sides, too, but they aren't focal points.)

• Consider the mature size of plants and space accordingly. I'm an impatient gardener who hates looking at (and inevitably weeding) bare mulch spots, so I'm not going to cast stones (or the ubiquitous rock) at anyone. But if planned properly, allowing room for growth, those bare spots could be occupied by annuals until they fill in. Do as I say, people, not as I do.

• Plant perennials and shrubs in odd numbers. Groupings of 3 or 5 work best.

If I'm not too busy, I'll post a primer on the principles of garden design tomorrow. Otherwise, Thursday at the latest, I promise.