The long, narrow space can make it tough to create one seating area, so the homeowner created two “mini rooms” with seating options at the front and the back of the space. Test Garden Tip: Using tall container gardens as a screen can help separate spaces feel even more like distinct rooms. Mixing patio paver materials is an effective way to make an impact. Here, stone chips transition to pea gravel, which then transition to flagstone. You can do the same with any material, including bricks, gravel, stone, and concrete pavers. Test Garden Tip: Look for native plants to help lower the maintenance of your plantings; plants from your region usually hold up better to pest and disease problems and weather extremes. A simple color scheme makes this garden feel planned out and easy on the eye. Silver and blue foliage from lamb’s ear and the grasses create a cool note that’s accented by the blue caryopteris and dwarf butterfly bush. Neutral ornamental grasses have a multitude of uses in the landscape; in this case, they bring height to the back of the garden. The patio creates an outdoor living space, which adds resale value to the home and makes the backyard more comfortable. Keep convenience in mind when designing a patio; the closer to your back or side door, the better, especially for entertaining purposes. Evergreens provide year-round privacy and act as windbreaks. Mixing evergreens and including selections with different needle colors (such as golden or blue varieties) or plant shapes (such as columnar or weeping) creates a rich, complex background. The small water feature next to the patio adds ambiance. The sound of running water makes any spot feel more relaxing and helps attract birds to your garden, whose songs add another layer of pleasant background sound. The new wall and a row of evergreen arborvitae at the top of the slope create a pretty backdrop for a patio and adds privacy. A stairway at the end of the wall provides safer and easier access to the patio than trying to traverse a muddy hillside. The same stucco was used on the wall and the house, which helps tie everything together. The purple-toned plant foliage makes great accents to the yellow house and gives the planting some warmth and visual depth. Although purple-leaf plants are beautiful on their own, they become a powerful garden design tool when repeated throughout a planting. Shots of silver from the dusty miller surrounding a cobalt-blue container is a perfect way to create more interest. The bed looks attractive all year long, thanks to plants with multi-season interest. Dwarf Alberta spruce, ornamental grasses, and variegated red-twig dogwood, for example, even look good in winter. Spring-blooming bulbs start off the gardening season, and then a mix of easy-care annuals and perennials take over from there. Test Garden Tip: Keep your planting low-maintenance with a layer of mulch to stop weeds and conserve moisture. The landscape feels lighter and more open when filled with the silvery-blue foliage of ornamental grasses and perennials. A raised berm to the left of the front door contours the landscape and creates interest, and raising plantings up next to the home can also help decrease street noise. A new pair of redbud trees in the front yard will eventually grow up to provide more privacy, but the trees’ small stature will keep them from overwhelming the house. Test Garden Tip: When you plant trees, keep a sense of scale in mind. A giant tree next to a one-story house will make the house seem smaller. Buy It: American Redbud, ($18, Arbor Day Foundation) A mix of annuals, perennials, and shrubs creates a beautiful planting with season-long appeal. As one season ends, replace annuals with a new crop to keep your garden looking fresh. For example, flowering cabbage and pansies are a colorful fix for summer-worn petunias. Plantings around the patio and pergola help soften it and create visual interest. Choose fragrant plants for extra appeal! Installing an outdoor fireplace gives your outdoor living spot even more versatility. It can help take the chill from cool nights, create a cozy ambiance, and give you more outdoor cooking options, like roasting marshmallows over an open flame. Test Garden Tip: Try using warm or bright colors, especially if you have a gray, beige, or white house. An outdoor rug hides the cement and adds a playful splash of color, texture, and toe-tickling softness to the cement. You can find rugs in just about every color, shape, style, and size; many are made from recycled materials, too. Or DIY your own customized rug design by painting an inexpensive, plain one. A series of container gardens along the edge of the patio creates a boundary between the lawn and patio. This makes the patio feel more intimate without having to erect a structure such as a pergola, arbor, or trellis. The curved edge of the bed softens the 90-degree angle of the corner and creates more visual interest. Unless you’re aiming for a formal, geometric garden, try to accent with curved beds in your landscape design. A series of easy, colorful plants including mums, pansies, spirea, and purple smoke bush makes this border a knockout. It’s another great example of how foliage color and texture can be just as pretty as flowers. In winter, red-twig dogwood, a dwarf mugo pine, junipers, and ornamental grasses add texture—and a place for birds to hang out. Putting the tree-form smoke bush in a big pot creates a dramatic focal point. Test Garden Tip: Use containers in beds and borders. They’re perfect for swapping out color in an instant or filling any bare spots. This front-yard planting is filled with plants that look good in all seasons to create an ever-changing display. Autumn and winter can be tough seasons to plant for, so look for fall-blooming perennials and small shrubs and trees with great fall foliage to get through cooler weather. Also look for small evergreens, grasses, and plants with interesting habits—such as corkscrew willow—for lasting winter looks. This planting also takes advantage of color to create extra impact. The contrasting purple-and-chartreuse color theme looks great and personalizes the garden. Look for flower and foliage colors that will accent your house colors. A thick layer of mulch makes maintenance easy; it keeps weeds at bay and reduces the need for watering. Test Garden Tip: Another great slope solution is to plant densely; tight plantings help hold the soil so it doesn’t wash down the hill. The free-flowing bed in the front yard looks great from all angles, which is especially important because this house is on a corner lot. Don’t forget the way your garden will look from inside your house. It should look just as good (if not better) from your windows as it does to the rest of the world. A small retaining wall breaks up the slope, giving the yard a little extra oomph. By adding contours, such as berms, or breaking up a slope with a wall like this, you add lots of extra interest. Stone edging around the bed matches the wall and gives the planting a finished look. Using edging around your beds will also keep the lawn from creeping in, so you won’t have to constantly spend time pulling the turf out. Buy It: Prairifire Flowering Crabapple, ($19, Arbor Day Foundation)
