I’m just learning that thinking of your garden beds like rooms in a house is helpful for planning. I first heard this concept from my son-in-law while we were window shopping for shrubs in Norfolk. A couple of weeks later, my sister mentioned a book (Life in the Garden by Bunny Williams) that describes garden spaces similarly. Funny how after hearing something once, you start to hear it over and over. Message received.
I’m certain that a garden bed needs color, texture and layout just like a room in a home. But more important for me to remember is that most of us decorate our homes room by room and not all at once. Without intention, I tend to flit from bed to bed in a yard, trying to make them all better instantly. Instead, I should focus on particular rooms, not on rebuilding the house. This season, I’m working on two rooms: the backyard bed we view while sitting on our deck and the right side of our front yard because it needs a lot of love.
We are already watching the growth of five Athyrium Ghost ferns (referenced in a recent post) I planted in the “back fence room.”
The right-side room, accessible from the front yard, was mostly bare until about a month ago.
I was thrilled to discover the perennial geranium while on the Historic Virginia Garden Tour in Charlottesville in April. I ordered the Rozanne Cranesbill and they are doing well.
I’m hoping to make the Forsythia the star of the “right-side room.” To fill out the corner of the room, I’m regularly transplanting Forsythia branches I’m rooting from the mother bush I have planted there.
Are you working room-by-room? Tell me about it.
Gardening: Before & After 
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