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Pimp my patio!! (PsIP)
Ok, so my back yard is currently a disaster, but I feel it has tremendous potential. I have a few ideas, but would really like some input as well!! Will you help me pimp my patio ?
The revitalization will be centered around the screened-in patio we inherited with the house when we bought it two-and-a-half years ago. NOTHING has been done to it and we have not ever used it before:
I was thinking about creating a flower bed all of the way around it using blocks. The patio is always full of dirt because the ground is pretty much level to it. I was thinking Hostas, and Impatients because the area is mostly shaded with minimal morning sunlight (picture was taken this morning) because of a huge tree.
Here is a closer look at the ground meeting the screen (the screen will need to be replaced):
I
was also thinking of extending the flower bed around the screened-in
patio to the fence and planting some Hydrangeas (they grow really well
out there and when we moved in, we had to cut one down because it was
the size of a Volkswagen Beetle).
This is a view of where I would like to put the extended flower bed (to the left of the patio):
Now for the inside.....I bought 4 Adirondack chairs that I would like to put in a circle and maybe put some sort of ottoman or table in the middle of them. I also feel like I might need a table with chairs and lots of potted flowers, etc.. for color. Thoughts?
Warning - the following picture you are about to see is hideous...the inside needs a lot of work!!!
Any thoughts, ideas, etc...are greatly appreciated!!! As far as the flowers and plants go, I'm open to ANYTHING. This area gets full morning sun and is then mostly shady throughout the rest of the day. Our soil is pretty hardy and I'm in zone 6.
Suggestions, thoughts, concerns?? TIA! I need help!
Re: Pimp my patio!! (PsIP)
I'd have the room remodeled. I'd frame it out and insulate it and build walls, and install windows. THEN I'd build a patio and landscape from there.
The idea to simply outline existing features (the house, the driveway, the walkway) with plants is ALWAYS a mistake.
Outlines are for emphasis. Houses, driveways and sidewalks don't need emphasis.
Most people landscape by outlining every existing feature: they put a stripe of plants on either side of the driveway. They put stripes of flowers on either side of the walkway leading to the front door. They put little rings around trees and mailboxes. They eventually box in their entire house with shrubs, if it didn't come that way. They call them "planting beds", and everything outside the planting bed is called "the lawn'. Giant lawn, tiny planting beds; the size, shape, and placements of which were dictated by whatever was there when you started. This is uncreative, uninteresting, and wrong.
If there is a lawn, that is what should be outlined. In this case, you have a lawn. The first step is deciding the size, shape, and location of the lawn. Once you have decided that, everything outside of the lawn will be your planting bed. You will outline your lawn with planting beds. Giant planting beds, tiny lawn. Exactly the opposite of what everybody does.
http://www.gradinamea.ro/_files/Image/articole/original/7Forma,_element_important_in_amenajarea_gazonului.jpg
http://www.gardenvision.co.za/images/gallery/DSC00351.jpg
Thanks! He's a puggle (half pug/half beagle) and we are actually considering adopting a pug who needs a home....