DIY Projects

Focal Points in a Garden Design

Focal points in a garden design to draw and direct the eye. Think of a garden or your backyard, large or small, that was just a swath of plants. Your eye sweeps along, not knowing where to land. A sense of flow is nice, but without a focus, your garden is not really taken in and studied. It is quickly passed over.

Now think of a garden you saw with a wonderful water feature, a weeping tree or a dramatic ornament.

Small gardens can pose difficulties for creating a focal point. Obviously, you don’t want to sacrifice your entire garden space to one large plant or tree. But focal points can be scaled to the size of your garden. Even the smallest space could have one unique, flamboyant plant that calls attention to itself. Think of tall, orange-leaved cannas or a dwarf conifer design with some stones.

So What Constitutes a Focal Point?

Pretty much any striking feature in your garden:

An unusual specimen (Red Twig Dogwood)

A large, architectural plant (Cimicifuga)

A group of plants (a cluster of astilbe, bleeding heart, and ferns)

A vibrant color (orange canna)

A single white plant

An ornament (Birdbath, gazing globe, statue…)

Large boulders

A dwarf shrub or tree

You don’t have to start your garden design with a focal point, but you don’t want to throw one in as an afterthought. Think about the style of garden you want and the plants you are considering using.

Then list possible features that would complement, yet stand out from your basic design. Some designs lend themselves to the obvious focal point: a ranch garden with a small water feature, a cottage garden with a cement statue, a herb garden with an obelisk.

If you have a preexisting large tree near your garden, that will become a focal point whether you mean to or not. You might want to enhance it with a birdhouse or a flowering vine, like climbing hydrangea.

DIY Projects

Gazebos

A gazebos are freestanding, open garden structure, sometimes hexagonal or octagonal in shape, with a roof. Most gazebos are constructed of wood or metal and have ​built-in seating inside the sheltered area. To add a sense of enclosure and privacy, latticework or outdoor curtains or drapes are sometimes used. In a garden setting, a gazebo can serve as a focal point—something to be viewed and appreciated—or add protection from the sun and insects

Small cities in the late 19th century and early 20th century often had large gazebos in the town center or park, where they often served as bandstands.

History

Gazebo-like structures have been built for centuries. The Egyptians built garden gazebos to support grapes for wine and raisins. They believed that these earthly paradises—gazebos and gardens—would follow them to heaven.

Greece and Rome

Gazebos can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome. The Greeks built temples in public spaces that were surrounded by gardens, with marble gazebos in memory of gods and goddesses.

The Romans enjoyed their private gardens as places to relax and entertain. Garden gazebos were constructed as a beautiful outdoor feature and as a gathering place.

Medieval and Renaissance Periods

While gazebos do attract attention, they also were, and still are, built to offer privacy. Elaborate gardens of churches and monasteries used gazebos as places for meditation or to establish a shrine.

TA gazebo would serve as a destination for the lord of the manor and his guests to journey outside for fresh air while still under a roof.

English Gazebos

Garden gazebos became popular in England during the 16th through 18th centuries and could be found in parks or large private estates. In the 19th century, gazebos were built for middle-class properties and also became more functional as a shelter. The English practice of afternoon tea was enjoyed in gazebos or similar structures.

Asian Gazebos

Tea houses—or teahouses—are another form of a gazebo that has been popular in China and Japan for centuries. Tea ceremonies are a time of rest, meditation, and reflection while enjoying one another’s company and admiring the beautiful surroundings of nature

Creating a Private Place

To establish a cozy hideaway on a smaller lot, add a pergola or overhead roof to your gazebo, paving, and a path leading to the area. For added privacy, create walls with lattice panels on the sides, and plant vines to grow up and over the framework.

Different than a pergola which is the pergola often has a slatted roof and is more open on the sides.

Vegetable and Fruits

Drip irrigation

Use a drip irrigation system to conserve water and improve water absorption in flower beds and gardens. If you watch television advertisements, one would think the best way to water and even fertilizer flowers and other plants is to stand up in your yard with a garden hose and nozzle and spray the plants with water, soaking the foliage and flowers in hopes of some of the water making its way down to the soil where the roots are. It’s the roots that need to get access to the water, not the leaves and certainly not the flowers which in many cases will be damaged by getting water sprayed on them. Wet foliage, particularly going into the night, can also foster disease problems.

When watering a plant, the important thing is to get the water to the roots. If you can do that without spraying it up in the air, that is even better, because you are going to keep the foliage and flowers dry and also greatly reduce the chance of losing a significant amount of the water to evaporation saving money on water costs. Overhead, sprinkler irrigation can lose 40% of the water to evaporation on a sunny, warm day. Plus, if it is windy, the water may not land where you need it to go. Ooze hoses are now readily available and work great for small gardens. Just lay them out along the row of plants in a garden or circle them around and between flowers in a garden to distribute the water right onto the soil. Drip tape and drip tubes can also be found in many garden centers or online. These have small openings, uniformly spaced that allow water to slowly drip out of the tape or tube. These can be set up on a timer to supply water for a specified period of time or you can turn it on and off yourself. I water the garden in the early evening with drip tubing and turn it off the next morning. Just let it on long enough to saturate the root zone, then allow it to dry again before watering again. Water enough to saturate the root zone in the row but keep the space between rows dry, you will have less weeds to pull too.