An outdoor room?

jano’s garden

jano nightingale

An outdoor room is the extension of your home. Stand in your kitchen or living room and look out on the area in your yard in which you would like to sit, create a flower or vegetable garden or design a place for children to play.

If you purchase graph paper, a ruler and good pencils, simply draw a rectangle, square or half circle that vaguely resembles your available space. When you are starting out, you can pace out the area, and use the graph paper to draw to scale.

Once the area has been measured, you can delineate the sections you will be using. Using simple shapes, sketch out a seating area, play area and garden area. The garden area can be drawn with curving lines on the perimeter of the fence, or a series of rectangles for raised beds.

How To Take It Outside

According to the designers who compiled an extensive garden design handbook, “Take It Outside”: “Start by focusing on what you need versus what you want. Will you be having family dinners outside? Do you need room for kids or pets to play? Would a shed for tools be useful?

“Take note of these requirements first and then concentrate on aesthetic details later — such as plant palettes, furniture or color choices. … Go ahead and make a wish list, but then draw up a realistic budget and work schedule. You may have to divide the work into phases of construction.”

The outdoor room will certainly not be constructed in one weekend as gardens evolve and adapt to their conditions and your family’s needs. In future issues we will discuss how to choose plant material and the locations of a variety of specialty nurseries.

RECYCLED VS. BRAND-NEW

In Scott Calhoun’s informative book, “Hot Pots, Container Gardening in the