ALL GARDENING ZONE

Wooden garden arbors (arbours) are open frameworks designed to offer shady resting places in a garden or park. Arbors are often made of rustic work or latticework which serves as a trellis on which climbers may grow or on which creepers may be trained.

For instance, there are the classic grape arbors, in which case the wooden structure serves a horticultural function: namely, providing support for a crop.

Other functions:

• But these vine-covered wooden structures can also serve as privacy screens.
• They can also provide shade on decks and patios.
• More often, they have primarily an aesthetic purpose by forming entrancing archways to garden entrances. They can also function as entry gates for properties surrounded by fencing.

Trellises are usually latticework structures that are mounted on walls or posts that support your climbers as they grow. Like arbors and pergolas they provide more room for your vines to grow. They can also be mounted between posts to provide a screen. This is a nice accent to provide privacy and shade.

A patio (from the Spanish: patio meaning ‘back garden’ or ‘backyard) is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that often adjoins a residence and is typically paved. It may refer to a roofless inner courtyard of a house or a paved area between a residence and the garden. Homeowners who want a low-maintenance landscape, an interesting alternative to lawns is the extended patio, which is simply an enlarged patio that takes up space where lawn grass would otherwise be planted.

Helpful tips regarding types of materials used for patios:

• Bricks are perceived to be the most economical and sophisticated to use.
• Patio pavers are also seen practical to utilize since they come up with a wide range of options – different colors, sizes, shapes and styles. They are very austere and inexpensive, too.
• Stylish and attractive stones are seen beautiful and so flexible for landscaping and the likes.
• Concrete patios are known to be the most durable, versatile and affordable among them because these cannot be destroyed or broken by some sudden changes in the climate and weather.

Having a patio has no bearing on the size of your home since because it doesn’t technically contribute to the total area of your home. But its advantage is, patios can create an expansive entertainment and recreational area for your home that you’ll enjoy for years to come. Outdoor patios especially make excellent places to entertain family and friends, or simply have a quiet place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the world. They can be enclosed with windows, screens, vines, or plants too, creating a general private outdoor room space addition on your home.

A landscape is never complete if its soft elements are not rightfully complemented by its hardscape. Hardscape or “hardscaping” consists of the inanimate elements of landscaping, especially any masonry work or woodwork. For instance, stone walls, concrete or brick patios, tile paths, wooden decks and wooden arbors would all be considered part of the hardscape. But hardscape goes beyond large-scale projects such as these. Any non-living ornamentation in your landscaping is, technically, part of the hardscape. Without the skillful arrangement of stone and other hardscape components, the most artistic of landscapes would lack a frame to set it off the plants tastefully and beautifully. When designing your garden, always begin with the permanent structures. Let the physical area and surroundings dictate the shape and form of your design.

Wooden structures can be used in the garden to provide support for plant material and to define the elements of “outdoor rooms;” the trellis becomes a wall, the arbor a door, the pergola a roof – a gazebo combines all of these. The design of these features should take into account probable weight loads from plants, natural forces of wind, moisture and sun and the properties of the wood itself. Including wooden structures in the landscape offers us the opportunity to recycle material from “nature’s garden” to our own.

Hardscape materials are as varied as your imagination. But for weight-bearing construction, you are safest with tried and true materials like stone, wood, cement and the like. Most folks like patios and shade structures. But even these can be built with creativity, forming them to original designs and choosing imaginative materials. Cement can be colored, stamped or imbedded. Mosaics, pavers, tiles, brick, colored gravel, crushed glass, etc. or a combination of materials can make flat surfaces swirl with interest. Consider adding structures for both usage and beauty.

Sample 1: Pergola

Sample 2: Pathway