Suburban Oasis

There's lots of ways to bring nature into your life. With the right balance of materials, plants and design, a backyard can be transformed into an oasis of beauty and relaxation. Even small yards have huge potential. Whether it's a need for an eating area or a place to gather with friends and family, the treasure is waiting to be discovered. The trick is to bring drama and dynamic views to life. Sometimes it's as simple as having the right plants in the right locations that amplify a project.

This project did a lot of things correctly. The owners wanted to add space to their house for outdoor entertaining and at first thought an addition to their house would fit the bill. After a consultation, it made better sense to renovate an existing garage into an indoor-outdoor room with lots of flexibility for usability. This paid off in wonderful ways from reducing the overall time for construction to the overall cost of the project - PLUS, it let us think about their yard as a whole versus simply bumping out their house which would have taken up more space in their backyard.

The image above shows how we placed taller perennials away from the garage. Vernonia noveborecensis, aka New York Ironweed, is the purple flowering plant you see in the foreground. V. noveborecensis is such an amazing plant. If you look it up, you will find that most "experts" say the plant grows around 6ft tall, but my experience using this plant tells me that's a bit of an understatement. I have seen it get as tall as 12 to 15ft in not-so-ideal situations. It's a wonderful species to use to screen areas, create privacy and help add drama to a space.
we placed the ironweed away from the garage and beside a small deck to let it address the height difference of the two objects. It's height feels lower at the deck because the deck is about 3ft tall. Yet, on the ground the ironweed hides the garage as you approach it from a gate that leads to the front yard. The image below shows this view a little better. 

It's not just the Vernonia that's contributing to the design. The steel edging, the dark siding, the gigantic doors and the roofline of the garage all play a role in layering the experience of the space. But the simple act of putting the ironweed along the path gives the garage a sense of discovery...like you are the first person to ever see it. It also invokes a real atmosphere of nature - the Vernonia does grow wild and has a mind of its own...these are great qualities for a plant in its position. 
Plants have a big role in any outdoor project. The creation of a beautiful yard is an asset more valuable than the budget itself. The great thing is that plants are typically not the most expensive item for a renovation project.