Ideas for Landscaping in the Country

Gardens

• The quintessential country landscape is the untamed beauty of a cottage garden. With its brightly colored flower beds bordered by rock walls or rose hedges, featuring rambling paths and weathered furniture, this type of garden evokes those found surrounding a home in the English countryside. But informal gardens are not the only choice when you are landscaping in the country. More formal designs like knot gardens, featuring a variety of plants laid out in geometric designs to resemble the knots inherent in embroidery designs, add a sense of order. Rose gardens with straight brick pathways and perfectly groomed shrubbery borders incorporate beauty and tradition.

Water Features

• Planning your landscaping around a water feature creates a focal point. A small courtyard could revolve around a single fountain flanked by stone benches or a waterfall built into a brick or stone wall might highlight a terrace. A more formal approach would involve a garden radiating outward from a central fountain like spokes in a wheel. Enjoy a pond or stream stocked with fish and water plants gurgling under an arched bridge.

Rock Gardens

• The Zen gardens of Japan and Alpine gardens dating to 19th century England were the inspiration for the rock gardens of today. The layout of the garden determines if it is casual or formal. Some rock gardens contain only rocks while others are combinations of the design created by the rocks and flowers and plants added to them. Rock gardens are natural solutions to many landscaping problems. Sloping and shaded areas, and those with too many rocks to clear for a regular garden, lend themselves to rock garden designs. A rock garden can also be incorporated into a casual, free-form water feature.

Living Spaces

• Creating an outdoor room can be done in a variety of ways. A patio or courtyard separated from the house only by a window wall or French doors brings the outside in. Turn it into an outdoor kitchen with the addition of counters, a built in stove or grill and a refrigerator. Highlight it with container gardens and hanging plants. A freestanding structure like a gazebo can be placed almost anywhere to take advantage of the country and garden views. Incorporate trellises to support climbing plants like trumpet vines and wisteria. If money is no object, add a large conservatory to your home and fill it with orchids and other unusual plants.