Opt for outdoor space

Use your PC to design a three-season garden

By Erica Kirkland

Audrey Williams* is a busy mother of three who doesn’t have time to visit garden centres or meet with landscape designers. So she turned to her computer for help when redesigning her backyard into a three-season space.

“There are so many web sites where you can find information about garden design and plants,” says Williams. “And there are lots of design programs that help you sketch out ideas for your dream backyard.”

Her goal was to design a space that her family could enjoy from May to October, with various rooms for different functions. She wanted a play area for the kids, an eating area for outdoor meals, and a lounge or sitting area for relaxing.

Landscaping projects are perfect for the do-it-yourselfer.

Divide and conquer

To achieve these goals, Williams turned to the BBC’s “How to be a gardener” tutorial series. There she learned that landscape designers typically use walls, trellises and hedges to define different areas of the garden.

“Dividing the garden into different areas encourages us to explore our yards and creates mystery,” says Phil Charal, owner of Allweather Landscape Company in Toronto. Beyond play, Charal’s clients also ask for sitting and eating areas, hot tubs placed next to the house so they can be enjoyed throughout the year, and outdoor kitchens (with barbecues, sinks, etc.) and fire pits or fireplaces.

For even more ideas, check out backyard designs at Canadian Gardening and Gardening Life. Then create a digital scrapbook of the ideas you like by saving images and adding them to a Microsoft Word document or by using Microsoft Office OneNote, a program that allows you to gather, organize and share your thoughts, ideas and information.

Get with the program

Once you’ve firmed up your ideas, use them to design your space with garden design software on the Internet. Explore these sites:

BBC’s Virtual Garden: Enter your yard’s dimensions, add specific plants and furniture, and view it all in three-dimension.
Better Homes and Gardens Plan-a-Garden tool: Design your garden with drag-and-drop images of trees, flowers, structures and more.
3D Garden Composer: Get creative with this popular for-purchase application, which has hundreds of 3-D images of plants, objects and materials to help you design your space.

Go online for ideas on how to divide your space and what to plant, and to find inspiration for outdoor décor.

The Virtual Garden helped Williams visualize her new space, and she didn’t pay a dime. “Rather than spend hours sketching my ideas on a piece of paper, I could see how different configurations and materials would look with just a few clicks of my mouse,” she says.

Cover your bases

To enjoy her backyard during inclement weather, Williams incorporated a gazebo in the design of the eating area. Awning and umbrellas are other popular options, says Karin Vermeer of Vermeer’s Garden Centre and Flower Shop in Welland, Ont.

Use your design program’s 3-D mode to walk through and fine-tune before you begin work on the real thing.

While Vermeer prefers wood and steel gazebos over canvas models, she praises inexpensive umbrellas for their versatility. “These days there are enormous umbrellas, large enough to cover entire seating areas, widely available at garden centres,” she says. UmbrellaTime offers a wide selection for purchase online.

Adding a heating element to the yard, such as a fireplace, fire pit, chiminea or heat lamp, can also help you extend time spent outdoors. Before purchasing, be sure to check local bylaws on the use of these products.

Choose appropriate furniture

Outdoor furnishings made from steel, resin and teak are extremely durable and can be left outside all year long. (But fabric cushions, even those that are water-resistant, should be brought indoors during the winter and before a rainstorm.)

Visit Patio Life for an extensive selection of outdoor furniture and Loom Crafts for modern, eco-friendly resin furniture.

With a plan in hand, visit your local nursery for advice on plants suitable to your zone.

Plant for perfection

Williams wanted to spend time relaxing rather than weeding in her outdoor oasis, so she planted low-maintenance tropical plants such as palm trees, spider plants and Boston ferns. All look great from May to October. Find varieties appropriate for your zone at Dominion Seed House and Heritage Perennials.

*Name has been changed