Garden Seating

Ilona has a new article on garden seating that I recommend. (I link to her a lot, don't I?).

Garden seating is something often overlooked, but very important if you want to really enjoy your garden. Too often what I see is a set of table and chairs on the patio, and then no other seating anywhere else in the garden. This is wrong, a good garden design should entice you to move through the garden. If you find yourself always standing on the deck or patio, like a king peering over his domains, then something is wrong. Add a path with another seating area at the end. Even small yards can be divided and broken up to entice movement.

If you inherited a single expanse of concrete in your small patio garden, break it up with some large pots, and maybe a bamboo screen. If you can, change paving materials to accent the different spaces. If you make each area an individual experience, it will create the impulse to enjoy each of them.

And at the end of every path, should be a seat. Seating is the reward for going around the next corner. It can be a small, simple stone bench, a low retaining wall at the perfect height to perch on (around 18"), a set of adirondack chairs, or the ultimate reward, a hammock strung between two shady palm trees, with a servant to fan you and feed you grapes. If you don't have any servants, (gasp!), I guess just a hammock would be nice too.