Garden Furniture

Come sit a spell - garden furniture - Brief Article

For most gardeners, their favorite chair is not the recliner in front of the TV. It's that garden bench out back. After a hard day at the office ("Honey, I'm hoome") or a long morning pulling out creeping Charlie ("More weeds?!"), that bench is the favored spot to relax, read a book, sample some wine, or (hoo-wee!) tickle the kids.

Seating areas are important in home gardens for two reasons: 1) They provide a destination, a place to go to when you and your guests are in the garden. 2) Sometimes you just want to put your feet up and take a load off. But the simple act of placing a chair in the yard isn't quite enough. You want to feel at ease when you sit back, not on display. So you don't put a chair out in the middle of the lawn. You kind of back it up against something--a fence, an arbor, tall shrubs--to get a sense of enclosure and privacy.

Suzanne Legallet has divided her large backyard into several seating areas, all of which are accessible by different kinds of paths and walkways. Some of the benches are for entertaining, and some chairs are for quiet time. "I wanted friends to come upon these little garden refuges as a surprise," she says. "I wanted destination points in my garden, and I wanted them to invite you in--to sit down."

Suzanne says creating a seating area is a snap. "Actually, it's so much easier to conceive and develop a little spot as a refuge than it is to design the overall garden. It's affordable. You can do it yourself. And if it doesn't feel right, you can play around with it." Plan more than one of these garden rooms and pretty. soon you've laid out the whole garden.

Suzanne also suggests that each of your seating areas have an obvious boundary--an outline--something or some plants that help define the space.

"A refuge has to have an edge, whether it's a fence, a hedge, or an elevation," she says. "The boundaries of my Secret Garden, for example, are the berm on one side and the fence on the other. But both sides have been softened with the shrubbery, so you don't even think about the enclosure itself. The Redwood Room and the Game Room were simply created by having the redwoods already there providing the shade."

Because most of Suzanne's seating areas are in moisture-retentive shade, she uses pea gravel, crushed stone, mulch, and even pottery shards to provide dry footing. "Your surface designates your space as well," she says. So consider the material. "It has to be walkable, usable, and easy to maintain."

Suzanne's seating areas have an additional advantage: They can be viewed from her kitchen windows. So whether she is inside or outside--washing dishes or lolling in the California sun--she can enjoy a garden view. And whether she is indoors or out, she is, of course, sittin' pretty.

SUZANNE'S COURTING SWING

A stone-lined gravel path leads through Suzanne's rock garden to a wood-and-rope swing. The wooden structure is clad in climbing roses and annual vines. Pansies and fescue on the left and scabiosa and candytuft on the right flank the walkway.

THE CHILDREN'S BENCH

Granddaughter Quinn and her brothers especially like this chair because they can see it from the house and head straight for it.

THE GAME ROOM

Darts is the sport of choice here, says Suzanne, although on a hot day this often makes a cool picnic site.

THE ROSE TRELLIS

A Don Juan rose shelters a teak settee in this secluded seating area.

THE SECRET GARDEN

This private little garden room is hidden behind yet another seating area.

THE WISTERIA ARBOR

Suzanne enjoys a book and a tall, cool drink in the shade of an arbor topped by wisteria, Lady Banksia roses, and mandevilla. She also likes to play bridge out here.

THE CIRCULAR BED

Pots of New Zealand flax break up the seating surface of a raised bed. If too many people try to gather, Suzanne says, they all face away from each other.

THE REDWOOD ROOM

This is Suzanne's dedicated reading area, although there is a place, she says, "for red wines in the Redwood Room."