Fragrant lavender and lemon tree blossoms perfume the garden.
Have you ever visited a garden that at first glance seemed attractive and well maintained, yet after a short time left you feeling disinclined to linger and explore? A backyard may be beautifully designed, with attractive patios and pathways and well-shaped planting beds, yet leave us feeling flat and disengaged. Although beginning the design process with an overall layout plan is a good idea, if the process stops with only what can be communicated via a drawing, a lackluster garden can be the result. That’s because a drawing alone neglects to capture the most important thing that sets the outdoor world apart from the indoors, and distinguishes residential backyards from residential interiors — that fact that gardens are alive.
We can learn more about this phenomenon from our pets. Take a close look at how your pets respond to being outside. Cats in particular are notorious for pausing in open doorways, half in one space and half in another. This can be partly chalked up to general feline quirkiness, but look closely at what puss is really doing. Notice how her nose quivers and ears twitch forward, eyes intently moving from space to space? She’s taking time to drink in the sounds and scents of the garden, carefully noting everything in motion, down to the tiniest detail.
While a leaf blowing across the patio or a lizard scampering up a wall might not captivate us as completely, our enjoyment of being outside is enhanced by a space brimming with sound, movement, color, and scent. Fortunately, it’s actually easier to make these things prominent and noticeable in a garden that’s not overly large.
At the most basic level, the technical act of simply adding plants to a backyard creates life. But the savvy homeowner goes beyond that, and actively seeks out the aromatic plants, colorful accessories and clever layout strategies that will create an environment alive with activity, regardless of the area’s size. To unwind on a patio while birds call, leaves rustle in the breeze, and the heady perfume of scented flowers fills the air, is to immerse yourself in an in-the-moment experience unique to being outside. There’s a reason spending time outdoors is known as one of the best stress-busting activities, but it only works if our backyards are truly infused with nature. Sterile concrete slabs and precisely clipped hedges won’t feed our senses or evoke the serenity necessary to distance us from the built-up urban environment and relentless pace that marks so much of our days. That’s why it’s so important to include the elements of movement, sound, color and scent in every garden: these dynamic, sensual features reveal how alive a garden really is and keep us feeling alive too!
One of the most effective ways to introduce movement and sound into a garden is with water. Every culture throughout history has included water as an essential element in gardens. The paradise gardens created thousands of years ago by ancient desert civilizations — and immortalized in the design of traditional Persian carpets — included canals or ponds and were typically organized around a central water source. Similarly, Greek villas and medieval cloisters generally feature a wellhead or fountain right in the middle. The connection between water and gardens continues today. Whether in small ways like a modest backyard fountain, or more dramatic features like cascading water walls, water has endured as a quintessential feature of contemporary landscape design precisely because of the dynamism it can add.
Although the illusion of water can be invoked by suggesting its form or color via plants and landscape accessories, when possible, including a real water element is particularly rewarding and enjoyable. Besides being beautiful in and of itself, the sparkle of water in the sun attracts other life to a garden. A shallow dish placed where butterflies can enjoy a drink, a birdbath that provides respite for migrating birds, or a modest pond that can be home to lazy koi and deep-throated frogs all reinforce water’s life-giving properties and enrich the garden experience. Watching birds splash around in a fountain is a guaranteed stress buster and mood lifter.
Homeowners sometimes shy away from water features, fearing they mean a lot of maintenance, but there are ways to take advantage of their benefits while minimizing chores. First, think small. Large ponds with cascading waterfalls can be expensive to install properly and maintain, and are generally too big to fit comfortably in a small backyard anyway. Just like swimming pools, they can be water wasters due to evaporation, making them less desirable in parts of the country prone to drought. If you have your heart set on the look and sound of a significant water feature, consider one without a pond. While still providing the sound and presence of a moving body of water, pondless systems are based on a gravel-filled reservoir instead of a traditional pool liner, significantly reducing evaporation and maintenance.
An even more practical choice for most homeowners is a small fountain that sits atop an in-ground reservoir. Fountains like this can be purchased prefabricated, or you can make one from a container, slab of stone, or anything that can have a hole drilled through the bottom of it. Installing this type of fountain entails burying a sealed waterproof container below ground, with a grate on top that the water feature rests on. Decorative rock and gravel cover the grate, and the water that spills from the fountain is re-circulated via a pump in the reservoir. Burying the mechanical elements helps integrate the fountain with the rest of the garden, creating a natural effect. While not nearly as expensive or maintenance intensive as a pond, in-ground reservoirs do have a somewhat complex installation process and because their pump and reservoir are buried below grade, take more effort to maintain than units that sit entirely above ground.
The easiest option by far is a self-contained, jar-style fountain. These sit in a saucer and feature an integrated, internal pump, so they require minimal effort to install and very little maintenance other than topping off the water and an occasional cleaning. Instead of being open like a traditional, tiered fountain container, a jar fountain is semi-enclosed on top; this helps keep it clean inside and more important, provides an appealing landing place for the songbirds that will be attracted to the sparkle of the water. If you fall in love with a container at a nursery and want to make your own self-contained fountain, keep it bird friendly by topping the jar with a piece of plexiglass with a hole drilled in the center. Cover that sheet with a layer of gravel and a few larger stones — this will not only create a more attractive feature, but will help birds gauge the depth and land more safely. Jar fountains provide more movement and sparkle than sound, since the water doesn’t splash. If the sound of lapping or falling water is important to you, opt for a tiered-style fountain.
Your water feature’s placement is critical. Unlike a specimen tree or piece of art that is often placed farther out in the landscape as a focal point, fountains are ideally enjoyed up close. Besides creating a soothing burbling sound of their own, water features can serve the practical purpose of masking other noise, whether that’s minimizing the sound of a neighbor’s lawn mower or keeping your own backyard conversations private. They can only do this effectively if they are located near primary seating areas or where people will congregate. If welcoming wildlife into your yard is one of your goals, know that birds flying overhead are attracted to the shimmer of moving water, so avoid locating your fountain under a dense tree or anything that shields it from overhead view.
In smaller gardens, it may be impossible or undesirable to include actual water in a garden. An alternative is to represent water’s fluidity and movement in other ways. Planting a swath of the same plant in an informal curved drift, for example, will evoke the sense of flowing water. Ornamental grasses are ideal for adding movement to a garden, as their elegant plumes sway in even the lightest breeze. These grasses also act as light catchers the same way water does, in that they capture and enhance the glow of the sun, particularly when backlit in mornings or late afternoons.
In nature, water of course moves not only horizontally, via streams and rivers, but also from one vertical level to another as it cascades down hillsides and mountains. Mimicking the look of waterfalls with plants that trail or drape evocatively from window boxes, retaining walls, or over the lips of containers can suggest the movement and flow of water, particularly if you choose specimens with blue-toned or silvery foliage or blooms.
Curving landscape features also suggest movement, and can be a low-maintenance way to make a space more dynamic. Try creating a “stream” of river rock or decorative gravel that meanders through the garden. If you’re willing to commit to a permanent feature, consider carving a pebble or mosaic ribbon into existing hardscape to introduce the sinuous shape of moving water.
Water is one of the most pleasing elements to add to a small garden, but when a water feature is impractical, an alternative is to incorporate plants that mimic water’s graceful flow. Plants that drape loosely over walls, sport gracefully arching foliage, or bloom in blue hues bring a similar sense of movement and fluidity to the garden.
| Plant | USDA zones | Description |
|
Cape Mendocino reed grass (Calamagrostis foliosa) |
8–9 | In summer, arching wheat-colored flowers that droop gracefully complement the blue sheen of the leaves. Reaches 1 to 2 feet high and wide. |
(Lavandula spp.) |
5–9 | Fragrant spikes of pale to dark blue flowers are held above aromatic, gray-green foliage. |
(Geranium ‘Gerwat’ ROZANNE) |
5–9 | Its long blooming season, blue flowers, and mounding, billowy habit makes this a wonderful choice to spill over the edge of a pathway. 1 to 2 feet high and 2 to 4 feet wide. |
(Rosmarinus officinalis spp.) |
8–10 | Hardy and fast growing, prostrate forms of rosemary such as ‘Prostratus’, ‘Irene’, and ‘Huntington Carpet’ drape attractively over walls and from containers. 1 to 2 feet high and 4 to 8 feet wide. |
(Festuca glauca ‘Beyond Blue’) |
4–9 | Unusually bright blue foliage and compact size make this cultivar a small-space standout. Notable for maintaining its blue color nearly year-round in milder climates. 12 inches high and 18 inches wide. |
(Nolina texana) |
7–10 | With needlelike, muddy-green leaves that tend to settle into a puddle, beargrass is particularly effective at mimicking water when allowed to tumble over the side of a wall. 3 feet high and 3 to 4 feet wide. |
One of the great pleasures of being in nature is having close encounters with the denizens of a healthy, vibrant ecosystem. Lush backyards are not only wonderful to look at and spend time in, they have the potential to attract wildlife. Like water, birds, bees, and butterflies add movement and sound to a garden, and while they can’t be controlled per se, the charm of interacting with them often stems from their unpredictability. Part of the enjoyment of being outdoors is hoping for and then relishing unexpected visits, which always feel like a gift. Creating gardens that are attractive to wildlife is especially rewarding in small spaces, where you are generally only a few feet from the action.
Of all the critters that can be encouraged to visit a garden, pollinators are among the most valuable. This term encompasses any animal, bird, or insect that helps plants produce fruit or seeds. They do this by moving pollen from the flowers of one plant to another, thereby fertilizing them. Without pollinators, plants cannot reproduce. Of course, there are other species of wildlife you may want to attract to your garden, but the great thing about pollinators is that with a little encouragement in the right direction, they’ll visit just about any garden. You don’t need to live in the country or have a large property. Your garden can be as small as a few containers on a balcony — if planted correctly, you can count on visitors. In fact, in densely populated urban areas, container gardens can play an important environmental role because food sources for birds and insects can be far between. Think of city balconies and courtyards as an important part of an urban wildlife corridor that creates spaces for birds and insects to rest or stop for a snack.
There are numerous insects that act as pollinators, but bees are probably the most well known, as they are among the most prolific and important. When a bee lands on a flower to drink its nectar, it comes into contact with a plant’s pollen sacs. As the bee flies off, some of this pollen is carried away with it, making it available as fertilizer for the next flower it visits. This process of cross-pollination helps at least 30 percent of the world’s crops and 90 percent of wild plants to thrive. In home gardens, bees play an important role as pollinators of popular traditional fruits and vegetables, like apples, cranberries, melons, and blueberries.
Many balk at actively encouraging these gentle creatures for fear of painful stings, but unless you are highly allergic, this concern is unwarranted. Bees are provoked to attack only when they perceive their colony is in danger and needs protecting. A bee will rarely sting when out foraging for food or water.
Beyond their importance in food production and plant health, bees are one of the most attractive visitors in the garden to simply sit back and observe. They provide a sensory experience unique to the outdoors. Most of us are familiar with the slender shape and muted gold and black stripes of a European honeybee, if only from the pictures illustrating the squeeze bottles of honey in the grocery store. But it doesn’t take much time in a garden friendly to pollinators to discover there are a host of other bees waiting to entertain us as they go about their business. In fact, one of my favorite backyard visitors is the carpenter bee, whose appearance is about as far from the fast- flitting, smaller honeybee as you can get. Pitch black and an inch long, twice the size of their zippier cousins, carpenter bees can be a little startling if you’ve never seen one up close before. But once you are accustomed to their misleadingly fierce looks, you’ll find that few things are as relaxing as sitting down and watching the slow, methodical flight of these gentle giants as they glide from flower to flower. Their low-pitched hum has the same calming effect as waves washing up on an ocean’s shore.
Butterflies are less controversial visitors — pollinators that almost everyone enjoys seeing in the garden. Because of their long, thin legs and lack of specialized structures for collecting pollen, they are not as efficient as bees at cross-fertilization, although they still play an important role. Despite being less effective at attaching pollen to their bodies, they do boast superior eyesight, meaning they can perceive bright colors such as red more easily. Additionally, their longer legs allow them to pollinate larger flowers. But there’s no need to choose between trying to attract bees or butterflies; for the most part, they prefer the same garden conditions.
There are several things you can do to encourage pollinators in your garden. The easiest is to include nectar- and pollen-rich plants, to provide food sources. Good options are long-flowering plants like agastache (Agastache spp.), blanket flower (Gaillardia spp.), and cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus). While bees collect pollen from a wide range of plants, they are especially attracted to plants whose blooms, upon close inspection, are actually made up of many small, individual flowers. A good example is common yarrow (Achillea spp.), which is equally inviting to butterflies as its wide, flat flowers make an excellent landing pad.
‘African Blue’ basil is an excellent example of a plant that does triple duty in small gardens. Besides attracting pollinators over a lengthy bloom season, flowering does not turn the leaves bitter, making it a particularly long-lasting culinary herb.
Many other plants besides perennials are attractive to pollinators. Fruit trees as well as traditional landscape trees such as maple, black locust, and pepper also attract bees. Larger landscape trees like these can be especially desirable if your garden has the space, because colonies will visit en masse when the tree is in flower. If listening to a few bees flit about the garden is similar to enjoying a cat’s purr, then sitting under the canopy of a tree covered with honeybees is like being surrounded by an entire litter of contented kittens.
Beyond flowers, trees, and shrubs, bees and butterflies are attracted to many types of edible plants. Numerous traditional herbs lure pollinators, including basil, mint, thyme, chives, sage, and oregano. The key, of course, is to allow at least some of the herbs to flower. Although standard culinary herbs work just fine, if you want to take your herb garden and pollinator stewardship to the next level, consider ‘African Blue’ basil. It flowers early in the season, sporting stunning blue-black stems of small purple flowers that are irresistible to bees and can also be used as garnish in salads. Unlike the leaves of many culinary types of basil, ‘African Blue’ foliage does not become bitter when the plant is allowed to flower, making this a terrific herb to share.
How you care for your pollinator garden is equally as important as what you plant. It is crucial that you take an organic approach and avoid any pesticides or herbicides. Many of the chemicals found in them are toxic to pollinators.
You can also simplify yard maintenance chores by encouraging or introducing beneficial insects. Indoors, we tend to lump all insects into the same “undesirable and uninvited” category, but this is not true outdoors, where some insects actively participate in the health of a garden. These beneficial insects can fight nuisance insects, which can damage plants and even limit our ability to enjoy the outdoors due to aggressive behavior and the tendency to sting. For example, while there is no safe way of chemically eradicating the annoying aphids that are munching on your roses without also killing off the bugs you’d like to keep around, you can introduce a squad of ladybugs (Hippodamia convergens) to combat them. In fact, one ladybug can eat an impressive 5000 aphids in its one-year lifespan. What the ladybugs don’t get, you can spray off with a hose. Not to be outdone, the soldier beetle (Podisus maculiventris) is as ferocious as its name implies, and preys on nearly a hundred different garden pests. Ultimately, resisting the urge to wage chemical warfare will result in less maintenance and a much healthier garden.
Hummingbirds pollinate a variety of shrubs and flowers, and like bees, are important to wild flower pollination. They are attracted to nectar-producing plants, and their long beaks are particularly adept at seeking out the nectar hidden inside bell-shaped blooms like those of flowering maple (Abutilon spp.). You can also attract hummers with specialized hanging feeders, although in general, even feeders kept full of artificial nectar provide less than 25 percent of their nutritional needs, so adding plants that are a food source will greatly increase your chances of having these beautiful and entertaining birds visit your garden. If you do add a feeder or two, be kind and makes sure at least one has a place to perch — it’s a myth that they only feed while in flight.
Good choices for attracting hummingbirds include cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans). If you want to attract a nesting pair and try to entice them to stick around, there are several things you can do. At least one tree is essential — they build their nests anywhere from 10 to 90 feet off the ground. A selection of shrubs will provide them with the twigs and bits of leaves they need to build their tiny nests, which are bound together with spider silk. Parent birds need tiny spiders and bugs to feed their offspring, so resist the urge to exterminate your local arachnid or insect populations. Beyond their environmental benefit as pollinators, hummingbirds’ good looks and crazy antics make them particularly attractive garden visitors. It is impossible not to admire these birds’ iridescent plumage; it shines like precious jewels. But what really makes a hummer special is its cocky personality. While hummingbirds typically weigh about as much as two pennies, they seem completely oblivious to their diminutive size and frequently challenge much larger birds. In the same way a toy poodle will bark out a fearless challenge to a bigger dog, it is common for male hummers to stake out a patch of garden and guard it zealously. Highly territorial, the pitched battle of aggressive males over ownership of a feeder or a desirable feeding ground is as entertaining as any action movie, and in modest-sized gardens, it’s like having a front row seat.
Color is one of the most important design elements of any indoor room, but fewer homeowners think about color being equally essential to the spaces we create outside. Not only can the judicious use of color have a huge visual impact, it also has the ability to directly affect our moods. The color red, for example, has the power to raise blood pressure, while the color green stimulates the pituitary gland and helps keep both our minds and bodies relaxed. Incorporating personal color preferences into a garden makes them — and the experience of creating them — uniquely our own.
While there is no doubt that flowers add spectacular color to a landscape, it is also true that maintaining annuals — as well as perennials to a lesser extent — is a labor-intensive aspect of having a garden, and not necessarily in keeping with the less is more approach to gardening. With annuals, you have the option to mix things up by choosing something different every year, but that also means purchasing and replanting plants every year. Perennials live longer, but also often require deadheading, cutting back or even dividing every few years, chores that many would rather minimize. For all these reasons, it’s good to think about additional strategies for incorporating long-term, low-maintenance color in the garden in addition to flowers and foliage.
Besides traditional methods such as accessories and flowers, color can be introduced into the garden via a home’s exterior walls.
The easiest way to do this is with accessories such as cushions, bright containers, or furniture such as chairs and benches. Often overlooked, however, is the opportunity to play with color using a garden’s permanent structural elements; fences, walls, gates, and arbors all provide opportunities to create a unique color story. A fence’s main job might be to maintain privacy or keep out deer, but that doesn’t mean it can’t double as an art project. Adding color to your garden’s decorative fixtures also means that you can have color year-round. This is particularly appealing for colder climates, where much of a garden’s foliage goes dormant or is covered by snow in winter.
I always recommend taking a light hand with large features, such as fences and walls. Choose a soft or neutral color for these backdrops. If you’re attracted to stronger colors, use them as accents or in concentrated areas, as too many bright colors can overwhelm a small space (although like all design guidelines, there are exceptions). Just as you might paint one accent wall inside the house, choose one or two outdoor surfaces to call out.
A hot pink panel provides a vibrant backdrop to a container filled with succulents.
If a fence is older and in poor condition — or, conversely, if it’s already stained but you want to add more color — it might not be practical or desirable to paint just one part of it. Overlaying a painted wood panel in front of one or more sections of a fence, however, is a relatively easy way to add a pop of color, with the added benefit that the effect is less permanent. Make sure you choose a wood for the panel that stands up well to the outdoors, such as cedar or pine, and choose exterior-grade paint.
Color certainly brings a shot of personal style into a garden, but it also strongly influences how a garden is experienced. Color specialists theorize that certain colors evoke universal reactions. Being aware of this can help you emphasize (or de-emphasize) specific features in your garden. For example, blue inspires calmness and relaxation, so it would be an excellent choice for an area set aside for reading, meditating, or quiet conversation. Hot colors like red and orange draw the eye, making them a good option for accents or focal points. Their eye-catching nature means they can also be employed to draw attention away from less desirable areas of the garden, such as compost bins or storage areas, which in limited-space gardens can’t always be completely hidden. They can even serve as a distraction for unappealing views.
There are many resources available to people redecorating a home’s interior in a particular color scheme. But other than catalog photos of outdoor furniture, pages torn from magazines, or user-driven websites like Pinterest or Houzz, there aren’t a lot of places for homeowners to get ideas on how to add color to a landscape effectively, which can make the process intimidating. Following one of the strategies below will help you combine colors in a way that’s cohesive.
A mix of textures, plants, and accessories in a limited palette of greens makes this monochromatic garden a standout.
If your tastes run to clean, bold, or simple, or you are simply gaga for one specific color, opt for a monochromatic approach. Choose a single hue to use as your inspiration, and repeat it throughout the garden with both plants and accents. This is a particularly effective strategy for contemporary garden designs, which are often associated with clean color profiles. It also works well for gardens that already have a lot going on architecturally speaking, as it allows individual hardscape elements to shine and ensures that color clutter won’t overwhelm a smaller garden.
Purchasing unfinished wood containers and painting them yourself allows you to determine a consistent color palette in advance.
Nailing down the colors you want to emphasize before you start a color transformation will ensure a harmonious result, while still allowing room for impulse buys like containers and cushions. Once you’re certain you like the way a color looks in your garden, you can work on increasing its presence a little at a time. And don’t limit yourself to what you can find online or in a garden center — wood containers can be custom built or ordered prefabricated in a range of sizes online, which gives you the option of painting them yourself. This makes it much easier to choose a color palette that is as sophisticated, soft, or whimsical as you like. While furniture and outdoor accessory manufacturers offer only a handful of colors, paint stores carry an almost unlimited range. This approach is a great time-saver as well, as a trip to the paint store and an afternoon spent painting is a more manageable process than multiple trips to garden centers, in search of the perfect containers.
There are many ways to come up with a color story that works for you. If your garden was inspired by a specific style or other single idea, let that guide your color choices. Tropical-themed gardens, for example, are popular in many parts of the country, not just where tropical plants would naturally grow. A garden that pops with vivid shades of orange, red, and yellow in flowers native to a range of climates will evoke a cheerful vacation mood in your backyard. In fact, travel is a common source of inspiration for many of my clients. Since our gardens are often used to unwind and relax, they are the perfect place to try recreating a favorite vacation destination, if only in a small way. Distant places we hope to visit one day but have not managed to get to yet can also influence our gardens — the whole point is to let your backyard transport you away from your daily surroundings. You don’t have to have spent time in the French or Italian countryside to be able to appreciate their charm. Walls painted in soft ochre, combined with lavender-colored containers, can evoke the spirit of the Mediterranean in your own suburban backyard.
A favorite memory, such as a tropical vacation, can work as your color inspiration.
Colors that sit opposite each other on the color wheel are considered complementary. Aesthetically speaking, a color’s complement provides its best contrast. Incorporating this type of color strategy into the garden requires a thoughtful approach; too much contrast can be a little garish when viewed year-round. Think how unrestful your interior would be if you decorated it in complementary red and green holiday colors year-round. In general, if you would like to use very saturated, bright colors, such as yellow and purple, it is better to combine them sparingly, as accents, or to use them in planting combinations rather than drench the garden with them, as they can draw too much attention from other garden elements. An alternative — and one that often results in more sophisticated-looking gardens — is to choose softer, more natural shades of complementary colors. Soft gold and muted teal, for example, provide a harmonious but gentle contrast that won’t overpower a small space.
Building a garden around analogous colors — those that sit next to one another on the color wheel — is a great way to introduce a bold mix of colors that still play well together.
Colors that reside adjacent to each other on the color wheel are known as analogous colors, and they offer an opportunity to create a pleasing range of tones that seem to slide naturally from one to the next without jarring juxtapositions. A cool palette of yellow-green, green, and blue-green, for example, would work well if you are planning on incorporating lots of green, leafy shrubs. A warmer palette of orange, red-orange, and deep red is a classic choice for a Mediterranean-style garden built around terra-cotta tiles and textured stucco walls. Using an analogous color grouping as your design roadmap gives you a wide range of colors to play with, while keeping your design cohesive.
The walls, furnishings, and accessories in our gardens don’t exist independently from the plants. If you’ve already created a garden with foliage and bloom colors that you find pleasing, why not continue to emphasize those colors by repeating them in other materials? Keep in mind that strong shades like deep crimsons and vivid blues attract the eye and act as natural focal points. Too many competing pops of bright color can be too much in a small space. Save this strategy for gardens with more subdued palettes that emphasize foliage over a wide range of flower color.
Our sense of smell plays an important role in our well-being. Considered by many to be the most primal of our senses, it influences memory, mood, and emotion. Think back to an outdoor experience that was meaningful to you. Was it a summer at the beach, or perhaps a family camping trip? Chances are, when you encounter scents associated with those particular memories — the tang of salt water or the sharp astringency of pine needles — those memories will involuntary resurface.
That’s why scent can do so much to enhance the experience of being in a garden. A garden is a living, breathing ecosystem, and few things cater to the pleasure of fragrance better than flowers. Because it’s easier to “trap” scent in a smaller area, adding only one or two fragrant plants may be all that you need. Getting the most sensory pleasure out of your garden, however, does mean choosing scented plants with an eye toward how you use the garden and when you will spend time in it. If you enjoy spending evenings outdoors, plants like night-blooming jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) and evening stock (Matthiola incana) release their fragrance after dark. Conversely, if one of your goals is to bring the aromas of the garden indoors, create a cutting garden that includes scented plants that hold up well after they’re harvested, such as hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis), freesia (Freesia corymbosa), or lilac (Syringa spp.).
‘Cupani’ sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus ‘Cupani’) is an old-fashioned variety that is more fragrant than many newer cultivars.
Scented flowers vary widely in the intensity and quality of their fragrance. Much like you may have a signature perfume or cologne, plants that are intensely fragrant can create an equally personal statement in your garden. If you are looking for plants strong enough to perfume more than just their immediate area, choose a flowering shrub or a small tree over perennials and annuals. Trees and shrubs are an efficient choice for small spaces as well because one deliciously fragrant selection, such as a mock orange, will be enough to perfume the garden through the entire spring season. Where you plant will also impact how you perceive a scent. Plants close to the house will waft in with the breeze; if you want to perfume an area of your yard so you will smell it while you’re reading in a certain chair, for example, plant that area so it is somewhat enclosed, which will help trap the scent where it can be enjoyed.
The light apple scent of ‘Apple Blossom’ climbing rose (Rosa ‘Apple Blossom’) is deliciously sweet, but also subtle.
If you’re shopping for old-fashioned favorites like roses or sweet peas, keep in mind that many newer cultivars are bred to be tougher than their ancestors. While this means blooms that are potentially longer lasting or more dramatic, as well as offering longer vase life for cut flowers, oftentimes the trade-off for enhanced performance is muting of a plant’s signature scent. In roses, for instance, the gene that carries disease resistance is unfortunately not compatible with the gene for fragrance. Select retailers, many online, do carry strongly scented rose varieties that also resist disease and are long bloomers. David Austin produces several, including ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, ‘Ambridge Rose’, and ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’. Similarly, heirloom varieties of sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) brought into cultivation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — such as ‘Cupani’ or ‘Painted Lady’, that must be planted from seed — generally bear more fragrant blooms than ones purchased at the nursery. Because of this, if you are growing a flower specifically to enjoy its perfume, you might need to look a little farther than your local garden center or big box store to find a worthy cultivar.
If you enjoy your garden in the evening, consider plants that release their fragrance at night, such as evening stock (Matthiola incana).
Not all garden scents need to be flowery. Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) emits a fruity aroma reminiscent of pineapple.
We’re all familiar with the expression “stop and smell the roses,” and a garden’s ability to encourage us to slow down and drink in its sights and scents is one of its most powerful gifts. A scent doesn’t have to be bold to be enjoyable. Making the extra effort to seek out the source of an elusive scent can make the experience of walking through a garden that much more rewarding. Think of scent as another layer to your garden — happily, one that doesn’t require a lot of space or energy!
If traditional flowery scents don’t appeal to you, remember that many plants have subtle fragrances more reminiscent of a well-stocked kitchen pantry than a department store perfume counter. The flowers of the azara tree (Azara macrophylla) and fiveleaf akebia vine (Akebia quinata) are often described as smelling lightly of chocolate, while both Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum) and sweet almond verbena shrub (Aloysia virgata) exude a light vanilla scent. If you prefer a fruitier aroma, opt for the ripe notes of pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) or the tangy fragrance of lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora).
Beyond flowers, herbs are an outstanding way to add another layer of fragrance to the garden. Salvias and sages are culinary and ornamental herbs that make wonderful garden additions because their spicy, bracing aromas are unique to the outdoors. Unlike many flowers, which send their fragrance out into the atmosphere on their own, you must interact with an herb to release its scent. Because the scent is typically held in the foliage as well as the flowers, brushing your hand along a leaf-covered stem will lightly bruise the leaves, allowing its bracing fragrance to escape. Another option is to plant small patches of aromatic ground covers close to pathways or between paving stones. Creeping thyme, chamomile, and golden culinary sage will release subtle fragrances when stepped on. Why pay a premium for calming lavender-scented aromatherapy products when you could simply step outside and run your hands along your own marvelous plant?
