WINDOWS AND THE WOODLAND GARDEN

Looking From one room to another, from the inside out, was a goal I set for myself when I moved to this woodland over 20 years ago.  I quickly realized that designing in a  woodland required establishing human scale spaces with transitions from one place to another.  What better way to start then looking out your windows and creating garden vignettes. The view happens to be divided by four glass panes on the top and bottom of the window. We tend to see the whole scene at first glance but we can also study the garden details within each pain making the viewing experience four times as interesting.

Standing in the garden space outside the window panes of my Eastern view is the wall garden only 8 to 10 feet from the house.  It is an intimate hallway paved in flagstone and wainscoted with a stacked Tennessee fieldstone wall. The garden is ever-changing with low perennials, bulbs and ground covers. The view is framed with nearby shade tolerant dwarf conifers that correspond to the natural cone of vision we all have when we experience what is before our eyes. With these comfortable conifer edges you can now take in the whole picture skimming over the vegetation and into the woodland beyond from the comfort of this garden room. 

Tongue Fern growing through the wall

Helleborus orientalis seeded in at the base of the wall and Cyclamen coum at easily viewed waist height on the top edge of the wall beneath and beside a Dwarf Hinoki Cypress. 

Lets take a walk around the house and look at some of the other garden rooms I have created from inside out. 

         The snow bound front courtyard.

             Looking out the side door 

View from the front door and a rocking chair placed to enjoy the garden. 

The same view in snow. Glass flowers given to me by a friend enliven the scene

I see this view from over my kitchen sink

A winter view with fragrant branches of Witch-hazel, Edgeworthia and Quince on the window sill. 

A simple Zen treatment to the deck view from my kitchen table. Notice the wing chairs inside framing the view. 

                 A winter Zen moment

So if you have an opportunity, such as this one that a friend of mine created to watch the birds at her feeder, try creating a quiet sitting place to bring the outside garden in through your windows.