We bought a house three years ago sight unseen, vetted by my parents. When I say sight unseen, through the miracle of the internet, we did, in fact, view pictures of the home both inside and out. Some of the photos were current while others were from previous owners which gave us a nice perspective on what had been done to the place.

Garden Design Dreams – Patio Arbor and More

A couple of owners ago, the house was surrounded by arborvitae, which did give the house a nice privacy hedge, but also made it look dark and a bit forbidding. Luckily, the owner we bought from thought the same and she removed the arborvitae, which made the landscape look open and bright.

Since then we have added various blooming perennials and shrubs, but I want more. My dream garden improvement is to remove half the grass from the front yard, replace with pavers and add a vine laden garden arbor.

This isn’t exactly an original dream garden improvement. We had something like this at our old home and, depending upon the sun and time of year, found that it extended our outdoor time significantly. Plus, it was a great accent to the landscape, smelled amazing (we grew honeysuckle up the garden arbor) and brought in hummingbirds by the dozen.

Of course, part of being a gardener is that you get to continually tweak your creation, which means this isn’t my only dream garden improvement, not by a long shot. I would also like a water feature in the backyard, make a new bed in the front center of the lawn with a tree, and build a retaining wall abutting the sidewalk and lawn so I have more planting area, etc., etc., etc.

My garden design plans are really only limited by my pocketbook, so one thing at a time. This year, my fingers are crossed for a patio arbor in the front yard. We shall see. Until then, I’ll just keep dreaming.