Any Time is Deck Time Tips

An important incentive for gardening is the pure pleasure it brings, but there are very practical reasons for planting a deck garden around the perimeter of your outdoor living space.

Hide the Unsightly
Mixed plantings hide the deck’s framework and the empty often weed-filled space underneath. Consider placing the tallest plants next to the base of the deck with a shorter mix of perennials, ground covers, bulbs, annuals, herbs and roses placed out toward the edge of the bed where they can be seen and enjoyed better.

Eliminate Maintenance Aggravation
Getting rid of grass eliminates time consuming chores of trimming grass and weeds around the deck supports. Plantings can also cut down the amount of light showing under the deck, effectively reducing the growth rate of weeds.

Enhance the Look
Plantings can soften the often hard edges of a deck and bring color and tranquility to your outdoor space.

For the Gourmand
Fresh vegetables from your own garden are always welcome at a table. If a vegetable garden doesn’t appeal to your sense of tranquility in outdoor living, try fragrant and delicious herbs.

How to Design One
In the initial stage of designing a deck garden it is very important to become familiar with the site. Its soil, exposure, and shade and sun patterns need to be taken into account. Then the plants must be matched to the site. Selecting plants suited to the space means they will require less maintenance and experience fewer problems with diseases and pests.

Check soil conditions by digging test holes. Soil can be improved by adding organic matter, double digging, and mulching. However it is a better idea to start a deck garden with plants that will thrive in the existing soil.

Rocky or clay-based soil can be a problem. Building raised beds or planting shallow-rooted ground covers are practical techniques to deal with rocky soil.

Raised beds also help keep the surrounding grass and weeds from intruding on the plantings. If you don’t plan to build a raised bed, do use some form of edging to cut down on maintenance.

The process of actually creating flower beds to surround the deck does not differ much from designing plantings for other parts of the yard. There is no one approach to the task of deck garden design. You can design the plantings on paper, select the plants, and install them. A garden designer can be hired to complete the entire job. Another possible option is to hire a nursery or designer to select and install some of the deck garden but leave lots of room in the bed for the addition of more perennials, annuals, bulbs, and other plants.

Techniques for developing the shape of a deck bed vary. Working on paper to experiment with the best size and shape of beds around the deck can work. A hose or long rope outlining the shape of the bed on the ground is another alternative. Sprinkling flour around the perimeter of the bed works effectively also.

Another option is to outline the bed shape with a series of stakes and a length of string. The trick is to examine the proposed shape from up on the deck as well as out in the yard. Consider whether the shape manages to accomplish what is wanted. Wide beds allow people who are seated on the deck to enjoy the plantings and create the feeling that the deck is surrounded by vegetation.

All that remains to do is make the final deck bed shape and do the actual planting work. The end result will be a deck garden that will enhance the beauty of the entire backyard and become an integral part of the entire landscape design where the house, your deck and the garden are linked.