Designing a garden to be looked at

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Most backyard gardens are just "backgrounds". That is, trees, grass, you know, stuff that just fills in the space. Nice, but nothing that inspires closer inspection.

My garden is a garden to be looked at. It's tiny, and it's filled with visually-interesting things which include plants, rocks, and small sculptures. If you have a garden like that, you need to design it so that people can walk up to things. I have always called small, visually-interesting things "walk-up-to-its". And the most important thing that you need to design for your "walk-up-to-its" is a place for people to stand. You don't want them strolling up into the planting area, or walking on gravel or mud, or even wet grass.

March 1st,  freesia and petunias blooming, cyclamen added
In the photo is an area that I found that people were walking up to. It already had a nice place to stand, because of that big piece of flagstone, and I have added some visually-interesting rocks, and some more tiny plants. Those are Haworthia in front of the cycad. There are also bulbs growing now, which includes, from left to right, daffodils, freesia, and iris.

This is a garden to be looked at. With care.

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