Sunny Garden Design Plan For Kitchen Patio Garden
My Kitchen Patio Garden surrounds our main patio just off our kitchen patio doors. For me, the overall design plan for this garden centres around a few trees as focal points with a lot of colourful, flower bearing shrubs for filler. I wanted to ensure that I had colour in the garden throughout the entire garden season. This was achieved by carefully selecting shrubs that would offer continuous bloom throughout the season, and complementing these key shrubs with a few easy care blooming perennials.
Spring blooming spirea and magnolia give way to a spectacular show in June from weigela, lilac, peonies and irises. Long lasting summer color is provided by hydrangea, summer blooming spiraeas, sun loving perennials and annuals in pots. In addition to colourful blooms, choosing shrubs with purple and yellow foliage helps add to the depth of the garden throughout all of the seasons. Combine this with reds and yellow of fall for late season interest. Winter interest is there too -- from the dried flowers of the Pee Gee Hydrangea and evergreen foliage of boxwoods.
While I have moved a few things around each year, the Kitchen Patio Garden is now largely established, making it a great area to entertain and while away the summer evenings.
A garden plan and list of trees and most repeated shrubs appears below while pictures can be seen in the Kitchen Garden Gallery.
| TREES AND SHRUBS | Syringa reticulata - Ivory Silk Lilac |
| Acer campestre - Hedge Maple | Weigela florida 'Wine & Roses' (14) |
| Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood' - Japanese Maple | Weigela florida 'French Lace' (75) |
| Berberis 'Monomb' - Barberry (16) | PERENNIALS |
| Berberis 'Rose Glow' - Barberry (27) | Ajuga (purple variety) |
| Buxus 'Green Gem' (29) | Echinacea purpurea 'Little Giant' |
| Buxus 'Green Mound' - Pyramidal Boxwood (31) | Echinacea purpurea 'Miss Kim' |
| Cornus alba 'Ivory Halo' - Dogwood (17) | Geranium 'Rozanne' |
| Euonymus alatus 'Compacta' - Dwarf Burning Bush (40) | Geranium phaeum 'Samobor' |
| Hamamelis virginiana (152) | Hemerocallis 'Rosy Returns' |
| Hydrangea macrophylla 'Endless Summer' (8) | Hemerocallis 'Salieri' |
| Hydrange arborescens 'Annabelle' (18) | Heuchera 'Frosted Violet' |
| Hydrangea paniculata grandiflor - Peegee (34) | Heucherella 'Bridgit Blooms' |
| Magnolia x Susan | Iris 'Diabolique' |
| Picea pungens - Dwarf Blue Spruce (11) | Iris 'Earl of Essex' |
| Spiraea betulifolia "Thor' or 'Tor' (12) | Iris pallida 'Variegata' |
| Spiraea bumalda 'Goldmound' (35) | Paeonia 'Karl Rosenfield' (10) |
| Spiraea japonica 'Neon Flash' (13) | Paeonia - light pink (10) |
| Spirea japonica 'Shirobana' (7) | Paeonia - Gay Paree (10) |
| Stephanandra incisa crispa (24) | Rudbekia (Black Eyed Susan) |