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Back Seat Gardening: The View From the Garden Bench

© Barbara M. Martin

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Vita Sackville-West wrote gently about the autumn garden view and review: "The major disadvantage of having a garden and working on it is that one leaves oneself with no leisure to study the result one has laboriously achieved, or, more likely, failed to achieve..."

Don't let that happen to you! Put in a bench or several benches and make the time to sit down and enjoy your garden. The fall review is your opportunity to pull up a chair, take a good long look around the place and see what you do and don't like about it so far. Remember that the garden is fluid and ever-changing and so you are allowed to move things around, add or delete, build or eradicate at will. It is after all your garden and you should do what you like with it. You are the person who looks at it every day and so you should enjoy it.

Sometimes the simple question of where to sit to view the garden causes a design review in and of itself. Where DO you usually sit? Inside, looking out the kitchen window? Outside on the deck? Do you like what you see from there? Does your favorite place change from season to season or depending on the time of day? Probably.

Right now as the days grow colder I tend to hover on the sunny south slope, protected from the breeze and basking in the added warmth reflected by the house and patio. During the summer, I avoid that heat trap and glaring sunlight. I prefer to stay in the shadowy cool of the east facing screened porch. From there I have a view of the shady woods and a cooler colored planting scheme, plus the sound of a water fountain to create the illusion of cooler temperatures.

I have several preferred indoor viewing spots for my garden, too. These are used every day, year round. One is out my dining room window, a view I pass by umpteen times a day. Another is from my front steps. Both of these are somewhat raised viewing spots, so that changes the perspective a bit. Another is from the office window. Since that is upstairs and the garden is on a slope, the office window seems very high indeed. From there I can truly appreciate the ground plan pattern of the garden. Especially now, as the foliage disappears and the paths and edges and other structures become more prominent, I can really see just where I have made my basic mistakes and just where I have got it right.

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