You Can Have a Relaxing Terrace or Patio by Planting Plants

Are you a person that loves plants but you just can spend the time maintaining it. There is a wonderful option and that is to create a garden on your patio or terrace. A patio or terrace is a place for you to go to relax and entertain. If you have beautiful plants surrounding yourself it is easier for you to relax and enjoy yourself. Your patio or terrace is now considered an extension of your home; another room that is tranquil and relaxing.

In order for this room to be an extension of your home you have to extend your home décor to your outdoor room, not just a room that provides you a view. In order for your outdoor room to become a room you have to make a distinction between your lawn and the patio or terrace.

In order to do this you have to outline or make a frame, like a picture frame outlines a picture. You can do this by setting planters around the perimeter, making raised beds, anything that you would like to make a frame.

The next thing is a border; by creating a border you can have the pleasure of doing a little gardening with out the back braking effort of a huge garden. The main thing is that you will never have to leave your terrace or patio; everything is right there. The border should not be any wider than 2 to 4 feet; you can do a lot within this narrow area.

If you like grasses there is your height, you can have small shrubs, and even cascading plants like geraniums that can trail into the patio. If you have a space that is between your house and the border then you can have a fruit tree that you train to lay flat against the house; then you can enjoy the fruit when its ready while you are relaxing.

If you are in need of additional seating there is this trick. You can have built-in flower boxes that you put along the perimeter. They will help with adding additional seating for your guests and add an eye level garden. This still offers you the control of container gardening, which isn't' much work at all. The one thing great about built-in flower boxes is that you can plant scented flowers like, roses, gardenias or sweet peas.

If you don't want to put the time and energy into a border or built-in flower boxes then you can just use container. You can group several together or place them like built-in flower boxes. Fill then with either a variety of flowers or make a pattern out of groupings of 3, use your imagination. Flower arranging are fun and creative.

By using one of these options you will have a definite distinction between your living space and the rest of your property.

Now to soften the hard edges of your terrace or patio, if you are like most people your floor is either stone or cement. To soften the hard edges you can plant plants that will flow onto the stone like lady's mantle, lavender, coreopsis and ferns will work nicely. You want to have plants that will give you an airy feeling. Remember though, the cement or stones do get hotter than your soil so you probably will have to water a little more often.

If you have stones for your floor and there are spaces between each of the stones you can also have plants growing in these spaces. Plants will look more attractive than weeds so try thyme, sedum or creeping jenny would work great. Every time you walk on thyme you will get a wonder fragrance. That 's what's so neat about these plants; you get to walk on them and you will be surprised how fast they will grow all around your stones. One main concern is not to fill the spaces to full with the plants remember they will grow and they can become slippery when they get wet.

One thing you need to be aware of is the growth and maturity size of the plants you plant. You have to have enough space for people to get into their chairs for a set. Don't pick plants that have thorns, people could become scratched and make sure you can trim your plants back as they grow.

You can also add plants that grow up trellises or lattice works. Plants like clematis, honeysuckle and morning glories are perfect for this and require hardly any maintenance. This is away to add some height to your patio or terrace. You can also vary the heights of any container planters you add to empty spaces. A neat conversational piece is to grow cucumbers on the trellis or lattice; it looks really great with cucumbers hanging down!