Summer Garden - An Outdoor Living Space
Before summer officially comes to a close in the next month, we thought we'd share this "passion project" of ours that we took on a couple of months ago! Gardening has always been a struggle at the base of the mountains here in Utah. Deer roam freely and eat anything and everything in sight! After several years of giving up on having a garden, we decided to finally put a fence in and rebuild our garden from the ground up! It took on quite the transformation, so be sure to check out the whole post to see the before-and-after!
The key with this garden was to not only create a fence that kept the surrounding wild life out, but to also create a place that was beautiful and could be enjoyed for other purposes other than just growing delicious vegetables and herbs (still obviously the main reason, because home grown vegetables are THE BEST!).
We decided to go with an updated natural look for the garden, leaving the natural wood tones and contrasting that with black accents. Raised garden beds were a must (for various reasons) and we decided to have some fun with the layout. We created a European feel with four "U" shaped beds all facing the center of the garden. This created a nice pathway down the middle of the garden and added little nooks in between the beds where we placed concrete planters for various herbs (which you will see later in the post!).
Just outside of the garden gate, we created a small seating area that is perfect for relaxing and reading a book under the shade of a large cherry tree. Simple white outdoor chairs were paired with a patterned pillow to give your eye something interesting to land on.
Potted annuals flank the entry to give a lush feel as you approach the garden entrance. We chose annuals because based on how often we're switching things up in our home, we figured we want to see some different colors and textures each year in those pots :)
Simple black outdoor hardware from good old Home Depot did the trick for our gate hardware. The small detail on the handles was just the balance between traditional and updated that we were looking for.
We loved the idea of having a cozy bench as the focal point as you enter the garden. It automatically makes the space more inviting and begs you to stay for a little while and maybe even sit and enjoy some freshly picked cherry tomatoes.
We believe in continuously working on projects that spark passion and remind us why we love design. It was so fun to break out of the box a little bit and put some manual labor into creating this beautiful space. The best part? We get to enjoy the fruits (or veggies) of our labor for years to come!
Just in case you're curious, here is a before-and-after! It came a long way and we've loved having a garden this year.
