The Magic of Garden Rooms

I grew up on a 20-acre hobby farm, where my parents were true garden enthusiasts. My father would truck in enormous trees, 30 feet tall, and loads of boulders to line the outside boundaries. Then, my mom went to work planting all sorts of smaller trees, bushes, vines, grasses, and flowers of every kind to soften the edges and create interest.

With the outside boundary in place, Mom then went to work on creating garden rooms. These rooms were where she and my father would relax and dream about their next project. By this time, my dad was getting older, so they made sure he had a place to sit and rest. They loved soaking up nature, even on rainy days, finding solace under a gazebo or a tree.

Each time I visit my mom, who now lives on the farm with dementia, we walk through her garden, and she always shares with me how important it is to create garden rooms. These secluded, partly enclosed spaces within a garden create a room-like effect, and they’ve been part of garden design for centuries.

As this video explains, garden rooms are formed by using walls, hedges, fences, trellises, and plants to create distinct boundaries. One of my favorite examples is the garden at Sissinghurst Castle, where a large brick wall with doorways and windows, as well as large hedges, trees, and bushes, form a series of garden rooms.

Designing Your Own Garden Rooms

When it comes to designing garden rooms for your own yard, the first step is to make a list of all the things you would like to do outside – relax, entertain, grow a cutting garden, and so on. Then, make a map of your yard and plot out what areas are best suited for each activity.

Just like in your home, garden rooms are sectioned-off areas to be used for a particular purpose. So, now consider how you can create these different zones and how you will separate them from each other. As this article suggests, ideas for materials to achieve this separation include walls, hedges, fences, trellises, and plants.

Next, lay out a floor plan for the interior design of each garden room. Things to consider are seating, lighting, water features, and any special elements that will make the space truly your own.

My Garden Room Oasis

At our current property, I was working with a blank slate – natural vegetation, large boulders, breathtaking views, and areas that had been chiseled out in the rock when the area was blasted to create a ledge for our home. I enjoyed creating four different garden room ideas to meet the needs of our family and then had even more fun naming them.

The Spa

The first outdoor space we tackled is what I refer to as the Spa. It’s located at the back of our home, in an area we had to blast in order to build because the land in this spot is solid rock on a steep slope. As a result, we have a 12-foot solid rock wall on two sides, the house on another side, and a trellis with gates on the remaining side. This created the perfect environment for an outdoor garden room.

During the blast, a very large boulder was left with a hole in it from the drilling rig. This rock would be the perfect focal point for a waterfall. So, we dug a pond in front of it, lined it with pond liner, and then added river rocks found on our property, a pump, and water – and voila, the most amazing water feature.

We added shrubs, trees, flowers, and vines, and this area became a beautiful sanctuary. Some of my favorite flowers in this area are the peonies and the lilies, as I feel they contribute to the feeling of a spa with their elegance and fragrance. For lighting, we zig-zagged string lights from the rock wall to the main house and placed some ground solar lights for every night use.

This truly is the best version of a garden room we have due to how closed in it is. The sound of water is the best way to relax and rejuvenate, and it’s a place to come and refresh your soul and wipe away the worries of the day. I should also mention this is an area where we watch outdoor movies – we set up a large screen with a projector and bring out cushions and blankets to watch.

The Think Tank

The next garden room is the area around our vintage window greenhouse, which I refer to as the Think Tank. The tall trellis, double arbors, and picket fence provide the hard materials for the boundaries of the space, and each year, I plant a hedge of tall sunflowers just inside the fences, which further enclose three sides of the garden.

The fourth side is left open from approximately the 3-foot height and up to take in the expansive lake view. I love spending time in this area, as it’s where I plan my garden plantings. My greenhouse is my second home office, and I decorate it for various holidays, allowing me to get more use out of any decorative elements I have. This garden room brings me peace and fuels my creativity.

The Lab

The Lab is a brand-new area in our outdoor space – it’s where I have the 32-tall raised garden beds that were gifted to me by Sproutbox Gardens. This spring brought forth multiple families of hungry marmots that ate every plant I was growing in other flower beds, but these tall raised garden beds with all-metal sides saved my garden.

I call this area The Lab because this year, I tried many new varieties of flowers, such as California poppies, snapdragons, celosia, yarrow, stocks, and larkspur. I grouped the seedlings according to color into one of the four garden beds, and it’s proving perfect for a cutting garden because so many of the varieties I chose will bloom more the more often I cut flowers and bring them inside.

The Observatory

The final garden room is a brand-new space – a circular raised garden called The Nest, a unique product from Sproutbox Garden. To create a garden room in this area, the plantings will create the walls as I have lined The Nest with 8-foot to 16-foot tall sunflowers. Streaming out below them are pumpkins, and at the entrance are Canna Lilies and dabs of lavender and Black-eyed Susans.

I’ve named this area The Observatory for two reasons – firstly, it’s my highest elevation garden, so it looks out over the rest of the garden, making it the perfect place to gain a bird’s-eye view. Secondly, when the sunflowers grow up, I imagine myself laying in the middle of The Nest, looking up at the sky like you would through a telescope. Or at night, gazing out at the stars from a circle of sunflowers – how magical will that be?

Bringing Your Garden Rooms to Life

Have I sold you on the idea of creating different garden rooms? With some planning, some muscle, and lots of work, I think anyone could achieve a charming outdoor garden room. If it isn’t something you want to take on, consider hiring a garden designer or landscape designer – they’ll be able to design something perfect with lots of different ways to meet the needs of all your family members.

Whether you have a small garden or an entire yard, consider creating a series of rooms to accommodate different functions. It will be the perfect opportunity for you to create an outdoor living space perfect for your lifestyle. So, what are you waiting for? Start designing your own garden room oasis today!