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LIFE: HOMES
Visual tricks help create relaxing garden retreat
BURLINGTON, Ohio -- Any outdoor space takes plotting and planning to achieve a person's vision.
Jean Lezu understands this and has worked overtime to get her area just the way she wants it.
"My husband and I moved from a two-story house to this one story, and I wanted a garden area similar to what we left behind," she said. "We pretty much built the other one ourselves, but this one required some help."
The center of Lezu's outdoor space is a covered brick patio that offers an outdoor oasis. A porch swing hangs at one end and is the place she enjoys the most.
"My husband fixed it so that I could just sit here and pull on a chain and make the swing sway back and forth," she said.
Surrounding the swing are cushioned chairs and a patio table ready for visitors to sit a while.
Lezu has used some visual tricks to enhance this garden retreat. For example, a white picket fence separates the area from the lush green lawn in the front of the house. Another strategy is leading the eye into the garden by way of a stone walkway that curves through the gate to the patio inviting a person into the midst of her sanctuary. Even though Lezu is retired, she poured the concrete stone walkway and then planted a variety of perennials along the border to soften the look of the woman-made walkway. This encroaching foliage offers lushness to the garden and surrounds a statue or planter here and there.
Hanging from the porch cover are several flourishing ferns, which help envelope the outdoor room.
"I keep them green by watering them with an Epsom salt mixture now and then," she said.
Strategically placed are pots of annuals to further enclose the area so one feels as if he or she is in an outdoor room. To further the outdoor room effect, cypress shrubs border the patio further defining the space. Shading the entire garden is a maple tree offering an umbrella of coolness on hot summer days.
The patio room is easily accessible from the back of the house as well. Lezu has framed the brick walkway to the house with shrubs in pots on either side of the steps. This leads to another patio attached to the house where Lezu has a grill and patio table.
Adding to the ambiance of the outdoor room are old-fashioned light posts with three globes reaching upward. Around the bases of the light posts are clusters of miniature butterfly bushes or impatiens, adding a bit of color to the scene.
"I like the purple and white colors best in my flowers," she said.
Lezu enjoys the flowers and keeps the yard up herself.
"I do all of the gardening and cut the grass myself," she said. "It is good exercise, and I enjoy it."
The end result of her labor is a lovely garden and covered patio that is almost reminiscent of an English country cottage.
