Gardens by Your Door

Flower & Garden Magazine, August, 1999 by Dianne Hogendorn

When you're in a hurry, our doorway may seem only like a place to enter or exit as fast as possible. In calmer moments, however, you may recognize that it can have another purpose. When I drive around my town here in central Maine, I notice some houses look more cheerful and hospitable than others. This has little to do with architectural style, but rather with the ornamental plantings and floral displays near the entrances. Doors, entryways and porches make fine settings for plants, either in the ground or in various kinds of containers.

When we make a garden, we usually add some structure or object like an arch or birdbath as the focal point of our landscape design. A door or porch can perform the same function, especially if it has interesting architectural features. Even a plain door seems more attractive when framed by plantings. If a straight path or sidewalk leads to your entrance, it can be lined with matching gardens for a formal effect. Long skinny gardens always look better when viewed from the ends, giving the illusion of depth. On the other hand, a curved path allows for more informal shapes and planting schemes. The doorway then becomes the focal point at the end of the path. Where ground space is limited, similar results can be achieved through the use of plants in containers. This also includes window boxes on railings, hanging baskets and plastic garden bags. If you want both a garden and containers, you can unify your composition by using some of the same plants or colors in each area.

Horticulturally speaking, these locations close to the house may provide shelter not found further out in the yard. My south-facing porch comes into its own in spring and fall when the sun's rays are more slanted. Here I can keep annual alyssum and geraniums into November -- well beyond the first frost. At the foot of the porch, snowdrops bloom in February, usually the earliest in the neighborhood. Porches on the other sides of houses offer welcome protection from the heat and brightness of the summer sun. Houseplants often enjoy a vacation in these spots.

The points of the compass and the sun's seasonal passage are not the only factors that create a particular gardening environment. A closer look at some local porches will reveal how individualized each situation can be. Two of my friends have east-facing porches which get only the morning sun. One is small and open, what we call a stoop. A large schefflera is placed dramatically near the door. A dwarf banana, a fuchsia, beefsteak and tuberous begonias, a scented geranium, a fairy lily and a lemon tree mingle with annuals like coleus, licorice plant and impatiens which themselves become houseplants in winter. The second porch is large and dark, because the house is barn red and surrounded by tall shrubs. It provides a good outdoor home for jade and spider plants, an asparagus fern, oxalis, two fuchsias and Swedish ivy. Here too annuals add color to the soothing green display. The southern end is bright enough for marigolds, while along the bottom of the long side are hosta, turtlehead, calendula and lobelia.

A west-side porch at another house receives late afternoon sunlight filtered through a nearby oak tree, just enough for hanging ferns, honeysuckle vines and three large containers of impatiens. You might expect a north-facing porch to be the darkest of all, but one that I pass frequently has white walls which reflect light and no trees to block it. Several kinds of begonias spend the summer in its open shade. The garden at its base, however, gets enough afternoon sun to sustain a bright display of nasturtiums out beyond the shelter of the roof.

A garden below a porch or doorway can present one particular challenge. If it is composed mostly of herbaceous perennials or annuals that die back, it looks rather bare in the wintertime, which means several months for us in the north. Most people solve this problem by using woody ornamental plants that provide year-round interest. Flowering plants are added either in clumps or as an edging for summer color, but do not form an integral part of the garden's permanent design. My friend with the nasturtiums has winterberry and two variegated red-stemmed dogwood shrubs in her porch garden plus a few perennials. If you have a mixed border, it is important to choose herbaceous plants with long-lasting foliage. Some even have enough structure to look good in winter -- grasses, astilbe and Sedum `Autumn Joy' and its kin being possible candidates.

A large porch may call for interior decorating skills, as well as a green thumb. Many porches here are furnished with rocking chairs and small tables. Most people don't have much time for sitting nowadays, least of all gardeners, who tend to jump up whenever they spot a weed somewhere. The ambiance is pleasant to the eye though. Some people put dried flower arrangements or other natural decorations on the house wall, adding further to the appearance of an outdoor room.

Front entrances in our area are used primarily for special occasions, while the day-to-day business of living is conducted on a side or back porch, often visible from the road. Landscaping tends to emphasize this usage. Balanced plantings of shrubs or matching containers may flank the front door in a somewhat formal style. Some front porches are obviously devoted to plants rather than people, with the actual doorway blocked by a floral arrangement. Side porches are generally less formal and may even have exuberant or whimsical touches.