What to Plant in and Around Your Garden Room

 

When you hear ‘modern garden room,’ what are the first things that come to mind? Usually, it’ll be a nature-inspired home-away-from-home. Somewhere that’s every bit as comfortable as the cosiest of indoor rooms but that feels completely in sync with its natural surroundings. Creating this perfect balance does not happen by chance, though. It takes a little planning, and knowing what to plant in and around your garden room can make all the difference.

Having created modern garden rooms for every type of garden you could imagine, we thought we’d share our ideas on why garden design is so important and what plants work particularly well with garden rooms.

Why is Garden Design Important?

Introducing new plants and flowers in and around your garden room has many benefits, but here are our top five.

1. Enhances your natural view: A garden room provides an unobscured view of nature. With floor-to-ceiling glazing, you can observe the change of seasons and appreciate all the different colours and textures offered by plants and visiting wildlife. This doesn’t mean that you must have a fully-landscaped garden to begin with. Instead, you can add to your garden over time.
2. Makes you feel relaxed. Researchers have found that being surrounded by nature can positively impact our minds. Even viewing natural images of forests and flowers can release mood-lifting chemicals such as serotonin. This is why many people prefer building a garden office rather than lending a room within their house to work.
3. Elevates your garden room design. Framing your garden room with plants and flowers can really make your design pop. For example, you may choose to accent the entrance to your garden room with pruned olive trees or topiary spheres. Or you may like to introduce a few houseplants to bring the outside in.
4. Enjoy your garden all year round. If you surround your garden room with plants that blossom at different times of the year, you’ll enjoy the benefits of nature, even when the weather outside is not ideal.
5. Increased property value. Research has shown that 70% of buyers will pay more for a home with a well-designed outside space. So, it makes sense to compliment your outdoor space with a well-maintained and thoughtfully designed garden.

 

Choosing Plants for Inside your Garden Room

When selecting plants for inside your garden room, you’ll need to consider their size and lighting needs.

One of the many advantages of modern garden rooms is that they are well-lit by natural light, so it’s a great idea to introduce plants that like the sun’s rays. Just pop to your local garden centre and you’ll be spoilt for choice. Some of our favourites include Yucca and Dracaenas houseplants, which are great in the summer as well as the cooler months.

 

If you like a pop of colour, the Bird of Paradise Plant (Strelitzia) is another good option – its delicate yellow petals look striking against its bright blue ‘beak.’

For bigger rooms, larger plants such as Ferns and Ficus house trees may be suitable. For smaller rooms, go for petite options such as hardy succulents or waxy cacti that won’t take up too much space, like this copper trio.

Choosing Plants for Outdoors

Think about what kind of look you want to achieve outdoors with your plants. Do you want something rustic? Or are you looking for something super-modern? You could use evergreen shrubs like Boxwood (Buxus) or Red Robin Hedging (Photinia) if you’re looking to create a neat border around your garden room. Alternatively, colourful woodland classics such as the Rhododendron add vibrant pops of colour without fear of taking over your garden. You could even combine different kinds of plants together to create an eye-catching landscape.

A great way to zone your outside space and give your garden room a real sense of place is to introduce raised beds. We love how the owners of this Key Studio garden room have done just this with reclaimed railway sleepers. They’ve been very clever with their colours, textures and materials.

 

Strike the Right Balance

When creating your own oasis outside of your garden room, it’s important to remember balance is key. It’s best not to overcrowd the area with too many large plants in one spot since this can make things look cluttered.

Instead, try spreading different foliage throughout the area, so no one type stands out too much from its surroundings. This will help create a cohesive look that ties everything together nicely while still allowing each plant its own beauty and personality, as the owners of this Ultra garden room have done. Through clever landscaping, they’ve used low-level diagonal beds with a variety of shrubs and trees to draw the eye to their art studio.

Consider a Garden Room with a Living Roof

If you love the idea of your garden room being a ‘living-breathing’ feature, a roof adorned with plants and vegetation can make a real design and eco statement.

Effectively acting as a rooftop garden, a living roof doesn’t just absorb up to 110kg of CO2 per year; it has many other benefits too.

A living roof, available with all our Forge garden rooms, supports more habitats for surrounding nature. It increases insects by up to 8-12% per square metre, which helps keep your garden’s biodiversity in good health.

Plus, and these really are big pluses – a living garden roof provides excellent insulation (with an insulation level between 5 to 15) and reduces sound by 2 to 12 dB.   

So, you can enjoy your garden room even more while helping the planet!

Final Thoughts on Garden Room Gardening                                         

The possibilities for creating a beautiful outdoor space are endless when it comes to landscaping ‘around,’ ‘in’ or even ‘on’ a garden room.

Whether you decide on large shrubs or small perennials, be sure to choose plants that suit both the size of the space as well as the amount of light they need to thrive. Then, with careful consideration and creative foliage combinations, you can transform any space in or around your garden room into a beautiful haven.

To help you on your design journey, we suggest downloading our Garden Room brochure or, if you know what you like and are ready to get designing, jump onto our creative configurator to bring your design to life. We promise you’ll love how easy it is!