Benches, Wooden, Concrete or Iron, Outside Comfort

Benches provide a nice physical place to sit and view your gardens or yard area. These outdoor features have become popular over the last decade. They are all readily available in a variety of different stores.

Wooden ones are seen a lot in a natural setting. Iron and concrete are common in formal or more defined landscaped beds.

This isn't a rule of thumb, as you can put any style in any location. Many sitting areas will have walkways leading up to them, or decorative pavers. Create your own bed and incorporate any on of these styles. Below are a few suggestions for you.

• A backdrop of trees such as a few evergreens - Leyland Cypress, Deodar Cedar, Nellie Steven Holly, or a White Oak. Mix in a few deciduous smaller trees - Lilac, Rose of Sharon, Spirea or Winged Euonymus. Place the concrete, wooden, or iron seat in the center and surround it on either side with a cluster of a few Variegated Cypress mixed in with a with solid Globosa Nana.
• Place a trellis in a bed and put your seat in front of the trellis. Add a climbing vine to your trellis, such as a Clematis.
  
  A climbing Hydrangea works great in the shade. Put pavers down to create a walkway or just add three to five pavers across the front of the bench.
  
  This can all be done in a very small area.
  
  If you have a larger bed, plant some shrubs and perennial flowers.
  
  Putting the plants along a walkway will add a nice looking border. Accent your seat with matching colors of your plants.



• If using a black iron , add deep colors around the it such as reds or purples. A deciduous burning bush is lush green during the spring and summer, and turns a deep red in the fall. Great look behind or in and around a black iron.
  
  Add some green shrubs, such as an Indian Hawthorn with white flowers in the spring. Plant some Candytuft throughout the sitting area. Beautiful white flowers appear throughout the year, depending on what zone you are in.
















• There are so many different style of concrete out today. You can get squared, half moon, different animal character embedded in them. They come in a a variety of colors, such as black, dark green, brown, and white. It looks real nice to see a white concrete bench in a bed with a variety of colors mixing shrubs in with flowers.
  
  Many people use figurines around their seats, or will even put the figurines sitting on the bench as a decorative piece. Put some annual Zinnia mix flowers along with a some Hinoki Cypress.
  
  Create a small separate bed next to the where the sitting area is and plant Salvia - swan lake with some Scabosa Ritz Blue. Add one or three Ruby Chinese Pizazz.(Loropetalum) Some times people misspell Loropetalum like this - Loropetalum or Lorpetalum. The correct way is Loropetalum.



• Put your seat on your deck or patio and add a couple of decorative planters on either side. If using a wooden one, ceramic planters look great next to the sitting area. Add some Arizona Sun, Blanket Flower(Gaillardia) to the pots and the orange, brown tones will accent your wooden bench.

Above are just a few suggestions to give you ideas of where to put your bench and some things you can plant around them. Remember to think about your color scheme and what style landscape area you have.

Check out the page on The Cypress Family - colorful evergreen trees and shrubs look nice around any of these benches. When shopping for this outdoor feature consider the texture, color and style of each material you look at. Need some more ideas, feel free to contact me and I can give you a few more tips.