Ideas for Outdoor Garden Design in Philadelphia

Adding a bit of green to an urban atmosphere brings a number of positive benefits to your slice of the big city. In addition to being attractive and serene in appearance, outdoor gardens help process and purify the air around us, making our world a healthier and happier place. Outdoor gardens can turn empty space or unused areas of your property into a piece of reclaimed naturality. Coming up with an idea for your garden, though, is a project of its own, so we’ve come up with some fantastic ideas that you can take and customize for your own outdoor garden design in Philadelphia.

1. The Dog Garden
This style of outdoor garden is simple, modular, and as an added benefit helps improve the quality of life for local dog owners and their pets. The dog garden is a wooden frame or a set of interlocking wooden frames that sit low to the ground. The frames are filled with soil and planted with various grasses. These gardens can be placed on the rooftops of apartment buildings for tenants to walk their dogs in. Dog gardens help purify the air of the city while allowing local dogs a place to walk that is kind to their paws. This can also encourage a sense of community by allowing dog owners in an apartment building to have a place to let their dogs socialize. Dog gardens are simple to create and plant, and as a result can be flexible in size.

2. Community Permaculture
Community gardens are a well-established symbol of intra community cooperation. Converting an existing community garden or building a new garden with permaculture in mind is a great way to increase the already substantial benefits of a community garden. Permaculture refers to edible plants that are sustainable and often self-sustaining. A community permaculture garden is easier to maintain and gives back to the community in the form of fresh, edible vegetation. Whether choosing edible wild berries, or more traditional vegetables, a community permaculture garden is a way to turn shared space green in a way that benefits an entire neighborhood.

3. Trellis Gardens
A trellis garden is a small pot or frame filled with soil that has a wooden framework attached to it. Trellis gardens are compact and attractive, and allow for the growth of climbing plants and even certain types of fruits. Trellis gardens can be placed around stoops, on porches, or on rooftops making them a perfect outdoor garden design for Philadelphia. Trellis gardens can, with a bit more time investment, be made into trellis arches perfect for framing doorways or decorating courtyards. Trellis arch gardens can be filled with climbing wildflowers, making a beautiful, natural gateway.

4. Rooftop Privacy Gardens
A rooftop privacy garden is a much larger project, but is perfect for amateur gardeners looking for something a little more ambitious and functional than the smaller garden projects mentioned above. A rooftop privacy garden can be designed in many ways, but two examples are the perimeter garden and the enclosure garden. A perimeter garden lines the edges of the rooftop with taller plants, such as sunflowers or shrubs. This gives the rooftop natural surroundings, privacy from neighboring buildings, and insulation from sounds and lights of the city. The enclosure garden is a small rectangular garden with an open space in the middle, often with benches on the inside. Enclosure gardens make for fantastic getaways for social gatherings or private conversations, insulated from the bustle of the city outside.

Ready to start work on your garden? Contact Michele today at 610.329.3935 !