Activities for Garden Gatherings: Creating Outdoor Rooms

Keep this in mind: garden design is about creating outdoor spaces or rooms...and what are the components of a room?  Floors, walls and ceilings.  This activity allows you to think about each of these components separately, then all together.

Try this at your next garden gathering:

• Print out the sheet below and give one to each person.

• Provide scissors, pencils and maybe color pencils (or crayons) for everyone.

• Discuss as a group how everyone defines garden design.

• Discuss how one aspect of garden design is creating outdoor spaces or rooms.

• Discuss what components create a room: floors, walls and ceilings.

• Take each room component and brainstorm as a group about what one could do in the garden for that element (for instance, what could you use for a garden floor? brick, lawn, limestone, wood, etc). Another option is to assign a person to each of these components prior to your gathering and have them bring images of possible ideas to share.

• After the group discusses each component, have everyone draw what they wish on their sheet (for instance, after the group discusses ideas for garden floors, give everyone about 5-10 min to draw a garden floor of their liking). Then go on to the next component. I typically start with floors, then walls, then the ceiling.

• Once everyone completes their garden room, set them up around the room for a gallery viewing.

Below is a video of me actually creating one of these garden rooms, so you can see the process. You are also welcome to visit my original post here where I give more information about each room component. Enjoy creating your outdoor rooms!