Mel: sorry girl, as a pay back for your earlier message I had no idea, as you always sound so chipper. You worked so hard on that wall and things. Smell is what it is, if you can smell the view it will bring back memories and paint pictures. So you have not been working at the nursery even? Yours is a very good and appropriate question for many of us but for me it is anything that stirs the memory and I don't mean this in a maudlin way. The other question about mood that involves emotions is connected here.
Thank you for asking this question in a positive way, you ain't the poor me kinda gal.

Ink--

No, I haven't been working. Can't lift much more than 10 lbs right now--3 gallon shrubs are RIGHT out! Should be able to go back around July 1...or so my new endocrinologist tells me. Honestly--the whole thing is rather boring. The ONLY reason I mentioned my illness is that it led to a new perspective...I never really THOUGHT about the view outside my bedroom before!

You are right about the scents of the garden coming through...I had the windows open full-time--until the tree pollen started. That forced ne to close the windows.

One thing I HAVE enjoyed is the birds. I found myself wishing there were a way to install feeders outside my windows...but filling them would be difficult. For three glorious days I thought the red-shouldered hawks were going to nest within site of my window--they even started a nest--but they chose another spot. So the birds are an argument for NOT taking down the trees.

This wasn't a "poor me" post--I'm serious. I think it's a design aspect that is frequently neglected, and needs addressing. So come on, people! Lets get brainstorming!

melanie

I hope you are getting better!

This sounds like an example in which you have available the potential for one of those highly desirable "long views" in the landscape. It may seem unrelated but I have organized window treatments, or lack thereof, so as to not block the top few inches of the window, which preserves the angle of view up into the sky when sitting in the room.

Would you be able to have an arborist remove selected branches (I don't mean butcher) to have both view and tree? Or would you plant a new tree farther out to serve as a focal point within the long view? Gordon Hayward's book has a number of examples of where they specifically created, preserved, or framed the long view.

In home landscaping a parallel to me seems the idea of thinking before planting all the typical foundation stuff, and trees 15 ft from house, and instead see how the view out the window can be enhanced by planting farther away to have a longer view.

There is a less than attractive house across the street from me and I vaccillate between a plan to block it with a large planting that "shortens" the view or plant more of a focal/distraction thing so I still have the sense of distance beyond my house and up the hill across the street.

This may not be on topic....

Gosh, Mel, I'm so sorry to hear of your illness. What a drag!

To me, the perameters of your question seem pretty well determined by what's 'out there'. In my case, a weeping willow is beautiful when leafed out and during the day when it is, I keep my shade open. But since it blocks a house across the street from looking down to my bed, the shade stays down all winter; and, at night even when the tree is leafed out.

IOW, if privacy isn't an issue, then it's a question of what mix of deciduous and evergreens one enjoys looking at. If I were in the East, I'd surely want some beautiful colors-in-fall trees.

Thinking of you.

Karen

Frankie--

There is no "topic"--it wasn't meant to address my specific set of conditions.

"In home landscaping a parallel to me seems the idea of thinking before planting all the typical foundation stuff, and trees 15 ft from house, and instead see how the view out the window can be enhanced by planting farther away to have a longer view." Oh, and I am getting better. A little bit, every day. Weeded for 45 minutes yesterday--AND went to the grocery store. Paying for it today...but that's ok. That's MILES ahead of where I was a month ago. So don't worry about me.

melanie

karen--

I didn't refresh before I hit post--so I didn't see you reply.

Fall colors to be sure--and spring blooming understory trees--ones that fruit (like cornus florida) bring the birds--And I can make a case for dead branches/snags...the woodpeckers have been GREAT fun to watch on one of the dead limbs of my hickory...

Perhaps I didn't phrase my hypothetical very well. If someone wants to take a stab at it, please do!

melanie

Sorry to hear about your illness. I'm glad you are able to find positives through it all.

I'm not understanding the "Laag's challenge" part of this. What was my challenge? or is it how am I challenged?

Sorry, I'm a little lost here.

Hey there Mel. When I saw the title I figured that you were taking up Andrew on the challenge to show some pictures of compelling front yard gardens. As I recall, yours is very nice with little grass. I sure hope you get better! Weeding AND going to the grocery store...what a wild and crazy gal!!

Your view could be worse. In my new house I look out my bedroom window at a huge Bradford pear. It is plated too close to the house and so half the branches have been removed. I guess if I was not looking out on bare pear tree branches I would just be looking at the side of my neighbor's house.

- Brent

Andrew, I think Mel was responing to your "Is it gone" thread, with a design challenge idea which might engage us. Her touchstone for the idea concerned her illness, which laid her on her back, but isn't the point. Rather, what design issues impact planning for window views like those from one's bed?

My take was that the key issue is whether privacy is involved, and planting options proceed from there. What comes next?

Karen

Oh, that I understand. Thanks, Karen.

Andrew and all--Karen has articulated my intentions better than I did. I am, indeed, responding to Andrew's "Is it gone" thread...and tried to come up with a "concept" challenge.

Forgive me for my verbal clumsiness--part of the side effects from all this extra thyroxin--my brain isn't working the way it normally does. I find verbal clarity difficult to achieve. Obfuscations 'R Us? Syntax may be failing me--but at least my vocabulary survives...

Karen--thanks for "translating."

melanie

Melanie et al,

This is weird  I have mostly been a lurker for the past few years and  thanks to Ivillage  also underwent an identity change when they no longer seemed to recognize my old user name and password. So  as I read Laags post  I got to thinking about whose voices are missing around here, and I was wondering whatever happened to Melanie in NC. As an aside, I think the other thing that has waned  or is it waxed--I always have trouble remembering which one means getting smaller and which is getting bigger. Ahem, where was I? Oh, yes, the things that I've seen less of around this forum are humor and affection. There's just not very many flat out belly laughs anymore.

Your question about viewing from the inside out got me thinking more broadly about the whole topic of the interaction between the interior space of a home and its outside. It happens to be one of the weak spots in my own house. Our windows are a joke Âand I mean all of them. My front entrance is probably the best of a bad lot, but functions on the view from one arriving not from the point of view of inviting one to come outside. (Note: That's a good thing, as my modest entrance wouldn't work both ways.)

Some day we will move again, no specifics, but at least one more time. When we do, the whole issue of how the home interfaces with its environment will be higher on my priority list. We've seen the discussions here about settling and grounding a home through the vehicle of landscape design solutions. That seems to be the "after the fact" conundrum that gives us such landscape headaches. We probably won't be able to afford what I'm imagining, but I'm fascinated by how we transition from inside to outside.

Back to windows, views, engagement with the outside. Sound is one of my favorite features. My current home doesn't have good rain sound. So far, "good" rain sound has come as a happy accident in the places I've lived. The point is that I miss it here, and itÂs a soothing sound for resting. I'd be tempted to put a metal awning over my side window, but the look would be a wee bit awkward. I do like having a good windchime near the window. You do get what you pay for with these  I swear to you that sometimes the angels or fairies or whatever gets out there stirring the chimes up makes them play perfectly recognizable tunes. I like the way it gives wind a texture.

Thanks for posting.

Peace,

Wellspring, who is rambling as I unwind from the day

Mel, add me to the people who have missed your input; I figured you'd joined the exodus to that other forum and am glad you're still here. Nice to see you again too, Karen!

Regarding views, I agree that the quest for privacy may be Job One. But if you do want to look out, so much depends on the placement of furniture inside and the height of the windowsill. Ill or not, I picture you reclining gracefully on the divan, which means you can see out from that position. We actually designed our yard to be nice to look at from the window, since SOME people in the family do that more often than they go out in it, so the pattern of patios and paths had to be nice from above. But unless you actually stand at the window - which you can only do for so long - you can't look down at the yard, and from the couch it is all just willow tree (which has its moments). We are toying with putting a tall table and counter stools like a coffee bar in front of the window so we can sip the latte and admire our work while we recover from the trauma of having done it all.

So the next question might be, is it a birds' eye view or a foliage/sky view that we're looking at? If the former, then the definition of the layout and shapes become very important, and if the latter, then it is the mix of foliage.

Best for your recovery!

I find verbal clarity difficult to achieve. Obfuscations 'R Us?

HA! Welcome to the world of Senior Brain, Mel ;^)

Karen

It might be fun to see some photos of everyone's window views.

My house has many windows, *walls* of windows, so I notice the views *constantly* and because I notice every flaw, it *frustrates* me. But when I stop to think how drab the views were right after we finished our home addition 9 years ago, I do feel a wee bit of accomplishment. But the darn fences, telephone poles, and neighbor's houses will continue to annoy me until my vines take off and my palms grow taller, softening the perimeters and creating more privacy. It's a long wait from 2ft tall to 10ft tall, even with a fast-growing species.

Melanie, I wish you a speedy recovery, strength for lifting pots, and a room with a view. (A fine subject you've brought up, by the way.)

I like this post. I have been thinking about the same type of thing from our ground floor bedrooms. The upstairs rooms have a view of tree branches and a meadow (I cleared a space there and planted a pumpkin patch - those giant leaves and big yellow blossoms were astounding even though something ate the pumpkins as soon as they set!) But the ground level bedrooms have a lovely view of...dirt. And tree trunks (strong verticals!) I also back up to a wooded hillside with no privacy issues. I have been looking into some pricipals of traditional Japanese gardens to create a sense of "distance". Although, speaking of cognitive dissonance and the difference between waxing and waning, I can't remember if one of the principals is to put plants with small leaves closest to you and large leafed plants further off to enhance perspective or vice-versa. Anyway, I think contrasts - texture, leaf size, foliage color are somehow a key in creating a view more than trying to focus on specific plants (in my humble opinion and not that it's the question you asked, it just seems like lots of people who post here are looking for a specific plant to make their life better).

Also, and this is off topic, to enhance the view in my brain I always have a comfy chair in my bedrooms that backs up to the window. Reading a good book (or a good gardening book!) in the natural light coming over my shoulder is one of the great pleasures in my life. Especially with a glass of red wine at hand.

Sorry you are not well, I'm with ink in that you'd never tell from your posts (mine are cranky and somewhat incomprehensible merely if I've been too long without an infusion of doughnuts). Very glad you seem to be feeling better.

The view from my bedroom is oak leaves. If you walk over and look out the window, the main perennial garden is down there. It's not a window we tend to look out of, though. Those gardens are also visible from the kitchen, dining room, and family room windows.

Lurking in the back of my mind, is a bump-out addition to the family room. It would face due west, and have a wall of windows. It would face the swamp, and be about a story and a half higher. Landscaping the swamp has been, um, interesting. Besides the practial considerations of dealing with an extremely high water table, by definition it's a much wilder space than anywhere else, and it shouldn't be designed for up close viewing. During the winter it's solid ice, and during the summer it's solid mosquitoes. The intention is large drifts of color from masses of flowering trees. Since the trees are about 2 ft tall currently, this is a serious leap of faith.

Mel, I'm glad to hear you are feeling better.

I know you said create a "view", but I keep thinking that if one is confined to bed, it is hard to see any view. Possibly treetops and sky, but to actually look *down* at a garden would require getting out of bed. I'm thinking of someone who would be completely bed-bound, possibly for a very extended time, such that someone might be designing a garden for the long term for that person (it sounds like you will not have to stay in bed much longer, thank goodness).

So, as wellspring mentioned, I've been thinking of sound. And smell (someone else mentioned smell too). Lilacs, gardenias, sweet peas on a trellis outside the window.

For sound, a nearby pond to attract frogs - at the moment we have a LOT of frogs in our woods and it is delightful to listen to them in the evenings, bamboo something to catch the raindrops, a wind chime if you like, quaking aspen to whisper in the wind, and of course the plants that attract birds. You said you had woodpeckers - in addition to seeing them, you could probably hear them pounding away. A purple martin house - they have a wonderful song. I like to sit outside and close my eyes to see how many sounds I can hear and identify, I can imagine doing the same thing in bed.

As for your hawks, probably its good they didn't nest, you would not have had many OTHER birds around if they had!

Good for you for bringing up a subject like this as a way to use your recent difficulty to inspire a topic. I hope you feel better soon.

Ann

Sound, smell. I noticed that Mel specified "visual interest" in her original post, but it seems to me that many people are instinctively looking for non-visual sources of interest when they consider the problem proposed. I think this may tie in to what I was saying on the "mood" thread. Sometimes the visual element isn't really what creates interest. Even the bird watching, while it certainly relies on sight, seems to me to be engaging on an *intellectual* level, rather than purely a visual one.

Static pictures really just aren't very stimulating. Even the loveliest static view will become boring if you're forced by circumstance (like being bed-ridden due to a long illness) to look at nothing else for a long period of time.

This subject is rather near to my heart, as I was recently laid up in bed for a long time. My bedroom window is on the lee side of my house. When I was ill, I found myself wishing that it looked out instead to the windy side of the property. Motion makes a view less static and far more stimulating. Wind makes interesting noises, and wind through trees can create moving shadow plays on the walls of the room. The sound of the rain on the windows and roof is much louder on the windy side, and when the water hits the windows, it creates interesting rivulets on the glass. It doesn't do that on the lee side.

Wildlife is also kinetic, and therefore stimulating.

On the mood thread, I noticed that many people talked about wanting their gardens to be "relaxing." But I think that often, when planning for a view out a window, it might help to think more in terms of making things more stimulating. Part of what we like about the outdoors, after all, is that things are always *moving* out there.

If I were planning for a view out a window for someone who might be forced to spend a lot of time with that as their only or primary view, I'd think in terms of motion. Also sound, smell, and wildlife.

Mel, I'd been wondering about you lately since we haven't seen many posts, but am happy to hear you got to the bottom of your health issue and are getting better through the miracle of modern drugs.

This is interesting for several reasons. I was talking with a friend last fall and saw she was buying numerous flats of pansies. She is a cancer survivor who, when going thru chemo, didn't have any gardening energy, but wanted some small view of anything that spoke 'garden'. She planted many pots and planters with pansies and had them on her back porch. It was something she could deal with, even a simple act of planting, watering, and tending made her a happier person. Though she has recovered she still plants those pansies every year.

I also think of the "view" in terms of sound, smell, and motion as well as the static scene, which as avia points out, even that can become boring, no matter how beautiful. I'm also fortunate in that we did not have to put curtains or barriers up on any of our windows (even though we did on a few for looks mostly), so from any window or door we can see something of the landscape around us.

If I had to create a 'view' for someone who was confined to bed, however, then I would look to mobilizing anything I could that would bring those elements closer to that person. Wall fountains, indoor fountains, window boxes, bird feeders, butterfly attractors...all great ideas. But keep it changeable. The more we look at some things, the less we actually see or notice it. Which gets back to the boring issue. Change forces us to alter perspective at some level.

Again, hope your back on top of your game soon. And don't worry about the obfuscations. I knew what you meant. Like Karen says, welcome to our world.
All the best to you,
Elaine

Mel,
Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Bird feeders, bird houses, things that twirl in the wind, a humming bird feeder are quick fixes for instant viewer interest. Odd that you should raise this topic. When we retired south and began house hunting one of the upper most thoughts in my mind was that one of us might have some period of recovery and be bed ridden. I was looking for a house with a view from the bedroom. It took three years to find our present home. We have sight and sound 24/7 thanks to Mother Nature and an east facing shallow lake that attracts wading and diving birds. Always a few alligators out there cruising and feeding. Of course I have added bird feeders and bird baths plus plants which attract birds so something is always in motion in the yard. We looked at a lot of properties and lady luck handed this one to us one day. So...maybe it pays to have thoughts of this type in mind when house hunting.

I'm feeling the love, people! Thanks for all your kind thoughts. I really am improving--just not quickly enough to suit MY tastes. Big surprise there, eh? My husband says this is the Universe's way of teaching me patience...

Back to the subject at hand!

When the leaves are off the trees I can see the hill behind my house from my bed. I kept a pair of binoculars handy. On a given day, I saw the hawks, half-a-dozen deer, a downy, a red-bellied, AND a pileated woodpecker, and any number of squirrels. Oh, and boodles of finches, chickadees, cardinals, etc. Then the leaves came out--and now all I can see are oak, dogwood, and red-bud leaves. Now, they ARE pretty when they move--but I miss the birds. I just need to figure out how to hang some feeders outside my picture window so I can see the birds for the trees.

You are right about sounds. Before the pollen forced me to close the windows, the birds were excellent company. The creek was nice to listen to the few times it was running fast--but we are VERY dry, so those times were few and far between. The owls were great fun when they were courting. We rarely see them, but certainly hear them in the evening. (Barred owls make a nice noise...screech owls not-so-much! Sounds like some poor woman is being murdered.)

I think some judicious pruning would help open up the view a bit...while maintaining my privacy. I'll see if I can borrow a digital camera.

melanie

Melanie,
You should try some of those feeders that attach with suction cups to the windows & enlist DH to help attach them. I've seen them at Wild Birds Unlimited stores, and you can buy them thru Duncraft on-line & other places I'm sure. Another, but more expensive, solution would be pole feeders. But if your bedroom is on the second floor this wouldn't help. Just don't forget to purchase raccoon baffles to keep the squirrels & coons out. You could move it later if desired. WBU has poles that allows you to add multiple arms for different types of feeders. I'd also recommend a bluebird nest box for loads of fun watching the nesting process. They will build nests all summer. Nest boxes need to be out in the open though. Check the Bluebird forum for advice if interested.

I think you'd enjoy an outdoor fountain close to your window.

For those who can dig it the ever changing routine of seasons is inspiring. The enthusiasm that woodpeckers display as if the present moment is all is a lesson in itself. My dog comes to me each morning, that is every morning, with a look on her face like "this is the day". There are Tulipa gregii shyly opening to a warmer than usual spring and each day the garden shows signs of resurrected life, the geese are gone and the farmers are out with truck loads of chemical assistance, perhaps missing the poetry. Lying still internalises this movement that we don't seem part of and looking out the window can only bring memories of what it was like when the cherry romantically blossomed for a week that now seems like an eternity. As I write there are four, equally spaced Canada geese heading this way, obviously seperated from the main flow and in need of catching up. How will they do it? By supporting one another is how. A garden should have birds in it, a garden should have flowers, seeds and fruit in it, lovers of gardens should have others to fly with in it. These memories are only framed by the window.

Here is the unvarnished view from my bedroom:

{{gwi:25345}}

I do hope I am not confined to bed rest for any length of time. The "view" is pretty random, not at all like a framed picture. The good part (which is not on display here) is I can watch hummingbirds going after the salvia, and finches, sparrows, mockingbirds, orioles, bluejays, and green parrots as they flit in and out and search for food and drink.

View from the dining table:

{{gwi:25348}}

View from the living room:

{{gwi:25350}}

All reasonably pleasant, but not especially engaging. It all looks much nicer if one can sit outdoors.

{{gwi:25351}}

Ok, time to mow and deadhead!!