sorry ... the attachment is actually a photo of the backyard taken from the back patio .... i am now attaching the diagram mentioned above

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:44062}}

Wow, that is really pretty.
Full disclosure: I know nothing about landscape design. That said:
The two trees nearest the pergola seem like likely candidates for inclusion in beds. I don't know what does well in your zone, but I would begin with the shrubs. Do you want to create an outdoor room by putting shrubs around your pergola?

Warning: I am not a landscape professional. So what follows is worth every penny you're paying for it!

I would use the entire area to the right of the path, inclusive of the tree, for a deep, layered bed. I wouldn't plant anything with height, however, so it may be a challenge to select drifts of plants with low-growing characteristics. For directly under the tree (what are these trees?), you'll have the challenge of shade and not disturbing the roots, and I don't have the answer for that, except to say non-woody spreading shrubs might fill in without taking up too much root space (does that make sense?). I'm sorry I can't name plants for your location.

Ok! Now that I've written about the challenges, I realize one way to eliminate them would be to put the deep, layered bed on the *left* of the path instead of the right. Duh. Make it really deep, curving outward to follow and exaggerate the curve of the path, then meeting your patio area somewhere beyond the corner. Also make the bed continue on the right side of the path. Looking at your diagram, you already show plants along that right front edge; bring the line of planting to the halfway point of the straight section of the path, then curve it toward the corner. It should kind of make a grass circle around the tree, if you follow my description.

My personal taste would dictate removal of mini-fences and rock rings around trees, as well as all the small-scale pots cluttering up the landscape. Let the plants in the ground do the framing. I like using pots too, but I've learned from experience they must be much larger scale to be effective. (I didn't notice this until I started taking photos of my garden -- the little pots I had everywhere really cluttered the view -- and I'm still getting rid of them!)

Maybe someone more familiar with your zone can chime in with plant suggestions or a more cohesive plan.

This is an awkward stage at which to ask for design help because you've already made some huge, irreversible decisions that now have to be designed around. The patio and pergola are really lovely, and I think you will enjoy being on it surrounded by plants, but for the life of me I can't figure out why you put it where you did, nor why the path to it is winding and narrow. For such a large yard, this is an oddly fussy installation, both in terms of its own lines and the remaining spaces it creates in the yard, not the mention the interaction of the pergola with the tree canopies. That impression is exacerbated, as Catkim says, by the visual clutter of the tree rings etc.

So what I would do from here is to use bed design task to create smoother lines. A bed to the right that reaches right around the patio to embrace it, with an edging such as wide stone that will create a strong visual line - either straight or curved, not sure - might integrate the elements.

Gardening under trees can be hard, depending on the trees.

KarinL

I want to emphasize that I don't mean to be overly critical - every one has a right to be quirky, odd, fussy, or otherwise individualist in their home landscaping and in fact I encourage the expression of personality over slavish adherence to design principles. The thing is that the more idiosyncratic you get, the less anyone else is able to advise you, and that is the point I was trying to make.

But maybe I'm seeing design incongruities where none exist, and others will correct me.

But I'll have to correct myself for having said right when I meant left. I'm just not sure about integrating the trees, it does depend on what kind they are.

KarinL

thank you all for your contributions. i understand that we've put the cart before the horse (so to speak), and designing beds now will be a challenge. that's why i'm asking for help ... i've drawn various plans, and can't find the right lines.

i'm at the mercy of a fella who put what was "in his head" in the backyard. in fact ... the path was built FIRST, and i called it 'the path to nowhere' for weeks. lol then the base for the patio was formed up, etc. now we have what we have.

to address a couple questions/issues:
-the tree to the far left is an ash, the other 3 are pecan. there is one more pecan in the yard that you cannot see in the photo, closer to the house than the ash.
-the beds around the trees were the start of our backyard project (there was NOTHING back there but grass and trees), and they will disappear into whatever design we come up with. based on your comments, this weekend i will move those plants to other locations that need color.
-we are located in south central louisiana.

i do appreciate the ideas you've mentioned and will try to put them on paper to see how they work.

thanks again!

Well the backstory makes it all make sense!

The instinct to put beds around the patio and path, to which I also initially succumbed, should maybe be suppressed for a moment to seriously consider whether idiosyncratic individuality should maybe be extended from the patio itself to the plantings.

This thought stems in part from the fact that I have a very similar pathway and patio in my own yard, but since my whole yard is small, I had no option to make it bigger. I have got plants all around the path and patio, as well as pots on the patio. The plants do soften and contextualize the stonework, and they are the look I want, but... they also lean over a lot and effectively shrink already small and narrow spaces even further. You've got space... other spaces to plant beds, so you don't need to put them where they'll crowd the patio.

Maybe you need to consider less conventional alternatives. Things that will visually expand or at least define what you've got, perhaps. For example... a row of little boxwoods marching along the pathway and around the patio. Or just some decorative boulders. Or.... nothing but the grass that's already there. What is going on the pergola? Maybe the pergola with an amazing vine is all you'd need (you'd need to stop it from going into the tree).

I'd actually be pretty interested in what would emerge from the mind of a fella who would build a path to an as-yet imaginary patio :-) He might be able to complete the thing in a way that a conventional design sensibility could not hope to achieve.

I'm glad you put in the photo and the plan, by the way; with just one the impression would have been incomplete. Also, I gather we're doing disclosure this thread, and I'm just another homeowner too!

KarinL

Before I proceed further, please keep in mind that I have no professional training and that my main interest is antique roses. My own garden in Southern California could be described as Mediterranean cottage garden which would not fit your needs at all.

My first impulse would be what others have said which is to completely declutter the area, including the tree surround and of course all the pots. I would also remove the caladium in the foreground since it's so out of sync with the grass and trees. In order for you to want to use the pergola your eye has to be drawn to that area. I would cut off the tree branches that hang over the pergola and plant climbing roses on the posts. Your best bet would be climbing teas or tea noisettes which do very well in your climate. Avoid hybrid teas because of disease problems and they won't fit the scheme I have in mind which is peaceful and natural. I would choose only soft colored roses such as Celine Forestier, Reve d'Or and Cl. Lady Hillingdon. Between the posts I would plant tea roses (these are not hybrid teas), again in soft, neutral colors. Mme. Joseph Schwartz and Blumenschmidt come to mind. For a secondary color I would plant white or purple crape myrtle or butterfly bushes. Tea roses will get very large, at least 6 x 6 feet, so plant accordingly. The idea would be not to have too many kinds of plants or colors, because I see this as a serene and restful garden, because of the green background of the lawn and trees. However, the color and fragrance of the roses and the bees, birds and butterflies that will be attracted to them will give life to this area. Plus, you'll have roses to cut for the house.

I don't know if any of this appeals to you; it's just a suggestion and a direction for you to go should you be interested. These older roses require very little upkeep. I don't spray in my garden and you shouldn't have to either. Just keep in mind that they like sun, especially morning sun, to thrive.

Ingrid

hello again, post-gustav. now have our power and cable back so can resume 'normal' life again ... at least here. east and north of us have MUCH longer paths back.

i appreciate your advice. and after readying our pergola area for gustav's arrival, we have a 'blank-er' slate to work with (see photo). most made it through intact, although the impatiens did get windbeaten. i'll be putting flowers back to their pre-gustav, but post-advice positions so you can compare.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:43237}}

Congrats on your emergence and recovery.

I hadn't even noticed that white wall before. There is something else new in the photo, a row of grass tufts along the pathway on both sides, which make an absolutely charming impression, emphasizing what is actually a lovely curve. If that is just the normal grass run amok, it is nonetheless an idea you could pursue using a short ornamental grass variety. I really would not fuss up that path with flowers.

The white wall I don't like so much. I think I'd hide it, as seen from this side. It may be a good thing to keep plants from intruding too much into the patio.

KarinL

Hi there:

You have a beautiful, huge yard and it holds a lot of possibilities. Just to let you know, I am also not a professional designer.

One thing I'm wondering if it's possible for the path to the pergola to be widened. It seems disproportionately narrow, and if it was wider I think it would "hold its own" much better and not seem to "need" plants alongside.

To me, the placement of the pergola seems to make sense as far as its position relative the the trees--placed for optimum shading. I don't get the low wall, however, and I also didn't notice it until the potted plants were cleared out. It reminds me of a barrier, and this juxtaposition of barrier plus path creates (for me) a conflicted feeling where I wouldn't know if I would be allowed to walk on the path to the patio or not.

I think if the wall was removed and the path widened, plantings wouldn't seem so necessary. I liked the suggestions to grow a vine on the pergola.

OK, so now we know why you had all the planters - they were hiding that wall, LOL. Nothing wrong with that idea, but make it easy on yourself and create beds with plants that will hide the wall and spill slightly over the top, softening the look from the patio interior. Always make your beds larger than you think - you have the room to pull this off and those beds must be proportionately large to the scale of your property.

The tree rings are not a great idea. They visually "break" the trees from the greenery and look rather like white bulls-eye's plunked in your lawn with tree arrows.

I think the major trouble is that where your patio is placed, what do you want to look at? Everything seems very scattered around, without any sense of mystery or cohesive integration, which is why it's troubling you so much. Your basic elements are good - everyone has flaws they have to work around - yet you feel something's missing, but don't know what it is.

You have ground level (lawn, patio and short plants) and top-level (trees and pergola), but absolutely nothing in the middle-layer to integrate it all together into a whole satisfying mix.

Your patio as it sits in the lawn is like a promontory view point in the middle of a desert. It's all flat and laid out for everyone to see. Stand in the middle of the patio, turn 360-degrees and you can see everything in it. There's no sense of "what might be around the next corner?" to add interest. No matter what your style of gardening you need to always integrate the top and bottom layers with a good selection of mid-height shrubs.

These will add color and interest to your garden 365 days a year without needing to always depend upon flower bloom. It is where you get the critical balance of leaf color, texture and shape to interest the eye and provide specific "focal points of interest". As it stands now the eye drifts over your garden greens because they're either too much the same color or too isolated to hold interest. It lands on the wrong things; e.g., the whiteness of the stone or the position of the patio.

Think of your garden like the outside shell of your house. Whether you stand at your front door or your back door, you can see some of the rooms but not all of them. Walking further inside, you can see more revealed, as well as a hallway or another doorway that obviously leads somewhere else. Your rooms have flooring (ground layer), furniture such as desks, beds, or bookcases (middle layer), and windows and overhead lights (top layer).

If your rooms only had a rug on the floor and a hanging light fixture, think how empty that looks! Fill it with an interesting mix of furniture with different textures, textures, colors and shapes - and suddenly you have a pleasing, beautiful room to live in.

A garden is similar in concept. It is an exterior shell, into which you place disparate elements to both contrast and complement one another into a visually pleasing whole. Good luck to you going forward!