Instant Patio: Seasonal Styling for a Small Outdoor Room

Spring

Make the patio a focal point with a central birdbath and pots of blooming annuals—purple nemesia, bacopa. Edge with low mounders like New Zealand hair sedge 'Frosty Curls', 'Oriental Limelight' artemisia, and add color with breath of heaven, pink marguerites, anemones, Swan River daisy, lilac, Berberis thunbergii 'Aurea'. Tuck creeping thyme between bricks.

Summer

Bring out a bistro set. Plant summer bloomers behind it: purple verbena, yellow helianthus, purple coneflower, coreopsis. Golden seedheads of eulalia grass rise behind the chairs.

Fall

Create a secret garden with billowy bloomers like Tagetes lemmonii for privacy, or fragrant English lavender or mock orange (Choisya ternata). Place a comfy Adirondack chair in the center.