outdoor rooms versus the garden

I’m starting to worry about the Jamie Durie’s of the world. I, as a gardener, am getting concerned that the kind of landscaping he represents—outdoor spaces that are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from tightly decorated indoor spaces—seems to be taking over.

Take a look at what people are doing on home makeover shows, including Durie’s own The Outdoor Room on HGTV. Look at the increasing bulk of outdoor furniture in catalogs. Or just go shopping for a patio set, which is what we did recently.

Some of the smaller-scale outdoor furniture we saw...
...and more of the smaller-scale furniture...

The mismatched plastic sets we’ve from as long as fifteen years ago that been living with were looking long in the tooth. We wanted a simple table and chairs for the roof deck, and maybe something for the back patio. Yes, we found tables and chairs in the stores…

Some of the bigger-scaled seating, as uncomfortable as it is large.
Yet more. At least this set was comfortable.

…But there’s been a huge explosion in huge-scaled resort-themed seating, much of it wrapped in synthetic wicker. They tell you to “think big” when selecting furniture scaled to the larger outdoors, but so much of this would be all out of proportion to the average garden. In all this McMansion-scaled furniture I kept seeing Jamie Durie, and I wondered:

A. Who has space for all this huge furniture? and,

B. What happens to the space devoted to gardens when the inside starts to sprawl outdoors?

A 2010 interview in the LA Times didn’t raise my comfort level. When asked about the basic focus of his recently launched TV series Durie replied, “The reason I created this show was to cast a wider net and reach the non-gardener. I want to encourage people interested in travel, architecture, design, food or even fashion — and the show really encompasses all that. It’s really just laced with gardens, which is the icing on the cake.” How do you reconcile this statement with the tag line for his website, jamiedurie.com: “Connecting people with plants”?

These outdoor rooms are spaces where potted plants are largely interchangeable with throw pillows. Planted surfaces and garden beds give way to hardscape. The dominion of humans, sheltered indoor spaces, make their move to transform the outdoors into places where nature gets increasingly marginalized. Humans domination marches ahead.

Contrast these with garden rooms of the past, which seeme more about the plants, often featuring walls made out of plants and living green things underfoot. Our generation’s outdoor rooms seem to be all about the humans. For a purportedly green-conscious era all this seems backwards.

Is anyone else bothered by this? Or is it just me?

18 thoughts on “outdoor rooms versus the garden”

  1. Yes, it bothers me too. It’s difficult to find simple furniture that actually works in the garden. I have a lovely teak seat that seats eight, but it takes up the entire patio. My back patio has the older metal and glass table, but the chairs are still huge. I keep a lot of the plastic chairs around to fill in at parties so we can fit more people.

    You can still find old-style lawn chairs at some hardware places. ACE has some but I think you have to special order them! Weird.

  2. It’s not just you.

    A large section of our local newspaper’s “gardens supplement” on Saturday was devoted to outdoor kitchens. It was horrible. I get wanting a bbq, but do you really need an entire kitchen outside? It’s the same with the furniture…wow a whole living room set complete with a rug and throw pillows? Of course you’re right that these all require more and more hardscape, less and less plants. Isn’t the point of being outside in the garden to enjoy the natural world?

  3. Somewhere comfortable to sit, yes – but a 3 piece suite with throw pillows and decorated coffee table?

    Somewhere to eat lunch – but that looks like a set for a conference room.

    ‘The Garden’ as icing??!!

  4. I’m glad you’re bringing this up. I’ve been researching trends throughout the recession, and have found that the big box stores are all selling these outdoor kitchens and living & dining room sets like hotcakes, even with the economic downturn. People want to stay home instead of traveling and to entertain their friends and family this way. I’ve always loved al fresco living; it’s been the major impetus behind my wish to design landscapes for people. It’s healthy, fun and meaningful. But a very significant outcome from being outdoors — connecting with nature and feeling part of something greater than our small concerns for material gain and comfort — seems to be getting lost in the shuffle.

  5. James, this trend has concerned me for some years for a few reasons: 1. Going outdoors isn’t going outdoors at all – we lose recognition of its otherness. 2. The natural world is being commodified as a distant backdrop, and not being engaged with. This reduces our sensibilities and our aptitude for empathy with nature. 3. Gardens are disappearing, meaning, in a sense, life other than the human is being eradicated. 4. In taking the indoors outside with us, we’re failing to get anything stimulating out of the experience and experience only what we already know ( our consumer’s cocoon ). 5. We’re insisting that every inch of our lives be predictable, instead of being open to the notion that some of the best experiences ( which gardens and the outdoors can give ) come from encountering the unexpected and unplanned.

  6. This trend is still towards bigger and better, and you’d think in this economy the trends would be headed toward ‘simple and less expensive’.

    My new FB page is thriving on the idea of recycling junk and reusing old materials and that kind of thing which may be too much at the other end of the spectrum for you.

    There has to be a middle ground and you may have to search awhile to find what you want in the way of garden furniture. Try those Aldo Leopold benches.

    Jamie Durie is one of those who speaks of plant material, a long time ‘philosophy which ended the ‘G’ in HGTV.

  7. I’m bothered too. Hardscape and furniture do not make a garden. Have you read Wade Graham’s American Eden? You probably have because I think I found it mentioned on your blog. If not, it’s relevant to this issue.

  8. I’m bothered, yes of course, but it’s expected. The natural world is vanishing because ever-burgeoning humanity is killing it off. For example, I just read somewhere 10% of north Atlantic fish are contaminated with plastic. It is only going to get worse. There will be h#ll to pay when Mother Nature decides it is time to re-balance.

    I was quite surprised to see Durie’s own home and garden in the LAT a few weeks ago. Decidedly modest and untrendy, functional more than showy. The TV show goes overboard–he must know that–but everyone has a living to earn, right?

    As to furniture, through experience I’ve learned good quality teak is the way to go. Twelve years on, the teak stuff we have is as good as when we bought it, and can probably serve at least a couple of generations beyond us. My neighbor has the synthetic wicker stuff and says while it holds up, it’s very uncomfortable if it’s not pillowed and padded.

    All that outdoor kitchen stuff makes me roll my eyes–how dirty/corroded is that junk in 5 years? Those outdoor kitchens will be the blue fiberglass pool slides of their era in a decade or two–the cliche everyone gets rid of.

  9. I hadn’t paid close attention tot he trends, but I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. The outdoors of my youth had a few lawn chairs, a home made table, and a simple bbq. Clearly our collective expectations have grown since then.

  10. James, I suspect this trend is much more pronounced in mild climates like yours in Southern California. In my part of the world, this type of furniture would never survive. Outdoor furniture here is still wicker or wooden Adirondack chairs or folding plastic. Basically, it has to be tough enough to withstand the elements over the winter or be light enough (and ideally compact enough) to be moved indoors easily).

  11. Donna, I haven’t given up on plastic chairs–they usually stack, they’re easy to move around and are priced reasonably–perfect for parties. Most benches for sale seem rickety even in the store. What will they be like in five years?

    Loree, the outdoor kitchen seems to be about the worst of the takeover. My two-burner bbq on wheels seems pretty large but nothing like the dedicated outdoor units with dedicated sink, cabinets, storage, fridge, cooktop… I guess for a lot of folks plants outdoors just get in the way of the furniture.

    EE, I’ve been queasy about this direction in landscaping for a while now, and the comment about the botanical icing bothered really set me off. What worst is that people buy into this lifestyle, this look and think they’re making things better.

    Willow, it makes sense, what you point out about people nesting at home during tough economic times. In the end successful nesting is all about balance. Some comfortable places to sit while observing the garden is one thing, taking out the garden to make space for the outdoor lounge suite something else entirely.

    Gayle, I had to vent. Thanks for listening.

    Faisal, you point out several of the reasons why gardens are meaningful. The paved paradises fail to supply more than a faded snapshot of what they could be. Even some of our local plant-based gardens fail. Many local gardens are made up entirely of what I call “plastic plants,” plants that look the same year round, taking on the status of furniture. No change, no surprise, no joy.

    Sue, your Aldo Leopold and other benches and how you’ve placed them are terrific examples of what garden furnishings can be. They invite you to sit and enjoy the landscape, the opposite of the outdoor room idea, where my first response might be to go for the remote.

    James, thanks for the recommendation/reminder. Lately I’ve been forced into the Sophie’s Choice of gardening versus reading (versus lots of other things) but hope to sit down (in the garden) with this book.

    HB, you have no idea how much I fetishized the fiberglass pool slides in the neighborhood where I grew up. My parents succumbed to getting a pool that took the place of mature walnut, peach and apricot trees, but they didn’t go for the slide. / I test-sat several showrooms of the wicker stuff and came to the same conclusion as your neighbor. Without ample padding they’re somewhere between uncomfortable and painful to sit in. / I think I reacted differently to Durie’s home garden when the LAT feature it (for the online version see http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-jamie-durie-photos,0,7858956.photogallery). Granted it didn’t have the theme park look of his most …um, creative(?) work from the show. But the multiple cabanas, outdoor kitchen, green wall of tropicals, ferns and orchids made for a tight space that to my eyes looked more like a space to be photographed, not lived in.

    Brent, the only pieces of outdoor furniture we had growing up were the folding aluminum chairs with the plaid webbing, and that was furniture that got taken camping or to the beach, almost never set out in the garden. Yah, things have changed.

    Jean, maybe folks in your corner of the country would look at this stuff and see no use for it except for a month or two of summer. Definitely not worth the expense and bother. Adirondack chairs and things that look like them are always popular, even out here. In the end, even around me, I think the furniture ends up being set dressing more than something that’s used.

  12. Very thought provoking. I found myself starting to write an essay as a comment, but since I basically agree with your own comments, and the others above, I’ll just say that it seems to be happening here too, and that what looks great in an Australian yard is crazy and impractical here in the UK. Plus, in my garden, people – and furniture – tend to be fighting a losing battle against the encroachment of the plants. These people are definitely not trying to sell to me!!

  13. Thank you, James for giving words to something I feel everytime Garden Design magazine shows up. More articles about buying “stuff” than gardening. I’ve given up watching the garden shows on tv with hosts who are “exterior designers”, not garden designers. Frustrating, sad, and a sign that fewer and fewer people want to be outdoors unless they can watch tv while being there.

  14. I’ve been reading all the responses to your very thought-provoking post, James, and I think we have to consider the sources of our information and follow the money. Garden Mags are in the business of gatting you to buy something ultimately. Just like ALL tv shows, even news.

    That’s why reading blogs and free websites is becoming my biggest source of gardening inspiration. i don’t think we need to feel discouraged or frustrated, just change our mindset and buying habits. I don’t know WHAT audience Garden Design is aimed at anymore.

  15. Janet, the catalog folks are definitely not selling to us, though there seems to be quite a market for their offerings. The question for all of us is what can we do to turn the tide? I see little areas of hope–bloggers with a special green focus and the like–but I can’t guarantee that they’ll win out in the end.

    Colleen, your TV comment nails it. Maybe the only hope is to invent plants with remotes to make them grow, drop their leaves during cool days or grow them back when it’s hot out. Gardens can be about lots of things that have nothing to do with our pushbutton world, and they’re things I wish more people would come to understand and appreciate.

    Sue, “follow the money” works here too, alright. Gardens as refuges from all things of the world? I naively want that to be true, but how wrong I am. I do have gadgets and a few things from catalog pages, but they’re not the things that give me the real joy in the garden.

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