Southerners love to have a special spot in the shade to get away from the hot summer sun.

It was a porch in Grandmother’s day. Today, gardeners such as Beth Norman and her husband, Dean, are creating delightful outdoor garden rooms for their own enjoyment and for entertaining.

Five years ago, the Normans had a typical shady backyard with a small patio, a porch with a sidewalk leading to the carport, shrubs along the house perimeter, grass in the backyard and a large expanse of trees and undergrowth left as nature intended on the back acres of their lot. Today, it’s an extension of their inside living space.

A large round wooden deck is the focal point of the garden design. Brick steps provide access from the back porch down to the deck. An outdoor fireplace with a seating area occupies one end of the deck and overlooks the woodsy backdrop of the lot. A dining table and chairs are closer to the back porch and allow diners to view the curving perennial bed that Norman planted on the slope between the carport and the paved walkway that leads from the deck to the arbored garden entrance and driveway.

The original shrubs were left along the back side of the carport above the perennial bed. In front of the mature cleyeras, azaleas and yaupon hollies, Norman planted Blushing Bride, Endless Summer, Lace cap Blue, Oakleaf and Lady-in-Red hydrangeas to guarantee colorful blooms throughout the summer. Daylilies, Shasta daisies, salvias, heucheras, rudbeckias, coneflowers, liatris and Biloxi Blue verbena anchor the bed with pockets of annuals added for seasonal color, impatiens in summer, pansies, snapdragons and flowering kale in the cooler months. Several old-fashioned roses grow near the deck and perfume the air with subtle fragrance.

A wooden bridge connects the deck to the original patio that is now another small seating area where the Normans can sit, drink coffee and watch the birds that frequent large hanging feeders. On the low side of the bridge is a small waterfall and pond with papyrus and pink water-lilies. You can hear the relaxing trickle of water. Pink and white azaleas bloom beyond the pond, and ivy covers much of nearby ground. Holly ferns, big leaf ivy, hostas and creeping jenny cover the bed between the back porch steps and the bridge.

Norman has used containers of annuals in a variety of sizes throughout the deck area, patio and steps to add additional color. Many are filled with pansies and cool-weather annuals now. Two huge pots are planted with lettuce that she said has been delicious the last few weeks. Norman will change them out to begonias, impatiens, plumbago and whatever else she fancies at the local nurseries in the next couple of weeks. Several contain large painted bare branches from the woods. Around these, she has twined twinkle lights that are timed to go on at dusk and provide light to the deck area.

Norman developed a cutting garden in a sunny spot on the far side of the house. Butterfly bushes, vitex, Shasta daisies, rudbeckias, coneflowers, liatris and lots of zinnias from this garden come in handy when she needs a quick bouquet for summer entertaining. A huge New Dawn rose grows on the arbor that connects the cutting garden to a moss-covered pathway leading to the original patio.

“If I’m at home, I am usually outside doing something,” Norman said.

They enlisted a landscape architect to design their outdoor retreat and contractors to build the deck, install the ironwork and brickwork but most of the planting and plant care has fallen to Beth Norman. Much of her knowledge is self-taught and she enjoys seeing what other gardeners have done during garden tours she’s taken with some of her gardening buddies.

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Miriam Jabour, a Master Gardener and Master Flower Show judge, has been active in the Openwood Plantation Garden Club for over 35 years. Write to her at 1114 Windy Lake Drive, Vicksburg, MS 39183.