Getting all hot and dirty in the garden is something to look forward to when you have an outdoor shower. The relief is instantaneous, and you'll never track mud into the house again.

Outdoor showers have long been part of the scene around a pool, but gardeners are catching on to them, too. Rinsing off muddy boots with the hose is fine, but peeling off your clothes and taking a real shower outdoors is even better.

"For me, it's part of the experience of nature," says Katherine Brooks, a garden designer in Richmond, Va., who has a charming outdoor shower at the corner of her patio. "When you garden, you get dirty, and when you're dirty -- well, the shower's right there," she says. An evergreen Confederate jasmine vine, with delightfully fragrant white flowers, grows up one side of the shower stall and perfumes the air in June. Mint growing around the outside of the shower contributes a sharp, refreshing note: "When you step on it, it smells so good," Brooks says.

Brooks has designed many outdoor showers for her clients in southeast Virginia. People don't always ask specifically for a shower, but when she describes how a shower fits into a plan for a garden, they love the concept.

The footprint of an outdoor shower can be quite small. Brooks' shower is about 4 feet by 5 feet. "If you have little children or grandchildren, you need to make it big enough so you can be in there with them," she says. It's nice to have a dressing area, Brooks says, but not essential. One of her client's showers has just enough room for a long bench to hold towels and clean clothes.

Richard Bubnowski, an architect and owner of Richard Bubnowski Design in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., built an outdoor shower in part of the footprint of a tiny garage outside his 1921 Craftsman bungalow home. The 10-foot-by-16-foot garage was torn down and replaced with a shed that accommodates a 4-by-4-foot shower, gardening tools, fishing gear and surfboards.

"Living along the shore, you have to have an outdoor shower," he says. "It just feels great to be out in the open air taking a shower. Everybody uses it -- the whole family, and our 90-pound Labrador retriever, too." When Bubnowski and his wife decided to tear down their old house instead of renovating it, "I said I would only do it on one condition," Bubnowski says, "and that was that we save the outdoor shower building."

The tiny building has become the core of a family gathering place, with a bluestone patio, a grill and a dining table and chairs.

Outdoor showers don't have to be complicated. You probably won't need a permit for something as basic as the cold-water-only outdoor shower set-up sold by Orvis, the outdoor specialty company. But it's a good idea to check local codes, especially if you're thinking about more plumbing than a garden hose.

"It has definitely become more complicated over the years," Bubnowski says. "Mine just splashes down into the sand, and it's open to the air above, but nowadays you have to tie them into the sewer, and it has to have a roof over it." Every area has its own laws and restrictions.

Bubnowski has designed outdoor showers for several clients. Usually, the shower is attached to the back of the house, where it can easily tie into plumbing and drainage lines. Bubnowski likes to use cedar shingles or siding for the shower walls, both because they are durable and because they smell so good.

Landscaping around the enclosure adds privacy and makes the experience of showering outdoors even more pleasant, Bubnowski says. His shower is sheltered by tall arborvitaes, which also define one edge of the patio. "It's all part of it," he says, "being out there, feeling the breeze, the air, and the sounds of nature." The water lines may need to be drained for the winter, but you can forget about that until sometime in the fall. "We use it into November," Bubnowski says.

An outdoor shower comes in handy when you have guests, who usually consider it a great treat to shower in the garden, but a shower off the master bedroom is a nice touch, too. Jason Urrutia, owner of Urrutia Design in Sausalito, Calif., built a private outdoor shower for the owners of a house he designed. "It's like part of the parents' retreat," he says. The shower is very basic, but beautiful, with the plumbing in a tile wall set into the wall of the house. A bench is built into a brick wall opposite the shower; a rough-hewn wooden pedestal holds a towel and a scrub brush.

"It's all simple stuff, such an easy thing to do," Urrutia says. "It probably cost $2,500, but there is so much bang for the buck doing something like that." The shower is part of an enclosed patio that Urrutia describes as "a love lounge" with a fire pit, comfortable garden furniture and easy, low-maintenance landscaping.

After a hot day outside, an outdoor shower "is like a vacation," Brooks says. "At night, when the stars are out, it's awesome."

SIDEBAR

OUTDOOR SHOWERS: PRETTY SPLASHY

If you're making plans for a shower in the garden, here are some tips and ideas from professionals who have done it before:

-- Check local codes. There may be rules about outdoor plumbing, structures and setbacks from property lines.

-- Locate the plumbing. "You can pull off the water from a kitchen or a bathroom on the back of the house," says garden designer Katherine Brooks. "You may not have to run pipe very far."

-- Hot and cold running water will allow you to really indulge yourself in showering outdoors. If you know you're just going to be rinsing off, and only in the summertime, a cold-water shower may be fine.

-- The shower's footprint should be a good 4 feet on a side -- 4 feet by 5 feet is nice, Brooks says. The floor of the shower can be brick, tile or paving stones.

-- Make a shower that suits the style of your house, and fits into the design of your garden. There are lots of ideas on Pinterest; search for "outdoor showers."

-- For privacy, a couple of sections of fence or shutters mounted in a framework will work as walls for your shower. Or plant an evergreen screen.

-- Look for shower accessories (towel racks, soap holders and a mirror) at thrift shops and flea markets. Brooks has a pair of teak shower mats from at a bath specialty shop. A bench or side table will be handy.

-- If you live in a cold climate, you will need to drain the water lines in the fall to protect them from freezing over the winter. Ask your plumber to install a faucet that can be drained.

Sources

-- Katherine Brooks, Bloomin' Gardens, katherinebrookslandscapes.com

-- Richard Bubnowski, Richard Bubnowski Design, richardbubnowskidesign.com

-- Jason Urrutia, Urrutia Design, urrutiadesign.com

(For editorial questions, please contact Clint Hooker at chooker@amuniversal.com.)

Shake things up in the backyard this summer: Cocktail gardening puts a new twist on edible landscaping.

Fresh herbs and fruit have long been the key ingredients in some of summer's most refreshing libations, and when they're within easy reach of the backyard bartender, every cocktail becomes a flourishing signature drink.

Making a mojito with homegrown mint is only part of the picture, though. A successful cocktail garden should be a comfortable and inviting place to be.

"You can't just translate the indoors to outdoors," says J'Nell Bryson, a landscape architect in Charlotte, N.C. "An outdoor room needs more space to be in scale with nature." Postage-stamp patios in big backyards don't look right, Bryson says, but if a small space is all you have, there are lots of ways to make it work as a cocktail garden. "Even if you live in a condo and just have a tiny patio, you can do a vertical garden, or use pots," she says.

Amy Stewart, author of "The Drunken Botanist" (Algonquin, $20), turned the challenging side yard of her home in Eureka, Calif., into a lush and colorful cocktail garden worthy of her book, which delves deep into the horticulture and lore of hops, rye, barley, grapes and dozens of other plants used to make and garnish the world's greatest drinks.

Stewart worked with garden designer Susan Morrison on the plans for her limited space, which relies heavily on container plantings and includes an outdoor bar, where Stewart stirs up garden-fresh cocktails. Most of the garden is only 7 feet wide, with a wider patio at one end. Stewart grows hops on a trellis and raspberries and blueberries in pots. She keeps a romping clump of mint in check by growing it in a raised planter that also serves as a bar, and she installed shelves on a garden wall for pots full of herbs, with room for bottles and party glasses. Colorful liqueur bottles inspired the lively palette of the garden and the painted planters.

Stewart's cocktail garden is furnished minimally with one chair and a bench; it's basically a standing-room-only space. If you have a little more room, comfortable garden furniture makes guests feel right at home, Bryson says. Built-in seating with lots of pillows will encourage guests to relax with their drinks and enjoy the garden around them.

Before you decide where to place a patio, study the terrain and the sun and shade patterns in your yard, Bryson says. Pull up some garden chairs and check on the views from several angles. "Choose an expansive view, not a view right into the back door," she says. "If you have the house walls on one side, a fence on the other, and in the third you can look up into the trees, that's what I would choose," she says. "Focus on a view away from the house."

Bryson suggests hanging strings of lights to suggest "a sense of a ceiling," but "don't dare turn on the spotlights," she says. "You really want soft, muted lighting."

Clients are always eager to talk about flowers in a garden's design, but you should not neglect foliage texture, Bryson says. Thyme and oregano are both good groundcovers with interesting texture; she also likes purple basil, lemon thyme, lavender and other aromatic plants. Of course, plant all the flowers you want.

Flowers and garden-fresh ingredients of all kinds are at the convivial heart of the stylish culinary cocktails Scott Beattie created for Cyrus restaurant in Healdsburg, Calif. The cocktail recipes are preserved in Beattie's "Artisanal Cocktails" (Ten Speed Press, $25).

"I'm really getting into edible flowers right now," Beattie says. Bachelor's buttons, cosmos and carnations are all pretty in summer drinks, he says, and Gem marigolds have "a citrusy flavor," perfect for garnishing a Pimm's Cup. Beattie also decorates drinks with the flowers and leaves of scented geraniums and the flowering stems of basil, sage and mint. He grows his own borage, which has deep blue star-shaped flowers that taste just a little bit like cucumbers.

In the summer, Beattie makes a rum drink with a fistful of muddled mint, cilantro and Thai basil leaves, with a little coconut milk, lime juice and ginger beer, garnished with a sprig of basil flowers. For some drinks, he prefers to chop leaves of mint and other herbs into a chiffonade, because the confetti-like strips of green leaf look so beautiful as they wrap themselves around pieces of ice in a glass. With a big pot of mint right at your fingertips all summer, you can try it both ways. Give it a shot.

Sources

-- Amy Stewart, author of "The Drunken Botanist" (Algonquin, $20), collaborated with Territorial Seed Co. (territorialseed.com) to develop cocktail gardening tips and seven "Drunken Botanist" plant collections for cocktail gardens.

-- For more information about Scott Beattie and "Artisanal Cocktails" (Ten Speed Press, $25), scottbeattiecocktails.com.

-- J'Nell Bryson, landscape architect, jbryson.com.

-- Susan Morrison, Creative Exteriors Landscape Design, celandscapedesign.com.

No garden is too small or too large for fabulous plantings in flowerpots. Now's the time to plant them, and it doesn't take long to get them started.

Pots give gardeners in small spaces room to grow. In large gardens, flowerpots are a great way to develop the detail and to grow delicate plants that might otherwise get lost; pots focus the eye just as a frame sharpens the impact of a picture. In gardens of any size, pots are important architectural elements: They might mark an entrance to a garden or march two-by-two up the front steps. They allow you to bring spots of garden color up onto a porch. Pots are stylish and sculptural, whether their design is avant-garde, traditional or whimsical. No matter what style you favor, they'll always be fun.

The gardeners at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wis., plant more than 500 flowerpots for the gardening season each year. One collection of a dozen or more pots is an instant burst of inspiration right at the entrance, and other flowerpots can be found in every part of the garden. Jeff Epping, the garden's horticulture director, teaches a popular class every year on planting flowerpots, helping gardeners put together sparkling plant combinations.

"We try to show artful combinations. We look at how plants work together, and we work with foliage as well as flowers," Epping says. "We don't always have to have what's brand new -- we are looking for new stuff if it fits our designs."

Part of the class focuses on building the confidence of beginning gardeners, who often don't know quite where to begin. Epping talks about deciding where a pot will go and then filling it with plants that are adapted to that location and that all have the same requirements for moisture and sun or shade. He advises his classes to pay close attention to foliage because flowers aren't always blooming, and because the colors and textures of leaves make any combination look more lively.

"Some of our pots don't have a single flower in them, and I'm fine with that," he says. "Foliage really is more important in any container than flowers."

Beyond that, Epping doesn't adhere to strict formulas. Pick some flowerpots you like and get started, he says. A single large flowerpot makes a strong statement, but "sometimes it's way more interesting to put pots together in groupings."

Terra-cotta pots are classics, but they dry out more quickly than plastic or glazed pots, Epping says. Big flowerpots have plenty of room for plants' roots to grow, so they do not need as much attention to watering through the summer as small pots. They also naturally suit the scale of larger plants. Every shape, size and color is represented at Olbrich: there are terra-cotta pots, tabletop pots in a courtyard, big bowl-shaped containers and pots full of roses dotted around the rose garden.

The horticulturists assigned to different areas at Olbrich design the plantings in the pots for their gardens, but they all get together formally to talk about the pots and combinations. Gardeners show slides, discuss their plans and ask their colleagues for help and suggestions. "It's fun," Epping says. Ideas for dazzling combinations often emerge from these sessions.

People who attend container classes at Olbrich always want to know what kind of potting soil to buy, and whether they can fill the bottom of large pots with Styrofoam peanuts or crushed aluminum cans to save on potting soil. Epping advises buying top-quality potting soil. Don't skimp, he says: Fill the pots with potting soil, not with cans. In the course of a summer in the garden, plants' roots will extend deep into the soil, and good potting soil retains the moisture the plants need.

When it comes to planting, don't limit yourself, Epping says. "I get tired of the same old annuals, annuals, annuals," he says. Gardeners at Olbrich plant all sorts of small trees and shrubs in pots -- half-moon maples, smoke bush, evergreen boxwoods, yews and gold-mop false cypress.

"We're using a lot of bolder tropical things, too," Epping says. Big elephant's ears and bananas are dramatic, stately and luxurious. In the rose garden, flowerpots are planted with romantic pink, blue and purple flowers. Elsewhere, in the perennial garden area, orange, red and yellow blooms predominate. The pots in the herb garden are naturally full of herbs, but the gardeners also spice up the combinations with bright edible flowers such as calendulas and nasturtiums, as well as with kale, lettuce and even okra plants.

"We don't rely on one group or a single plant," Epping says. "It's always a little of this and a little of that." Let the selection of plants at a garden shop inspire you -- you can start putting together intriguing combinations right in your shopping cart. "There is so much stuff out there," Epping says. It's time to get growing.

SIDEBAR

HAVING FUN WITH FLOWERPOTS

Here are some tips from Jeff Epping, horticulture director at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wis.:

-- Fill your flowerpots with good, brand-name potting soil.

-- You do not have to throw away the potting soil in your pots every year. In his garden at home, Epping mixes old and new potting soil. "I sweep the garage floor, empty the containers, and then I just mix in new potting soil and shovel it into the pots."

-- Some potting soils include added fertilizer or moisture-retaining crystals, but you'll still need to water and fertilize. A slow-release fertilizer may also have to be supplemented with occasional water-soluble fertilizer. Look at your plants, Epping says. "They should always be growing. When they stop growing, they are starving."

-- Water thoroughly. "Everyone wants to give their plants just a little sip," Epping says. "Water until it comes out of the drainage hole."

-- Plant densely, and let plants lean on each other and grow together in their pots, just as they would in a garden bed.

-- Experiment: Epping planted some small, scraggly pine trees from a garden shop (he paid $3 each) in pots in his own garden, and pruned them to look like bonsai. "I've had them for four years, and I love them," he says. He grows low sedums around the little trees.

-- Don't abandon reliable plants that work for you. "It's hard to beat petunias," Epping says.

-- If a plant isn't thriving, pluck it out. "If it looks like heck, tear it out and put something else in," Epping says. "Do yourself a favor."

Source

Olbrich Botanical Gardens, www.olbrich.org