After a hard day’s work, a soak in the hot tub surrounded by white blossoms and silvery foliage can be the key to your personal bliss.

Typically moon gardens are where gardeners with day jobs can enjoy their hobby at night. Otherwise knows as an “evening garden”, “night garden”, or a “white garden”, a moon garden is your own private backyard detox zone designed to be experienced and appreciated in the dark. After all, it’s at night that most people soak in their hot tubs. So, why not enhance your garden to make it part of your hot tub experience?

Some tips on creating the perfect moon garden for your hot tub Eden:

1. Start with white flowered plans. Beds of predominately white blossoms are the hallmark of a moon garden. Why? Multicolored flowers look muddy in the moonlight, but moon gardens glow because of their predominately white flowers. Some blossoms actually open only at night like moon flowers (a type of morning glory) angels trumpets and devil’s trumpets. White flowers are soothing to the eye after the day’s over stimulation and visual overload.
2. Use silvery foliage annuals and perennials for contrast. Silvery foliage will seem to glow in the dark. Think dusty miller, silver sage and lamb’s ears.
3. Use fragrant plants to enhance your hot tub and garden experience. Fragrance is a way to connect with your garden. Choose plants with sweet scents that grow more pronounced in the evening air. The walk to and from the tub will be a special treat with night bloomers such as night-blooming jasmine, four o’clocks, flowering tobacco, sweet alyssum. An aromatic, night-blooming garden offers a peaceful and tranquil spot to rest and relax in at the end of the day. It is the perfect place for a casual summer party, an evening reception, a romantic tryst, or a quiet retreat to reflect and rejuvenate the senses. And, at the very center is your hot tub from which you can see and smell your moon garden.
4. Add a few bright accent plants for contrast. Bright magenta or red fuchsias are a great choice.
   
5. Use candles or low-voltage lighting only! You eyes will adjust to the dark so that you can see the garden as moon-like. The look is more natural and soft than with electric or solar lights.
6. Add a mirrored ball for interest and reflected light. Placed on a stand or unused birdbath, mercury glass balls are a favorite addition to moon gardens.

The tips above are just for starters.  Moon gardens are all the rage in gardening circles. A great resource is “Planning & Planting a Moon Garden” by Marcela Shaffer. The Seattle Times yesterday published a story by Valerie Easton on “twilight gardens” which has great tips, too. The best?  ” All the weeds and not-quite-finished work fade gently into the darkness, and you can relax and enjoy your garden — until tomorrow anyway, when the morning light will shine again on all that needs to be done.”

We’d love to see photos of your moon garden. Tell us how it’s enhanced your hot tub experience.

SANUM PER AQUA. Latin for Health through Water.