All plants on deck // You'll save back and knees with this type of garden

If your green thumb began to itch at the sight of the first greenshoots pushing through the ground, remember, you don't have to getdown and dirty to nurture a fantastic garden. A traditional displayof annuals might be a treat to the eyes, but it can be murder on theback and knees.

An alternative, no matter what the size of your outdoor space,is to build a deck complete with built-in or free-standing planters,arbors, trellises, pergolas and a work center. Or customize yourexisting deck with some of these features.

Dennis Conway, owner of Archadeck of Cook-DuPage, said a deckalso can be the focal point of a garden for people who have littleor no yard space."The design possibilities of turning your deck into a fragrantsanctuary overflowing with colorful flowers are limited only by yourbudget and the contour and size of your lot," he said.Conway points to rail planters that are becoming increasinglypopular for herb, flower and even vegetable plants."They're 6 inches deep and 6 inches wide but can be as long asthe railing itself. And, best of all, you can plant, weed and waterstanding up," he said."I built a 6-foot rail planter for one homeowner who found itsimplified his gardening chores so much he had me come back and addanother 30 feet."Decorative pergolas also are being used by many homeowners todefine the perimeters of their deck gardens. A pergola is an arborformed of horizontal trelliswork and supported on four columns orposts over which vines or other plants are trellised."If you center a 10-foot-by-10-foot pergola on a12-foot-by-15-foot deck you've defined or enclosed this outdoor spaceinto a shady bower," Conway said.Some gardeners leave an opening around each of the four postsfor planting flowers or vegetables that they trellis up thesecolumns. Another decorative option is to use latticework around thebottom of the deck as a backdrop for flowers planted in the groundaround the perimeter of the deck. When neighboring homes are veryclose, a vine-covered trellis can double as a privacy fence byobscuring the neighbor's view without entirely closing out the world.Last year, Conway built a deck that runs the length Sandra andMarvin Jurgensen's Chicago Ridge house.Sandra is a serious gardener who is using all of her yard for aperennial garden that is still "a work in progress."But she is devoting just as much energy to the flowers sheplants in abundance on the deck in planters her husband made."We entertain a lot, and so this year Dennis is coming back toadd a screened porch on the deck that is accessible to the house withsliding glass doors," Sandra said. "This will increase the timewe're able to spend outdoors without being affected by rain, middaysun and, most of all, mosquitoes."Today the majority of decks sold are made of pressure-treatedSouthern yellow pine followed by more costly cedar and redwood.Wolmanized wood is the most structurally sound and will last alifetime.However, homeowners now have the option of choosing severalmaintenance-free products made of recycled materials.About 10 years ago Mobil Oil developed Trex, which is made ofrecycled plastic and wood fiber products. It cuts like wood and hasthe advantage of having no knotholes or splinters.A newer product is Smart Deck, a tongue-in-groove product madeof recycled oak and plastic that is manufactured in Chicago byEaglebrook Plastic, 2600 W. Roosevelt Rd."It looks like wood with surface graining and will look the samein 10 years while wood will eventually rot if it isn't properlymaintained," Conway said.A third synthetic product is a vinyl-like wood manufactured byBufftech, a New York company that recently built a distributioncenter in Romeoville.Finally, whether you're building your own deck or having itdone, don't neglect to take out a building permit from your localmunicipality. "A permit is intended to protect the homeowner, notharass him," Conway said. He recommends that owners insist onpermits when contractors try to bypass this important part of thebuilding process."An inspector might spot flaws that you or your contractormissed, such as improperly attaching the deck to the house," Conwaysaid."And by bringing them to your attention while the work is stillin progress, he can save you the time and money you'd be forced tospend later to repair the structural damage that would result."Archadeck, 9100 Plainfield Road, Brookfield. (708) 485-3325.Jean Guarino is a Chicago area free-lance writer.