There are so many types of gardens — from formal to cottage, from butterfly to cactus — that display nature’s beauty in its optimum form. Most take time. They all take effort, perhaps too much effort for the average home gardener.

But one local couple has gotten creative when it comes to gardening. In their first year of owning their East Second Street home in Washington, Pat and Larry Stegall have gravitated toward container gardening, with one rather interesting container.

It’s named Woodstock, a 14-foot daysailer that was rescued from disuse by Larry Stegall. Set at an angle in the Stegalls’ backyard that makes Woodstock appear to be sailing beneath the old pecan trees, from its interior spills a cascade of sweet potato vine, buddy purple gomphrena, portulaca, butterfly bush, native grasses and more.

“(Larry) saw this idea on Facebook and said, ‘I gotta have one,’” Pat Stegall said.

The issue was finding a sailboat, in good shape, but inexpensive enough to justify its use as a planter. That also came about through Facebook, Stegall said.

“A friend from Greensboro said, ‘I’ve got one you can have if you come get it,’” Stegall said. “It’s a perfectly good daysailer.”

It makes a perfectly good container garden as well. Pat Stegall said, besides planting the garden itself, the only work they did was to set up solar lighting, so the couple can watch “Woodstock” sailing across the yard at night.

“First, I just put (strings of lights) on the mast, but then I thought it would be really pretty to do one down the side so it looks like a sail,” Stegall said.

Another solar light spotlights the stern.

Stegall said husband Larry is the gardener of the two, and his creativity extends elsewhere: he also comes up with themes and decorations for her downtown Washington shop, South Market Antiques, which shares a building with Little Shoppes of Washington.

The couple was married in March, combining two households, and Larry Stegall brought much of the gardening gear, and garden furniture, with him, including a wrought iron wall planter studded with colored glass and filled to bursting with caladiums.

A freestanding hammock, a swing under a shelter, Adirondack chairs painted bright colors, along with Woodstock at sea, all add up to a very beachy, casual oasis hidden behind the Stegalls’ historic district home.

Anyone can do it, Stegall said — it just requires a little bit of imagination.